You know the gist of it by now: Margot Robbie didn’t get nominated for the Best Actress Oscar for her mercurial turn in Barbie, nor did Greta Gerwig get nominated for Best Director for steering that same great pink ship, and lots of people are pretty miffed about it.
Gerwig herself, however, is not one of those people, and why would she be? Beyond the fact that Barbie‘s accomplishments can not and should not be quantified through the eyes of Academy, we all seem to have forgotten that the “Oscars snub” of the filmmaker wasn’t a complete one. Speaking recently to Time, Gerwig noted that while it came as a disappointment to her that Robbie didn’t get nominated, she’s not particularly upset that she herself didn’t get nominated for an Oscar (for Best Director), since she did, in fact, get nominated for an Oscar.
“Of course I wanted it for Margot. But I’m just happy we all get to be there together. A friend’s mom said to me, ‘I can’t believe you didn’t get nominated.’ I said, ‘But I did. I got an Oscar nomination.’ She was like, ‘Oh, that’s wonderful for you!’ I was like, ‘I know!’”
Indeed, in all the Best Director noise, we all seem to have forgotten that Gerwig received an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay, a nomination she shares with her husband and co-writer Noah Baumbach. Should it have been Best Original Screenplay? Yes, absolutely, but Gerwig was nevertheless responsible for penning the lifeblood of the most culturally significant film in years, which is just as impressive an accomplishment as her work in Barbie’s director’s chair.
Beyond that, Barbie is up for a whooping eight nominations at this year’s ceremony, including Best Supporting Actor for Ryan Gosling, Best Supporting Actress for America Ferrera, and of course, Best Picture, meaning—as Gerwig mentioned—the gang is all going to be there come March 10, and that’s the real poetry of this whole thing.
(featured image: Warner Bros. Pictures)
