‘Barbie’ took the summer of 2023 by an absolute storm. A pink one!
Moviegoers were decked out all in pink and dragged along their fellow Barbies and Kens (and Allans’ too of course) to see arguably the most anticipated film of that year.
With the 2024 award season currently happening, it’s obvious that fans were hopeful that the film’s director, Greta Gerwig, and Stereotypical Barbie herself, Margot Robbie, would receive some recognition from the 96th Academy Awards.
Unfortunately, that was not the case when the Oscar nominations were announced on the morning of Tuesday, January 23rd.
Despite this snub, Barbie did receive 8 other nominations. Including America Ferrera for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Gloria, and Ryan Gosling for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Ken.
Fans took to social media to express their disappointment about Gerwig and Robbie not being given the spotlight with a Best Director or Best Actress nomination, even though both are quite literally the face of the film.
Yet a Ken was nominated!
“Nominating Ken but not Barbie is literally the plot of the movie,” says Author Brad Meltzer. Shortly after the nominations were put out, Gosling released a statement to express his reaction to Gerwig and Robbie being snubbed by the Oscars. “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… To say that I’m disappointed that they are not nominated in their respective categories would be an understatement.” Ferrera also echoes Gosling’s words and criticizes The Academy. She tells Variety magazine, “Greta has done just about everything that a director could do to deserve it. It feels disappointing to not see her on that list.”
Barbie seemed to leave a heavy impact on women. Not only was the film visually exciting and funny to watch but the film seemed to tick off everything a woman has most likely experienced during girlhood and womanhood.
One of the main focuses of the movie being our patriarchal society. It’s really no surprise that so far that Barbie didn’t get the spotlight it deserved this award season. There wasn’t even a female nominee until nearly five decades into the Oscars.
When the film was newly released Gerwig offered a few words to The New York Times on the kind of message the film sends of gender equality. “My hope for the movie is that it’s an invitation for everybody to be part of the party and let go of the things that aren’t necessarily serving us as either women or men. I hope that in all of that passion, if they see it or engage with it, it can give them some of the relief that it gave other people.”
The Academy Awards and their past treatment towards other women in the film industry show how much they overlook talented women. Maybe someday this sort of treatment will end!
