Written by: Mark Aguilar 🇸🇻
When the 2024 Academy Awards nominations were announced on January 24th, a few omissions sparked controversy among fans of the highest-grossing film of 2023: Barbie. Margot Robbie failed to secure a Best Actress nomination for her role in Barbie as the titular character, and Greta Gerwig failed to secure a nomination for Best Director for the film. Despite these misses, the film still managed to get into 8 other categories, including Best Picture. However, it seems as if people are forgetting that Robbie and Gerwig were also nominated for an Oscar in other categories… so what’s with the outrage?
When it comes to Margot Robbie and her miss in the Best Actress category, it could be argued as being a snub, as she received every major precursor nomination. These include Best Actress nominations at the SAG Awards, Critics Choice Awards, Golden Globes, and BAFTA Awards. Despite these award bodies all nominating her and being huge indicators as to who’ll get the Oscar nomination, Robbie missed the Academy Award nomination.
Her spot likely went to Annette Bening for her performance in Nyad. With this, many fans were outraged… but was this backlash out of the merit of her performance or her popularity? Other major performances were snubbed in the Best Actress category, such as Greta Lee in Past Lives, or Fantasia Barrino in The Color Purple. These actresses were in smaller films compared to Barbie, but arguably gave better performances than Robbie. Despite this, their support seemed to be drowned out by Barbie fans who wanted Robbie nominated. The miss also drowned out support for the historic nomination of Lilly Gladstone, who became the first Native American to be nominated for Best Actress for her performance in Killers of the Flower Moon.
America Ferrera’s historic nomination also seemed to be ignored for her performance in Barbie, despite arguably being one of the weaker nominees in the category. Her spot could have easily gone to Rosamund Pike in Saltburn or Penélope Cruz in Ferrari.
Taking a look at the Best Director nominations, the notion that Greta Gerwig was ‘snubbed’ becomes even more absurd. Although Gerwig did get important precursor nominations at The Critics Choice Awards, Golden Globes, and most importantly at the Directors Guild of America, she failed to secure the Oscar nomination. However, when taking a look at the nominees for the Academy Award, it might be the best group of directors nominated for the award ever.
Christopher Nolan is the obvious front-runner for Oppenheimer. Martin Scorsese continues to show his ageless and innovative direction in Killers of the Flower Moon. Yorgos Lanthimos continues his hot streak with Poor Things. Jonathan Glazer finally receives his flowers with his arthouse film The Zone of Interest. Lastly, Justine Triet becomes only the 8th female nominee in this category after her masterful Palme d'Or-winning film Anatomy of a Fall. These are all directors nominated out of the merit of their work and not because of how popular their films were.
Although Greta Gerwig wouldn’t be out of place within the list of nominations, all of these directors are also more than worthy. Particularly Justine Triet, who was most likely the one to take the place of Gerwig. Triet is a much lesser-known director compared to Gerwig, but Anatomy of a Fall was one of the best films of 2023, arguably because of her methodical direction. This is a category historically dominated and mainly voted upon by men, so it is important to celebrate when a female director breaks in.
Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig might not have gotten the nominations they hoped for but were still nominated at the Oscars this year. Again, Margot Robbie produced Barbie so she was nominated in the Best Picture Category. Greta Gerwig wrote Barbie alongside her husband, Noah Baumbach, and was nominated in the Best Adapted Screenplay category. Barbie also managed to gross $1.4 billion at the box office, so the film doesn't need more recognition than it deserved at the Oscars… that’s what the money's for.
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