Despite being a film about female empowerment, ‘Barbie’ Oscar nominations heavily favored men (and Ken)

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When the 2024 Academy Award nominations were announced on Tuesday “Barbie” emerged as a voter favorite with eight nominations.

These include a few pleasant surprises, like best picture and best supporting actress for America Ferrera, who delivers a moving feminist monologue at the movie’s climax.

However, the nominations were largely skewed in favor of the movie’s male contributors — a conspicuous disparity for a film about the female experience.

Margot Robbie, the film’s star and producer, was passed over in the best lead actress category. But Ryan Gosling nabbed a nomination for best supporting actor as Ken, the heroine’s sidekick who becomes obsessed with the power of patriarchy.

The Academy also failed to nominate Greta Gerwig, the mastermind behind the billion-dollar box office smash, for best director, despite giving the film a best picture nod.

This might feel like déjà vu for Gerwig, who was similarly snubbed for her direction of best picture nominee “Little Women” in 2020, despite the film being nominated for best picture, best adapted screenplay, best actress, best supporting actress, best original score, and best costume design.

Only eight female directors have been nominated in Oscars history, including one this year: Justine Triet for “Anatomy of a Fall.” (Gerwig was nominated for “Lady Bird” in 2018 but lost to Guillermo del Toro.)

Ryan Gosling, Greta Gerwig, and Margot Robbie attend a photocall for “Barbie.” Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images

“Barbie” will also compete for best adapted screenplay — an award, if won, that Gerwig would share with her husband Noah Baumbach, who’s been open about his initial disdain for the movie pitch. “I thought it was a terrible idea, and Greta signed me up for it,” he said during a Q&A in October.

The male-favored imbalance also extended to the best original song category, where despite being shortlisted, Dua Lipa’s “Dance the Night” (Barbie’s “bespoke song”) failed to make the cut.

Instead, “I’m Just Ken,” an ’80s-style power ballad that satirizes Ken’s struggles and his “life of blond fragility” received a nod, along with Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell’s heartwrenching ballad “What Was I Made For?” (described by Gerwig as “Barbie’s heart song”).

Gosling performs the song in the movie, but the award would go to Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt as cowriters and producers if won. (Had “Dance the Night” been nominated, Lipa still would’ve shared the honor with Ronson and Wyatt.)

Last week, “I’m Just Ken” won best song at the Critics Choice Awards, beating “What Was I Made For?” — and, quite fittingly, Gosling’s befuddled reaction went viral.