'Barbie' Fans Crying Foul Over Perceived Oscars Snubs
Editor’s Note: Our readers responded strongly to this story when it originally ran; we’re reposting it here in case you missed it.
Fans of the hit movie “Barbie” are up in arms about the lack of Oscars nominations the film has garnered — despite the movie itself being nominated for “Best Picture.”
The two biggest snubs, according to the movie’s staunchest supporters, were in the Best Director and Best Actress categories.
The nominations, which were revealed Jan. 23, did not list “Barbie’s” Greta Gerwig as a candidate for Best Director, nor was “Barbie” star Margot Robbie listed for Best Actress.
Fans were swiftly up in arms about it:
#Oscar Nominations 2024: 10 Biggest Snubs and Surprises
SNUB: Greta Gerwig & Margot Robbie, “Barbie”
More: https://t.co/w6EDGQRZl0 pic.twitter.com/cGMVZKUfHB
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) January 23, 2024
Both Gerwig and Robbie ignored…it’s still so easy for Hollywood to overlook and discount artistic contributions of women – EVEN WHEN ITS THE POINT OF THE YEAR’S BIGGEST MOVIE!
My God. It was nominated for best picture. Didn’t direct itself, friends!
— Jennifer Palmieri (@jmpalmieri) January 23, 2024
No nom for Greta Gerwig? Can that actually be true?
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) January 23, 2024
He’s right, you know. pic.twitter.com/cTiahBML7f
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) January 23, 2024
A cursory search of “Barbie snub” on X yields swathes of like-minded responses, with fans expressing some amalgamation of shock, disbelief and disgust that the controversial movie was being left out in the cold.
As one can easily see in the above X posts, many are making this out to be some sort of “gotcha”-moment, proving the rampant existence of sexism or “the patriarchy.”
To them, I just have this to say: Take a breath. It’s really not a snub.
The easiest “snub” to dismiss is Robbie’s performance as the eponymous “Barbie” doll brought to life in the movie.
Robbie is a very talented actress, but playing a ditzy blonde out of her element in a “man’s world” isn’t exactly stretching her acting chops.
Her role as “Barbie” is barely a half-step removed from her portrayal of the anti-heroine Harley Quinn, a ditzy superheroine out of her element on a team full of men.
Gerwig’s omission for a Best Director nomination is a bit more curious, given that “Barbie” is, in fact, up for a “Best Picture” award.
But even still, it’s not unprecedented since there are 10 nominations for “Best Picture,” but only five for “Best Director.”
It’s literally not a one-to-one comparison, and “snubs” will happen every year. It’s the nature of the beast. (Notice how not one of these complaints is actually positing what should be removed from the list of nominations?)
More so, a lot of the complainers seem to conveniently be forgetting that “Barbie” is still one of the most nominated films at the Oscars this year, period.
The Christopher Nolan-directed “Oppenheimer” leads the 2024 Oscar nominations with 13 nominations, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Behind it, the film “Poor Things” wrangled 11 nominations, while the epic “Killers of the Flower Moon” by Martin Scorsese (he himself is not a fan of this particular topic) had 10 nominations.
Right behind those heavy hitters was “Barbie,” with eight nominations. Given the names and star power of the aforementioned three films, it feels less like an insult and more of a compliment to put the polarizing movie alongside those contemporaries.
So, please. Turn down the temperature on all this “Barbie” snub talk.
The film was OK and happened to gross a lot of money. That doesn’t mean every aspect of the movie needs to be rewarded.
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