Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie achieved unparalleled success at the box office. Its stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling received critics’ and audience acclaim yet it seems to miss all the major nominations and awards at prestigious events.
Many have taken this as a loud nod to the movie’s criticism of patriarchy while many believe that not everything related to Barbie is a feminist issue. Some have even gone ahead to carefully whisper (god forbid they get canceled) that perhaps it wasn’t as great, but is that so?
This Barbie isn’t getting the correct nominations
Audiences that thoroughly enjoyed Barbie’s movie, its noteworthy promotions, and its success were expecting to see it swipe away all the awards during this season. To their dismay, Barbie and its crew weren’t even nominated in some of the major categories such as Best Direction.
I don't pay much attention to award shows.
But Ryan Gosling getting a nomination and Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig NOT getting nominations feels like something happening in the Barbie movie to further illustrate the point of the Barbie movie. pic.twitter.com/T9uFEyiKOz
— Jonathan Loves X-Men (@jonathan_eff) January 23, 2024
This provoked social media posts claiming that the awards were rigged, out of tune, and invalid. Whoever dared to reason with them stating that the movie did get many other nominations was shut down with the labels of misogyny, patriarchy, and anti-feminism.
However, this dissatisfaction truly burst when Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie weren’t nominated for Best Director and Best Actress at the 2024 Academy Awards.
Ryan Gosling has released a statement about his disappointment that Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig didn’t get #Oscar nominations.
“There is no Ken without Barbie, and there is no Barbie movie without Greta Gerwig & Margot Robbie… No recognition would be possible for anyone on… pic.twitter.com/m3IAqcm3tX
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) January 23, 2024
Many reputable individuals including their co-stars Ryan Gosling, John Cena, and America Ferrera expressed their disappointment.
These grand statements including quote-worthy lines such as “Ken is nothing without Barbie but Barbie is nothing without Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie” made people believe that the movie was truly devastatingly robbed at the Oscars 2024.
Although the sentiments are acknowledged, it is only partially true because it did receive eight nominations. The point being made by its fans is that it did not receive the ‘correct’ nominations.
Why does Greta Gerwig’s Barbie keep losing the accolades to Oppenheimer?
Ever since its release Barbie has received 316 nominations out of which it has won only 91 as opposed to its contemporary release Oppenheimer which has won 208 awards out of 414 nominations.
Barbie marketing has done such a good job of positioning the movie and its themes that certain people earnestly believe that Margot Robbie not getting an acting nomination is an heinous example of misogyny and slight against feminism
— alex (@alex_abads) January 23, 2024
While it might seem that the numbers don’t add up to the box office success where Barbie grandly won against Oppenheimer the reason for it is simple- a movie doesn’t need to be excellent in all of its technicalities to be successful.
Such as the South Korean movie Parasite received and won several awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Feature Film but didn’t receive any nominations for the actors, who were an integral part of its success.
"barbie is the first movie for women" it's not even greta gerwig's best movie for women
— bald ann dowd (@ali_sivi) January 24, 2024
Similarly, Barbie is being celebrated for its comedy, screenplay, music, supporting cast, and art direction but not so much for its direction. Understandably so, as this isn’t the best film of Greta Gerwig, who made history by directing three consecutive Best Picture nominees- Lady Bird, Little Women, and Barbie.
As for Margot Robbie, who is an excellent actress and deserved an Academy nomination for Babylon last year- factors such as Barbie being a comedy film and Bayblon failing at the box office worked against her, as per The Gamer.
Agree. While I do think Greta should have been nominated, my hot take is that as good as Margot Robbie was, the women nominated in the category were better. Not everything is a conspiracy. https://t.co/vABBVTS0An
— Julianne (@julianne0216) January 24, 2024
Therefore, the loud reactions to its missing headline categories are disrespectful to well-deserving competitors such as Lilly Gladstone. It is also embarrassing for a film that has received everything that it deserves.
Additionally, if the discourse of the film’s nominations includes ridiculing or undermining its competitors’ performances that deserved a position in the ballots then that is a greater failure of the film than missing a couple of nominations and awards.
