Oscars 2024: Barbie’s Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie miss key nominations

Box office smash Barbie has received eight Oscar nominations – but its star Margot Robbie and director Greta Gerwig were snubbed in some major categories.

The blockbuster film “Barbie” has garnered eight Oscar nominations; however, its lead, Margot Robbie, and director, Greta Gerwig, were notably absent from key categories. Despite Gerwig’s exclusion from the best director category, the nomination of Justine Triet for “Anatomy of a Fall” contributed to a more diverse lineup. Notably, this year marks the first instance where three best picture nominees were directed by women.

“Oppenheimer” secured the highest number of nominations, closely followed by “Poor Things” and “Killers of the Flower Moon.” While “Barbie” dominated the box office in 2023 with a global earning of $1.44 billion, expectations for Gerwig and Robbie to secure nominations in the best director and best actress categories were not met.

Nonetheless, Robbie received recognition as a producer in the best picture category, and Gerwig earned a nomination for best adapted screenplay. With “Barbie” receiving a best picture nod, Gerwig achieves the milestone of being the first woman to direct three films nominated for the prestigious award, following “Lady Bird” and “Little Women.”

While Robbie didn’t secure a best actress nomination, her co-star America Ferrera surprisingly received a nod for best supporting actress. Ryan Gosling, another cast member in the Barbie movie, earned a best supporting actor nomination, and a track he performs in the film, “I’m Just Ken,” is up for best original song. The film also received nominations for production design and costume design, competing with another song from the same movie, “What Was I Made For?” by Billie Eilish.

However, the standout in nominations was Oppenheimer, earning an impressive 13 nods. Christopher Nolan’s three-hour epic on theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer garnered critical acclaim and box office success. Acting nominations went to Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, and Robert Downey Jr., with Nolan receiving a nomination for best director.

“Poor Things,” a film centered on an infant with a transplanted brain into an adult woman’s body, secured the second-highest number of nominations with 11 nods. Emma Stone, the film’s lead, expressed feeling like she was in a “surreal dream” and conveyed immense gratitude to the Academy for the recognition.

Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” delving into the murder of Osage Indian tribe members by oil-seeking white settlers, earned 10 nominations. The biopic “Maestro,” starring Bradley Cooper as composer Leonard Bernstein, garnered seven nominations.

Jimmy Kimmel is set to host the Oscars ceremony in Los Angeles on March 10.

Key nominations:

• Oppenheimer: 13 nominations
• Poor Things: 11 nominations
• Killers of the Flower Moon: 10 nominations
• Barbie: 8 nominations
• Maestro: 7 nominations
• Other films with 5 nominations: American Fiction, Anatomy of a Fall, The Holdovers, The Zone of Interest.