A Pink Perspective on Hollywood’s Glaring Oversight

Okay. It’s been a couple weeks since the Oscar nominations have been announced. 

Now that the first reaction to the nominees has settled, people can start digesting the news. Was Barbie snubbed? Who will win best actress? Is Cillian Murphy a guaranteed win?  

The Big Screen Battle

With no surprise, the film with the most nominations this year is ‘Oppenheimer’ with 13 in total. ‘Poor Things’ came in second with 11 Oscars nominations. And ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ with 10. But as we know, ‘Barbenheimer’ is the biggest face off. And where everyone’s eyes will be focused during the awards show. 

Faith Talamantez / The Daily Stench

The two smash hits of the summer of 2023, Barbie and Oppenheimer, released on the same day. So, people started going to the cinemas and watching one movie after the other, calling it the ‘Barbenheimer experience’—a 5 hour long emotional cinematic rollercoaster. It’s no secret that both movies have been head to head since their release. And at the Oscars, it will be no different. 

The Barbie Snub?

The biggest media discourse since the nominations announcement has been the Academy’s lack of Barbie recognition. While being the highest grossing film in 2023, two important categories seemed to be missing from Barbie’s nomination roster: Best Director and Best Actress. 

The film did get 8 nominations. Ryan Gosling was nominated for Best Supporting Actor. America Ferrera was nominated for Best Supporting Actress. The movie received nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay, Costume Design and Production Design. And with two Best Song nominations, ‘What was I made for’ by Billie Eilish and ‘I’m Just Ken’ by Ryan Gosling.

While Margot Robbie’s lack of nomination did shock everyone, it’s particularly hard to argue which of the current nominees could’ve been substituted. Robbie’s performance deserved the Academy’s recognition, but this year’s nominees’ work were powerful and well-deserving. The unforgiving shock wave, however, was Greta Gerwig being overlooked as Best Director. 

A Glimpse Backward

A film being nominated for best picture but not best director is an irony that will always mind-boggle anyone. And not just in Gerwig’s case, but also back in 1992, with Barbra Streisand getting snubbed out of the Best Director category with The Prince of Tides. Billy Crystal said it best in his opening song of the 64th Academy Awards, “With seven nominations on the shelf, did this film direct itself?”

To make it even worse – let’s go way back in time, when the Oscars started in 1929. Did you know only three women have ever won the award for best director? Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker in 2009, Chloé Zhao for Nomadland in 2020, and Jane Campion for The Power of the Dog in 2021. And only 8 women in total have been nominated in almost 100 years! If that’s not a shock of reality, I don’t know what is.

At least this year’s Best Director category included one female director, Justine Triet for Anatomy of a Fall, a well-deserved recognition. But to not add to the nominees list the director with the biggest box office movie of 2023 and cultural reset is, to say the least, a big blow. 

More than just a doll

Hollywood’s lingering sexism might’ve played a role in it, and people have definitely been buzzing about it but let’s dive even deeper. Because yeah, sure, Barbie got a nod for best picture. But did the Oscars really get the movie? Probably not. They couldn’t see past the pink shiny toy-based flick exterior. 

They just labelled it as another funny popcorn movie, while missing the underlying plot and the cleverness of the world depicted through Gerwig’s eyes. I mean, come on, the main character’s name was Stereotypical Barbie… It’s the most blatant reference to women’s stereotypes in our society. But instead of the academy seeing the meticulous satire for what it was, they got stuck in rainbow-coloured glasses. I dare to say they missed out on Gerwig’s incredible imagination. 

Ryan Gosling said it himself “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.” 

God is a woman

In Voicebooking style, an honourable mention is the iconic voiceover in Barbie. The film brought back the cinematic technique that we don’t see that often anymore with a narrator presenting the doll. The omnipresent voice brings a Voice of God to introduce us to Barbieland and guide us through the history of Barbie dolls.  

The voice is done by the one and only Helen Mirren. Her vocal work goes far back as the supercomputer Deep Thought in ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Galaxy’. To even working in the animation world as Dean Hardscrabble in Monster’s University. And so on. Her vocal work perfectly matched the world of Barbie, and made the movie feel magical.

But okay, kenough about this. Let’s talk details. 

The Oscars of 2024 will take place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California. This year’s 96th Academy Awards will be on March 10, at… Wait – let’s talk timezones: 

When will the 2024 Oscars be aired?

Where can I watch the 2024 Oscars live?

You can watch the 2024 Oscars on the live broadcast on ABC. If you are watching from the UK, it will be shown on ITV1 and ITVX. And the streaming options of the ceremony will be ABC News Live and Disney+. For online streaming, you can check out oscars.com, or the Academy social media accounts on YouTube, Tiktok and Instagram. 

And what are these so-called nominations? 

In case you’ve been missing out on all categories. Here is a list of every single nomination of the 2024 Academy Awards. Let us know your predictions and thoughts! 

Best picture

• “American Fiction”
• “Anatomy of a Fall”
• “Barbie”
• “The Holdovers”
• “Killers of the Flower Moon”
• “Maestro”
• “Oppenheimer”
• “Past Lives”
• “Poor Things”
• “The Zone of Interest”

Best actor

• Bradley Cooper, “Maestro”
• Colman Domingo, “Rustin”
• Paul Giamatti, “The Holdovers”
• Cillian Murphy, “Oppenheimer”
• Jeffrey Wright, “American Fiction”

Best actress

• Annette Bening, “Nyad”
• Lily Gladstone, “Killers of the Flower Moon”
• Sandra Hüller, “Anatomy of a Fall”
• Carey Mulligan, “Maestro”
• Emma Stone, “Poor Things”

Best supporting actor

• Sterling K. Brown, “American Fiction”
• Robert De Niro, “Killers of the Flower Moon”
• Robert Downey Jr., “Oppenheimer”
• Ryan Gosling, “Barbie”
• Mark Ruffalo, “Poor Things”

Best supporting actress

• Emily Blunt, “Oppenheimer”
• Danielle Brooks, “The Color Purple”
• America Ferrera, “Barbie”
• Jodie Foster, “Nyad”
• Da’Vine Joy Randolph, “The Holdovers”

Best director

• Jonathan Glazer, “The Zone of Interest”
• Yorgos Lanthimos, “Poor Things”
• Christopher Nolan, “Oppenheimer”
• Martin Scorsese, “Killers of the Flower Moon”
• Justine Triet, “Anatomy of a Fall”

International feature film

• “Io Capitano,” Italy
• “Perfect Days,” Japan
• “Society of the Snow,” Spain
• “The Teachers’ Lounge,” Germany
• “The Zone of Interest,” United Kingdom

Animated feature film

• “The Boy and the Heron”
• “Elemental”
• “Nimona”
• “Robot Dreams”
• “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”

Adapted screenplay

• “American Fiction”
• “Barbie”
• “Oppenheimer”
• “Poor Things”
• “The Zone of Interest”

Original screenplay

• “Anatomy of a Fall”
• “The Holdovers”
• “Maestro”
• “May December”
• “Past Lives”

Visual effects

• “The Creator”
• “Godzilla Minus One”
• “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3”
• “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One”
• “Napoleon”

Original score

• “American Fiction”
• “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”
• “Killers of the Flower Moon”
• “Oppenheimer”
• “Poor Things”

Original song

• “It Never Went Away” from “American Symphony”
• “I’m Just Ken” from “Barbie”
• “What Was I Made For?” from “Barbie”
• “The Fire Inside” from “Flamin’ Hot”
• “Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People)” from “Killers of the Flower Moon”

Documentary feature film

• “20 Days in Mariupol”
• “Bobi Wine: The People’s President”
• “The Eternal Memory”
• “Four Daughters”
• “To Kill a Tiger”

Cinematography

• “El Conde”
• “Killers of the Flower Moon”
• “Maestro”
• “Oppenheimer”
• “Poor Things”

Costume design

• “Barbie”
• “Killers of the Flower Moon”
• “Napoleon”
• “Oppenheimer”
• “Poor Things”

Animated short film

• “Letter to a Pig”
• “Ninety-Five Senses”
• “Our Uniform”
• “Pachyderme”
• “War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko”

Live action short film

• “The After”
• “Invincible”
• “Knight of Fortune”
• “Red, White and Blue”
• “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar”

Documentary short film

• “The ABCs of Book Banning”
• “The Barber of Little Rock”
• “Island in Between”
• “The Last Repair Shop”
• “Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó”

Film editing

• “Anatomy of a Fall”
• “The Holdovers”
• “Killers of the Flower Moon”
• “Oppenheimer”
• “Poor Things”

Sound

• “The Creator”
• “Maestro”
• “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One”
• “Oppenheimer”
• “The Zone of Interest”

Production design

• “Barbie”
• “Killers of the Flower Moon”
• “Napoleon”
• “Oppenheimer”
• “Poor Things”

Makeup and hairstyling

• “Golda”
• “Maestro”
• “Oppenheimer”
• “Poor Things”
• “Society of the Snow”