Girl power may have surpassed atomic energy at the box office in last summer's “Barbenheimer” showdown. But Tuesday's Academy Award nominations flipped the script: Christopher Nolan's “Oppenheimer” dominated the competitive field with 13 nominations, while “Barbie” fell short of expectations with eight.
Always linked in pop culture's most unlikely movie acronym, “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” were jointly credited with helping propel the film industry out of its post-pandemic doldrums. As expected, Oscar voters rewarded each with best picture nominations, along with a diverse group of competitors ranging from Martin Scorsese's big-budget period epic “Killers of the Flower Moon” to smaller films. and idiosyncratic ones like the biting Holocaust drama “The Zone of Interest” and the '70s-set comedy-drama “The Holdovers.”
The kind of artistically ambitious, adult-oriented drama that has become as rare as uranium in today's studio landscape, Nolan's sprawling three-hour drama about the dawn of the nuclear age proved irresistible to Oscar voters. , earning Nolan his second directing nomination along with nods. for lead actor Cillian Murphy, supporting actor Robert Downey Jr. and supporting actress Emily Blunt.
“Barbie,” last year's biggest hit with $1.4 billion at the global box office, earned nominations for supporting actress America Ferrera and supporting actor Ryan Gosling, who played Ken. But, in a pair of snubs that made many of the film's ardent pink-clad fans turn red, Margot Robbie, who played Barbie, didn't make the cut in the lead actress category, while director Greta Gerwig failed to get a directing nod.
Yes, while patriarchy may not exist in Barbie Land, here Ken was actually nominated but Barbie was not.
Still, in the wake of Hollywood's bitter dual strike of writers and actors, which shut down business for nearly six months last year, the film academy nominations provided a welcome reminder that 2023 was actually a strong year for movies, serving as a kind of collective pep talk for a tired industry.
The strong performance of Universal’s “Oppenheimer” comes after a string of years in which Oscar voters favored smaller, quirkier films like “Parasite,” “Nomadland,” “CODA” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” .
Speaking by phone to The Times early Tuesday morning while getting his children ready for school, director Nolan, who has yet to win a best picture award in his otherwise illustrious career, said the success of “ Oppenheimer” proved that audiences crave challenging stories on the big screen. . After all, if a movie about a theoretical physicist can gross almost a billion dollars worldwide, who cares what the algorithms say?
Actor Cillian Murphy, left, and writer-director Christopher Nolan on the set of “Oppenheimer.” Both earned Oscar nominations.
(Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures)
“I think there's always a danger of assuming too much about what the audience wants,” said Nolan, who also scored a screenplay for his work adapting Oppenheimer's 2005 biography “American Prometheus” by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. “I've always believed that when you work in the studio system you should never forget the public's desire for something new and different. I firmly believe in the large-scale Hollywood film language. It allows you to reach a wide international audience and that is very valuable.”
That's not to say launching a science- and history-filled drama as a summer tentpole was an easy choice, even after Nolan found success with 2017's equally weighty “Dunkirk.”
“It was definitely not something we took for granted,” said “Oppenheimer” producer Emma Thomas, Nolan's creative partner and wife. “One of the things I love about what Chris does as a filmmaker is that he always has faith in his audience. He always challenges the public and they rise to the occasion.”
Among this year's nominated actors, 10 are newcomers, including Sterling K. Brown, a surprising supporting actor nominee for his role in “American Fiction”; “Anatomy of a Fall” star Sandra Hüller; and Lily Gladstone, who, with “Killers of the Flower Moon,” became the first Native American actress to be nominated for a leading actress Oscar.
Also among those receiving the academy's nod for the first time, “Barbie” co-star Ferrera earned the supporting actress nod in part on the strength of the moving monologue she delivers at the heart of the film, which instantly resonates. became a feminist demonstration. cry.
“When I read the words on the page I had the feeling that it was a really moving and powerful moment,” Ferrera, who played a Mattel employee and mother, told The Times by phone after Tuesday's nomination. “I knew it was special, but you never know how that will translate. “So to see it really resonate with audiences and be remade across TikTok just speaks to the message and how necessary and desired that message was.”
That said, Ferrera was dismayed to see Gerwig left out of the directing race, even as Gerwig and co-writer and husband Noah Baumbach landed an adapted script.
“Greta was the fearless leader who created something unprecedented that broke so many records and expectations,” Ferrera said. “It's disappointing and a little misaligned that they don't recognize her. And the same for Margot. “I am amazed by what they both achieved and would have loved to see them recognized for their work.”
Despite all the nominations for major films like “Oppenheimer,” “Barbie” and “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which gave Scorsese his 10th directorial nod (the most of any living filmmaker), the films Smaller and more idiosyncratic ones also won an award. a significant share of the attention, suggesting that the academy's increasingly international members still have an appetite for under-the-radar films.
Emma Stone and director Yorgos Lanthimos on the set of “Poor Things.”
(Atsushi Nishijima/Searchlight Images)
“Poor Things,” a gonzo feminist version of “Frankenstein,” earned 11 nominations, the second most of any film, including a directing nod for Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos along with nominations for lead actress Emma Stone and lead actor Emma Stone. cast Mark Ruffalo.
French filmmaker Justine Triet became the eighth woman nominated for best director for her work on the riveting courtroom thriller “Anatomy of a Fall,” which also earned an original screenplay nomination for Triet and her co-writer and partner Arthur Harari. British filmmaker Jonathan Glazer also earned a directing nomination for “The Zone of Interest,” a chilling look at the banality of evil, along with an adapted screenplay nod.
The 96th Academy Awards will take place on March 10 at the Dolby Theater and will air on ABC. For now, however, this year's nominees, particularly those who have never heard their names read before, are simply basking in the recognition of their peers in the industry.
“I grew up not wanting to do anything but act since I was 5 years old,” Ferrera said. “It's still quite surreal trying to process that the academy, the people I grew up admiring, are recognizing my work in this way. I don't think it quite landed. I imagine there will be a lot of tears between now and the big day.”
When asked how he planned to celebrate, Ferrera said: “I'm still in my bed. I haven't really been able to move since the nominations were announced. And I have a feeling that I probably won't be able to work much today.”
Barbie would surely understand.
