This should be a very good day for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. There is a diverse set of acting nominees with 7 of the 20 recepients being people of color. Three of the acting nominees publicly identify as LGBTQ+. There are two Latiné nominees. Lily Gladstone is the first indigenous actor to earn a Best Actress nomination in Oscar history. The Best Picture field features two non-English language films in “The Zone of Interest” and “Anatomy of a Fall” as well as two of the biggest global hits of 2023, “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie.” But when you hand out awards you can’t please everyone and sometimes those snubs hit very deep. Especially when it involves Greta Gerwig’s beloved blockbuster.
Nine hours after the nominees were announced “Barbie” is still one of the top two trending topics on Twitter (sorry, we’re never referring to it by it’s silly Musk name). Your insta-stories may be filled with people furious that Greta Gerwig wasn’t nominated for Best Director and that the star of the film, Margot Robbie, wasn’t recognized for Best Actress. Granted, both earned nominations in the Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture category (Robbie as a producer), but that’s a small silver lining when Ryan Gosling landed a Supporting Actor nomination. Considering the plotline and themes for “Barbie,” the fact “Ken” earned a nomination and “Barbie” didn’t is infuriating to many. It pretty close to the point of the movie in the first place. Throw in the fact the Ken focused song “I’m Just Ken” earned an Original Song nomination and it’s more fuel for the fire. Notably, the following post has, at publication, 97,000 likes in just four hours.
You might not want to hear it, but there are many likely reasons why Gerwig got snubbed. The director’s branch is much more international than it was even before the pandemic and we’ve seen this reflected in their nominees over the past decade. Many U.S. based filmmakers know how difficult it is to make a movie as thematically progressive as “Barbie” at a major studio (or with a corporate partner like Mattel) at this point in history. That was one reason she had so much DGA Awards support. It’s likely that despite its success and critical acclaim, her peers overseas didn’t rank that achievement as high in their list of qualifiers. Gerwig didn’t land a BAFTA Award nomination either, so for many awards observers it wasn’t that much of a surprise. But to the general public? Not so great.
Robbie, on the other hand, was a regular on the campaign circuit but often seemed to be humbly pushing her co-stars and Gerwig over her own candidacy. She did the work and was absolutely deserving of a nomination. Unfortuantely, sometimes the acting branch just goes in a different direction. Did Robbie deserve a nomination over “Nyad’s” Annette Bening? We certainly think so, but Bening hadn’t campaigned for a nomination this hard in a long time. She might have just seemed to want it more. There was also “Anatomy’s” Sandra Hüller, who didn’t earn a SAG Award nomination, but snagged a BAFTA nom in the same category. Hüller also did double duty with a great turn in another Best Picture nominee, “The Zone of Interest,” and “Anatomy” was a substantial hit in Europe it (earned $10 million in France alone). She was always likely to take one of the Best Actress slots.
Moreover, there was also no way Best Actress wasn’t going to snub a number of great performances this year. “May December’s” Natalie Portman, “Origin’s” Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, “Past Lives'” Greta Lee, and “The Color Purple’s” Fantasia Barrino, among others, all would have been likely nominees in previous years. This tends to happen every few awards seasons. Personally, recalling the Best Actor snub class of 2015 is always a distressing exercise.
While Gosling has issued a statement expressing his frustration with his colleagues omissions, neither Robbie or Gerwig have said anything publicly at publication (we’ll update this story if they do). If hindsight is twenty twenty, perhaps the “Barbie” team pushed a little too hard on the campaign trail. Then again, if they hadn’t would America Ferrera be a first-time nominee in the Supporting Actress category? Maybe, maybe not. Would the “Barbie” screenplay have survived the bizarre re-qualification by the Writer’s Branch from Original to Adapted Screenplay? Maybe, maybe not. Or, maybe this is just how much those respective branches loved the movie. And, if someone were to tell you “Barbie” earned a Best Picture nomination and seven other noms a year ago, would you have believed them? Maybe, maybe not.
There are a lot of other noteworthy achievements in this year’s nominations, however. Three Best Picture nominees had their world premieres at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival (“Anatomy,” “Zone” and “Killers of the Flower Moon”). A24 earned Best Picture nominations for both “Past Lives” and “Zone,” an achievement that would been unthinkable before “Parasite” in 2020. Emily Blunt earned her first Oscar nomination for “Oppenheimer” after a career of acclaimed performances. Sammy Burch earned an Oscar nom for her incredible “May December” Original Screenplay. The amazing “Robot Dreams” (another Cannes premiere) surprised in Animated Feature and Wim Wenders earned his first narrative Oscar nomination for “Perfect Days” at the age of 78. Wes Anderson tok a Live Action Short nomination for “The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar” and is on the verge of earning his first Oscar. The underrated “The Creator” earned two nominations. “Godzilla Minus One” took a Visual Effects nod. Throw in the Robert Downey, Jr. and Paul Giamatti potentially earning their first Oscar wins and that’s a lot to celebrate. And of course, Christopher Nolan on the verge of breaking that Oscar glass ceiling himself.
And, on this day, despite the “Barbie” controversy, it’s an “Oppenheimer” triumph for Universal Studios, Nolan and producer Emma Thomas. 13 nominations including every category you need to win Best Picture. Only “Poor Things” and “Anatomy of a Fall” match that statistical Director/Screenplay/Acting/Editing requirement. Will “Oppenheimer” hold off both dramas to take Oscar’s top prize? Will Lily Gladstone beat Emma Stone for Best Actress? Will Billie Eilish win a Grammy before winning an Oscar for the same song again? Will the Oscar producers convince Dua Lipa to still perform “Dance the Night” during the telecast despite her snub? Will Taylor Swift show up to get some flowers for the success of “The Eras Tour” movie? We’ll find out in a little over seven weeks.
