After the Oscar nominees were announced, a huge scandal has been generated online because, unlike previous awards, the Barbie movie has been left behind with only eight nominations (far from the favorite Oppenheimer with 14). Although it is still competing for the Best Picture statuette, the Best Actress and Best Director categories are conspicuous by the absence of Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig respectively.
The situation has become even more delicate because Ryan Gosling, who plays Ken in the film, is nominated for Best Supporting Actor, which has caused fans of the film to ensure that the machismo that is so criticized in Barbie It is in force in the most important film competition in the world of films.
“We live in a world where Ryan Gosling is nominated for Barbie and not Margot Robbie, with Barbie being a women’s film (…) the movie was right”, “They screwed up the meaning of Barbie, tired of men. Where is Greta Gerwig? Where is Margot Robbie?”, “They are telling me that Ryan Gosling was nominated for an Oscar for being Ken in Barbie. And Margot Robbie, who is literally Barbie, was given nothing. Not to director Greta Gerwig. The jury literally proved the point of the film. It seems like a joke,” are some of the comments that the Academy’s decision has generated.
The networks have shown their disagreement with the Academy’s decision, ensuring that it is precisely this type of situation that the “Barbie” movie denounces. This is not the only controversy that this year’s Oscar nominees have generated regarding machismo. Of the 10 productions nominated for Best Picture, three are directed by a woman: Barbie by Greta Gerwig, Past Lives by Celine Song and Anatomy of a Fall by Justine Triet. However, only the latter was nominated for Best Director, being the only woman competing against names like Martin Scorsese, Yorgos Lanthimos, Jonathan Glazer and Christopher Nolan.
Barbie was one of the films with the most nominations at the Golden Globes and the Critics Choice Awards. However, the majority of statuettes went to productions such as Oppenheimer and Poor Things. The categories in which the film managed to win awards were Best Original Song, Best Production Design, Best Box Office Achievement, Best Hair and Makeup and Best Original Screenplay.
At the Oscars, Barbie competes in the following categories:
-Best Supporting Actor (Ryan Gosling)
-Best Supporting Actress (America Ferrera)
-Best Adapted Screenplay
-Best Costume Design
-Best Original Song (with two nominations for songs for “I’m Just Ken” and What Was I Made For?”
-Best Production Design
-Best film
It is expected that the film will manage to win the Oscar for Best Original Song with one of its two candidates, which could be a historic achievement for a young Billie Eilish who would take home her second statuette at this gala.
As mentioned above, Barbie won previous awards in the Best Original Screenplay category, and is now competing in Best Adapted Screenplay. This is because the Academy considered that, although the plot of the film came from Gerwig’s mind, the doll already existed, so they did not consider it a “100% original” idea.
So far neither Greta nor Margo have commented on the controversy.