Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie saved the movie industry this Summer with their hit movie Barbie. Greta Gerwig made history by becoming the very first woman to pass the $1 billion record, and yet, the Oscars decided she was not ‘kenough’ to be considered among the best directors of the year. Let that sink in for a moment.
Done? Great! So, the Academy just announced the nominations for this year’s awards (you can see the full list here), and although many of them were already expected (yes, Oppenheimer, we knew you’d be nominated for everything), there were some shocking surprises… and not in a good way. As we mentioned, the great Greta Gerwig was snubbed from the Best Director category, but it was also shocking to see that Margot Robbie, the one who personified and gave a soul to the iconic plastic doll, was also shunned.
Unlike the two powerful women who brought this story to life, the Academy and its voters decided to highlight the work of Ryan Gosling, who plays Ken. Now, don’t get me wrong, he did an amazing job, and the song “I’m Just Ken,” which was also nominated, is a true anthem, but the fact that it’s the male counterpart of the film the one that gets a nod proves that nobody really understood the movie… or that Hollywood didn’t blink an eye on the matter of the patriarchy.
Now, Margot and Greta did get a nod, although not in their strong categories. Margot Robbie appears listed as a producer of the movie in the Best Film category, while Greta shares credits with her long-term partner Noah Baumbach in the Best Screenplay Adaptation slate. Still, in both cases, they are not alone nor highlighted personally for their work.
If you think about it, albeit unfair, this situation, which also happened with the BAFTA nominations, only makes of the movie a round cultural product that perfectly portrays how the industry, and the world if we may add, works. We can be very open and discuss feminism and pretend that there are spaces for women to shine, but at the end of the day, the patriarchy in the powerful industries won’t be listening at all.
Perhaps the only solace we can find in all this outraging case is that, unlike Hollywood and the Academy, people on social media are well aware of the injustice and haven’t hesitated to show their discomfort on the matter. Also, America Ferrara did get a nomination, probably for that moving and eye-opening monologue that, guess who, Greta Gerwig wrote.
It would be interesting to know, though, how those involved in the Barbie film think about this matter. Also, we could bet that Oppenheimer will be the great winner of the year, although, in my opinion, it’s not the best movie of the season. Yes, it’s good, but it’s probably Poor Things the big and fresh surprise and a story that centers on the deep experiences of women. Likely, the story of the dude who created the most deadly weapon in history will get the applause, instead.
All in all, we can all agree that Hollywood can pretend to be the most woke industry ever, giving us some interesting films and shows once in a while, but at the end of the day, it will always be the biggest “mojo dojo casa house” for men to play around and get pats on their backs.
