Did ‘Barbie’ Get Snubbed by Oscars?

The 95th annual Oscars also known as the Academy Awards is coming up although,  there is some debate about whether the nominations are fair, keep reading to learn about them. 

This year one of the biggest movies was “Barbie”. This movie was heavily publicized throughout the spring & summer before its release on July 27th. This movie had a lot of hype around it because it opened the same day as “Oppenheimer”, a biographical movie about the events surrounding the creation of the atomic bomb. A lot of people referred to this as “Barbenheimer”. In a recent Vanity Fair interview with Cillian Murphy the lead of “Oppenheimer” and Margot Robbie the lead/producer of “Barbie,” she revealed that one of the producers of “Oppenheimer” called her to ask to move the date of their movie, to which she stated, “We’re not moving our date. If you’re scared to be up against us, then you move your date.”. Although both movies did great at the box office, while “Oppenheimer” made $950 million, “Barbie” made a whopping 1.4 billion worldwide. 

Everyone was talking about this movie this summer, thinking what they had in store was just a feel-good comedy about everyone’s favorite childhood doll, while it was this it also talked about the impact of double standards in our society. In this movie Barbie leaves Barbie World to find an answer to her existential crisis, in doing so she discovers the adversity that comes with being a woman in the real world. Eventually, all the Ken’s in Barbie World attempt to take over, in this scene America Ferrera who is nominated for best supporting actress in “Barbie” says in her esteemed monologue, where she states “I’m just so tired of watching myself and every single other woman tie herself into knots so that people will like us. And if all of that is also true for a doll just representing women, then I don’t even know.” Not only does this movie depict the misogyny in the world, but it also displays the sometimes strained relationship between mothers and daughters which many can relate to. 

The director of “Barbie” Greta Gerwig has had 2 Oscars nominations, for “Lady Bird” (2017) and  “Little Women” (2017). 

Greta Gerwig broke the record for the highest-grossing movie directed solely by a woman, and many think her not getting nominated for an Oscar is a prime example of how important this movie was, as it shows how the patriarchy favors men. At this year’s 81st Golden Globe Awards, “Barbie” won cinematic and box office achievements. This ceremony was hosted by comedian Jo Koy, in his monologue he made several misogynistic comments about Taylor Swift and Margot Robbie, this got a lot of backlash from fans. After not receiving many laughs from the crowd he went off script and said “I got the gig 10 days ago! Do you want a perfect monologue? Yo, shut up. You’re kidding me, right? Slow down.” Many were unimpressed with this rebuttal.

 This is also relevant because although Margot Robbie didn’t get nominated for best actress, the leading man Ryan Gosling who plays Ken opposite Margot did get nominated for best supporting actor “I am extremely honored to be nominated by my colleagues alongside such remarkable artists in a year of so many great films.” Later in his statement, he added, “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.” 

Expressing exactly all of “Barbie” fans’ thoughts. Many people at Waukee agree that this is unfair including Sophomore Delaney Rust who stated, “Considering how popular Barbie is, so I’m really surprised and disappointed that Margot Robbie wasn’t nominated” while others disagreed. Sophomore Liam Toohey who said, “Although I think Greta Gerwig should be nominated for best director, I don’t think Margot Robbie’s performance was Oscar-worthy”.When asked about about her feelings about Margot Robbie not being nominated for an r Sophomore Miley Robinson said, “I don’t agree with it, and I think she should’ve been”. 

In conclusion, do you think Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie should be nominated?