The blockbuster movie Barbie has been nominated for eight Oscars, although its star Margot Robbie and director Greta Gerwig were overlooked in some key categories. Gerwig was not nominated for best director, but Justine Triet, director of Anatomy of a Fall, was, ensuring the category was not completely male-dominated. This year also marks the first time that three best picture nominees were directed by women.
Oppenheimer received the most nominations overall, followed by Poor Things and Killers of the Flower Moon. Robbie and Gerwig did receive recognition in other areas – Robbie was nominated as a producer for best picture, while Gerwig was nominated for best adapted screenplay.
Despite Barbie being the highest-grossing film of 2023, earning $1.44bn (£1.14bn) worldwide, many expected Gerwig and Robbie to be nominated in the best director and best actress categories. Robbie’s co-star America Ferrera received a surprise nomination for supporting actress, while Ryan Gosling was nominated for best supporting actor and best original song.
Oppenheimer led the nominations with 13 in total. The three-hour epic about theoretical physicist J Robert Oppenheimer was both critically acclaimed and a box office success. Poor Things, a film about an infant whose brain is transplanted into an adult woman’s body, received 11 nominations, while Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon received 10.
The Oscars ceremony will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel in Los Angeles on 10 March. For the first time in Oscar history, three of the best picture nominees were directed by women: Past Lives (directed by Celine Song), Barbie (Gerwig) and Anatomy of a Fall (Triet).
Killers of the Flower Moon star Lily Gladstone made history as the first Native American actress to be nominated, while Robert De Niro broke the record for the longest time between first and most recent Oscar nominations – 49 years. Half of this year’s acting nominees are first-time nominees.
In the leading actress category, Annette Bening was nominated for her role in Nyad, while America Ferrera received a surprise supporting actress nomination for Barbie. However, there were no nominations for All of Us Strangers or Saltburn, despite their strong performance at the Bafta nominations last week. Leonardo DiCaprio was notably absent from the best actor category for his role in Killers of the Flower Moon.
