Last week, the nominations for the upcoming Academy Awards (better known as the Oscars) were announced.

The hit movie of the summer, Barbie received eight nominations including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor for Ryan Gosling as Ken, and several others.

However, Barbie fans across the globe are outraged that Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie were not nominated for Best Director and Best Actress, respectively. Gerwig’s situation becomes even more unusual when considering the fact that her film was nominated for Best Picture (which is usually paired with a Best Director nomination), not to mention the box office success of Barbie making her the most successful female director of all time!

So, one might wonder, why didn’t Gerwig and Robbie get nominated? No one really knows. Barbie fans are arguing that the success, and even the creation of this film is all thanks to these two women. In a statement in response to the nomination announcement, Ryan Gosling wrote, “I am extremely honored to be nominated . . . But there is no Ken without Barbie, and there is no Barbie movie without Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie . . .” Fans of the movie are also saying that situations like this were the whole reason for making this movie; women being snubbed even after succeeding incredible feats, only to favor men.

Despite Gerwig and Robbie’s losses, Gosling’s nomination was definitely well deserved. His character was arguably the most entertaining in the film and had a very interesting story arc. But again, his character was only so because of Robbie’s portrayal of Barbie and Gerwig’s masterful directing. 

I asked Elliott Wood, The Golden Word’s Editor-in-Chief, what he thought about these nomination results. “I think the Academy has some explaining to do, because this is an extremely rare combination of nominations. Barbie does not deserve this only two weeks after Jo Koy.” 

Elliott is referring to the misogynistic monologue given by Jo Koy at the Golden Globes. He described the great success of Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan’s latest award magnet, and then immediately reduced Barbie to a movie “about a plastic doll with big boobies.” 

I also interviewed Cibola’s Film Criticism teacher, Mr. Raugust, about his thoughts. While he has not actually seen Barbie, like Elliott, he said that the results were very “strange” and “tragic”. He agreed that it is extremely unusual for a movie to be nominated for best picture and not for best director as well. 

The Oscars will be broadcasting on ABC on March 10th at 5 P.M. MST.