As many people know, official nominations for the 96th Academy Awards came out recently. To say the nominations were met with mixed reviews and frustration is an understatement. Lots of people were quite perplexed by the nominations, especially in certain categories. Before I get into my thoughts, I’ll explain the most talked about categories for this year’s nominations.
If you’re not a big fan of the Oscars and don’t really know the bigger, more prevalent categories, I got you. To put it short and sweet, here are the main categories: Actor and Actress in a Leading Role, Actor and Actress in a Supporting Role, Directing, and Best Picture. Acting nominations are pretty straightforward, as they nominate those in a lead or supporting role. Directing nominations go to directors who are nominated for their pictures in the awards. Best Picture is essentially the equivalent of album of the year at the Grammys; it’s the film of that year. Pertaining to this year’s awards, many people, including myself, expected to see Oppenheimer (2023) dominate the nominations, which the Nolan picture did with 13 nominations. Its summer blockbuster counterpart, Barbie (2023), earned a total of 8 nominations. However, the film’s nominations or lack thereof in particular categories was the hot topic of this year’s awards. What I considered an underdog, Poor Things (2023), followed closely behind Oppenheimer (2023) in nominations with a total of 11 for this year. In terms of acting nominations, we saw Cillian Murphy nominated for his title role in Oppenheimer (2023), and we saw Ryan Gosling nominated for his comical role of Ken. Emma Stone was nominated this year for Actress in a Leading Role for the expressive and liberated character of Bella Baxter. A particular nomination I loved was America Ferrera for her role of Gloria in Barbie (2023). It’s a simplified rundown of this year’s nominations, but it suffices. Now, let’s get into my thoughts.
The day the nominations for this year’s Academy Awards came out, I was psyched. I woke up to the nominations coming out one at a time, and I was reading each category like it was nationwide breaking news. To say I was frustrated with certain categories would be sugarcoating my reaction. Like most women this year, I loved Barbie. I loved the film enough to see it three times without hesitation. So when I saw that Margot Robbie was snubbed for her role as Barbie herself, I was pissed. Especially when Ryan Gosling was nominated for Ken, it made no sense to nominate the doll herself, a representation of girlhood and womanhood. Especially when you watch Margot pour her heart and soul into Barbie both in front of and behind the camera. Now, if there’s one person I will defend with all of my heart, it is Greta Gerwig. That woman is an inspiration to all women within the film industry, especially in directing. When I saw she was snubbed for directing, I was livid. I couldn’t believe that we watched her work tirelessly and put so much thought into Barbie, and the academy couldn’t recognize her. Greta did an amazing job bringing a doll to life and inserting it into our lives and our modern world, where women and girls everywhere felt so connected to not only the film but to each other. So when she wasn’t recognized for her work, I couldn’t understand what the academy was going for. Greta’s directing was the product of passion and intellect. Of all people, especially as her picture is nominated for so much, she especially should’ve had her name on that nomination list.
We’ll see how this year’s awards go. I’m obviously hoping Barbie and Poor Things win multiple categories just out of personal preference, but we never know. Anything can happen at the Oscars; we’ll just have to watch and find out.