The nominees for the 96th Academy Awards were announced earlier today, and Barbie, the highest-grossing movie of 2023, did quite well for itself, scoring nominations in seven categories. However, in addition to Greta Gerwig getting snubbed from the Best Director category, Margot Robbie was also left out of the Best Actress lineup. Now Ryan Gosling and America Ferrera, two of Barbie’s other prominent actors, have spoken about about neither women being recognized at the next Academy Awards ceremony.
To be sure, today was a good day on the Oscars front for both of those actors, with Gosling being nominated for Best Supporting Actor and Ferrera being nominated for Best Supporting Actress. Nevertheless, they made sure to voice their dissatisfaction with neither Gerwig nor Robbie being nominated. Starting off, Gosling issued a statement (via The New York Times’ Kyle Buchanan) that started off with him saying he’s “extremely honored” to be nominated for an Academy Award, and “incredibly honored and proud that it’s for portraying a plastic doll named Ken.” Then he laid out:
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. No recognition would be possible for anyone on the film without their talent, grit and genius.
Gosling went on to say that Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig’s work deserved to be “recognized along with the other very deserving nominees,” than concluded his statement by congratulating America Ferrera and the “other incredible artist who contributed their talents to making this such a groundbreaking film.” Gosling’s Oscar nomination follows shortly after the internet delighted in his reaction upon learning that the song he belted out, “I’m Just Ken,” won the Critics Choice Award for Best Song.
As for America Ferrera, who played Mattel employee Gloria in Barbie, she informed Variety that she was “incredibly disappointed” that Robbie and Gerwig weren’t nominated for the next Academy Awards ceremony, then elaborated on her thoughts by first saying the following about Barbie’s director/co-writer:
Greta has done just about everything that a director could do to deserve it. Creating this world, and taking something that didn’t have inherent value to most people and making it a global phenomenon. It feels disappointing to not see her on that list.
Had Greta Gerwig been nominated for Best Director, this would have been the second time this happened, as she was previously nominated for 2017’s Lady Bird. Instead, the category’s lineup this year consists of Anatomy of a Fall’s Justine Trier, Killers of the Flower Moon’s Martin Scorsese, Oppenheimer’s Christopher Nolan , Poor Things’ Yorgos Lanthimos and The Zone of Interest’s Jonathan Glazer. As for Robbie, who was also one of Barbie’s producers, Ferrera said this:
What Margot achieved as an actress is truly unbelievable. One of the things about Margot as an actress is how easy she makes everything look. And perhaps people got fooled into thinking that the work seems easy, but Margot is a magician as an actress in front of the screen, and it was one of the honors of my career to get to witness her pull off the amazing performance she did. She brings so much heart and humor and depth and joy and fun to the character. In my book, she’s a master.
Margot Robbie was previously nominated for Best Actress in 2018 for I, Tonya, and for Best Supporting Actress in 2020 for Bombshell. Alas, when it comes to the Best Actress category this year, we’ll have to see who comes out on top among Nyad’s Annette Bening, Killers of the Flower Moon’s Lily Gladstone, Anatomy of a Fall’s Sandra Hüller, Maestro’s Carey Milligan and Poor Things’ Emma Stone.
In addition to the aforementioned categories, Barbie was also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Costume Design, Best Production Design and twice in Best Original Song. We’ll see how many of those golden trophies that Warner Bros. Picture releases takes home, if any, when the 96th Academy Awards premieres March 10 on ABC, one of the 2024 TV schedule nearer viewing options. Feel free to stream Barbie ahead of time with your Max subscription.