The nominations for this year’s Oscar awards — which celebrate achievements in film — were released on Tuesday, and to many, many people’s surprise, Barbie was snubbed in some crucial categories.
While Ryan Gosling, who played the unforgettable Ken, was nominated for Best Supporting Actor and America Ferrera was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig were both snubbed in the categories of Best Actress and Best Director, respectively.
People (as well as us) are in shock over this revelation. It’s as if the Academy failed to see the point of the women-empowering movie.
Both Gosling and Ferrera have since released comments expressing delight at the recognition but also highlighting their dismay at the lack of nominations for their co-stars.
Gosling, in his statement, said: “I am extremely honoured to be nominated by my colleagues alongside such remarkable artists in a year of so many great films. And I never thought I’d being saying this, but I’m also incredibly honoured and proud that it’s for portraying a plastic doll named Ken”.
“But there is no Ken without Barbie, and there is no Barbie movie without Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie, the two people most responsible for this history-making, globally-celebrated film,” he continued.
The La La Land actor maintained that “no recognition would be possible for anyone on the film without their [Robbie and Gerwig’s] talent, grit and genius”.
“To say that I’m disappointed that they are not nominated in their respective categories would be an understatement. Against all odds with nothing but a couple of soulless, scantily clad, and thankfully crotchless dolls, they made us laugh, they broke our hearts, they pushed the culture and they made history. Their work should be recognised along with the other very deserving nominees,” Gosling said.
He did, however, express his happiness at Ferrera’s nomination as well as “the other incredible artists who contributed their talents to making this such a groundbreaking film”.
Ferrera, in a comment to Variety, expressed shock and joy at her nomination.
“I still haven’t really been able to get in my feelings because I’m still on like the top layer of ‘I can’t even believe that this is real’,” she said. However, she was quick to emphasise that she was disappointed that Robbie and Gerwig were not nominated.
“Greta has done just about everything that a director could do to deserve it,” Ferrera said. “Creating this world, and taking something that didn’t have inherent value to most people and making it a global phenomenon. It feels disappointing to not see her on that list.”
Talking about the movie’s lead she said: “What Margot achieved as an actress is truly unbelievable”.
“One of the things about Margot as an actress is how easy she makes everything look. And perhaps people got fooled into thinking that the work seems easy, but Margot is a magician as an actress in front of the screen, and it was one of the honours of my career to get to witness her pull off the amazing performance she did. She brings so much heart and humour and depth and joy and fun to the character. In my book, she’s a master.”
The movie’s stars aren’t the only ones upset with the snub — people on the internet have a lot to say about “one of the most original films of the decade, one that completely blew apart people’s expectations” being ignored for an Oscar nomination.
Others highlighted that not only was the movie “critically acclaimed” but it made a billion dollars at the box office.
Netizens were disappointed that Robbie was not nominated but Gosling was, even though there would be no Ken without Barbie.
People claimed that Hollywood “hated” women.
Fans of the movie were also disappointed that Gerwig was not nominated for best director for the direction the movie took and the message it carried, despite it being about a literal plastic doll.
With all due respect to the Academy, did they even watch the same movie as the rest of us? Or were they just oblivious to the points it made?
The other Oscar nominations for Barbie include:
Best Picture
Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Original Song – ‘I’m Just Ken’ by Mark Ronson, Andrew Wyatt and ‘What Was I Made For?’ – by Billie Eilish, Finneas O’Connell
Best Costume Design
Best Production Design