The 2024 Oscar nominations are nothing new

Yesterday morning, the nominations for the Oscar 2024 were announced, the event that celebrates its 96th year and will take place on March 10th at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. As expected, Oppenheimer was the film that received the most nominations, followed by Poor Things! and Killers of the Flower Moon. In a strange turn of events, neither the director nor the lead actress of Barbie, the project that performed the best of the year, becoming the fourteenth highest-grossing film in cinema history, were included in the Oscar nominations. Despite receiving eight nominations, including Best Picture and Adapted Screenplay, Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie failed to make an impression on the Academy jury. Many have noticed a certain irony in the nomination of Ryan Gosling for Best Supporting Role; the film criticizes patriarchy, misogyny, and the systemic oppression of women in our society, but is only Ken's work being recognized?

Following the announcement of the Oscar nominations, Gosling released a statement regarding his nomination. «There is no Ken without Barbie, and there is no Barbie movie without Greta Gerwig & Margot Robbie […] No recognition would be possible for anyone on the film without their talent, grit, and genius. To say I’m disappointed that they are not nominated in their respective categories would be an understatement.» Indeed, it is absurd that the Academy did not feel obliged to recognize the creators of a film that achieved record box office success, becoming a colossal media phenomenon. Without Gerwig's direction, Robbie's production and acting, the entire world would never have fallen in love with the world of Barbie. Not reading their names, but only Gosling's among the nominations, confirms the disadvantage that women must face, even in a creative and "free" context like Hollywood. As indicated by the Best Director nominations, the competition this year was strong: Martin Scorsese for Killers of the Flower Moon, Christopher Nolan for Oppenheimer, Yorgos Lanthimos for Poor Things!, Justine Triet for Anatomy of a Fall, and Jonathan Glazer for The Zone of Interest. We are confident that the lack of an Oscar nomination will not ruin the two artists, but it's as if the story has added an extra chapter to Gerwig's dark humor screenplay.

Putting aside the Barbie issue for a moment, these Oscars mark a monumental event in Hollywood's history. Lily Gladstone, the star of Scorsese's latest project, is the first Native American actress to be nominated for a golden statuette. Alongside colleagues Emma Stone, Carey Mulligan, Sandra Hüller, and Annette Bening, her nomination is perhaps the only true sign of the times in these Oscars, an event nearing its centennial that has, over the years, awarded only three female directors: Zhao for Nomadland, Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker, and Jane Campion for The Power of the Dog. Supporters of fair cinema can only hope that these Oscars bring standing ovations for all the women who managed to compete for recognition, from Lily Gladstone to Justine Triet.