Gerwig (left) and Robbie, pictured at the Golden Globes, missed out on best director and best actress respectively. Click photo to go to BBC story. Getty Images
Greta Gerwig has directed three films since 2017, including Lady Bird, Little Women and the monster hit Barbie. All three were well regarded with multiple Academy Award nominations – but only the indie Lady Bird managed to score her a Best Director nomination. Now, I have no great insight into the Oscar nomination process, and I certainly haven’t seen all of the nominated films. But I take it as strange that a woman who has done so much with three films about women can’t get nominated for anything other than her small, indie movie.
Back in 2020, when Gerwig’s creative retelling of Little Women was in the running, I wrote:
I thought Little Women was one of the most enjoyable and interesting movies I saw all year. And I say this as someone who had never read Little Women, nor did I know its most famous plot point. While much of the acting in it was spot on (especially from Florence Pugh who plays the difficult sister, Amy), this is clearly a film that belongs to director/screenwriter Greta Gerwig. She got a well deserved best adapted screenplay nomination, but no nod for best director. She tells the story assuredly with a current and historic timeline that brought a new storytelling convention to a 150-year-old story.
But in 2020, and almost every other year, it took making a manly film about manly things to get Academy love, unless you are an indie or international film that makes no threat to the established order. I’m not even arguing that Gerwig should with the Oscar – I’m both predicting and rooting for Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer. But the fact that the director of a groundbreaking musical comedy that plays with lots of complex ideas and still makes a giant bucket of money can’t even get a spot on the ballot seems nuts.
Best director:
- Anatomy of a Fall – Justine Triet
- Killers of the Flower Moon – Martin Scorsese
- Oppenheimer – Christopher Nolan
- Poor Things – Yorgos Lanthimos
- The Zone of Interest – Jonathan Glazer
Beyond best director, here are my thoughts on some of the rest of the nominations:
Best Picture:
- American Fiction
- Anatomy of a Fall
- Barbie
- The Holdovers
- Killers of the Flower Moon
- Maestro
- Oppenheimer
- Past Lives
- Poor Things
- The Zone of Interest
No real complaints, though I think that it was arguable that Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse could have deserved a slot here.
Best actor:
- Bradley Cooper – Maestro
- Colman Domingo – Rustin
- Paul Giamatti – The Holdovers
- Cillian Murphy – Oppenheimer
- Jeffrey Wright – American Fiction
I would be amazed if it went to anyone other than Murphy, though I admire Giamatti’s and Cooper’s performances.
Best actress:
- Annette Bening – Nyad
- Lily Gladstone – Killers of the Flower Moon
- Sandra Huller – Anatomy of a Fall
- Carey Mulligan – Maestro
- Emma Stone – Poor Things
No love here for Barbie’s Margot Robbie, who did a great job of bringing a doll to life in a critique of the patriarchy, seems … odd.
Best supporting actress:
- Emily Blunt – Oppenheimer
- Danielle Brooks – The Color Purple
- America Ferrera – Barbie
- Jodie Foster – Nyad
- Da’Vine Joy Randolph – The Holdovers
Thought Randolph’s performance as the grieving mother in The Holdovers was exceptional. I’m also pleased to see America Ferrara getting recognition for Barbie.
Best supporting actor:
- Sterling K Brown – American Fiction
- Robert De Niro – Killers of the Flower Moon
- Robert Downey Jr – Oppenheimer
- Ryan Gosling – Barbie
- Mark Ruffalo – Poor Things
I really want to see Robert Downey Jr. get this for playing Oppenheimer antagonist Lewis Strauss. Ryan Gosling was excellent in Barbie, but how he got a nom when Robbie got passed by is beyond me. (Yes, I know, different categories, etc., but really?)
Best animated feature:
- The Boy and the Heron
- Elemental
- Nimona
- Robot Dreams
- Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
I won’t get to see The Boy and the Heron for several more weeks, but I have no doubt that it is worthy of it’s spot on the list. I am so happy that Netflix and Annapurna Pictures managed to complete the queer-themed Nimona after Disney dropped it, and I’m delighted to see it with a nomination. (I had it on my top 10 list for 2023.) I was not impressed with Disney/Pixar’s Elemental, and I would have prefered to have seen the anime Suzume or the stylish Teen-Aged Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem in its place. I assume Spider-Verse will win, and I have no complaint with that.
What did you think about this year’s nominations? Leave your thoughts in the comments.