These Female Oscar Snubs Are Disappointing But Unsurprising

The 2024 Oscar nominations have been announced and, as usual, there are also plenty of 2024 Oscar snubs that came with them. I’m disappointed but not surprised. Tell me why Ryan Gosling got an acting nomination for Barbie but Margot Robbie—the literal star—got passed over? And what, exactly, does Greta Gerwig have to do for the Academy to recognize her for directing? Speaking of Gretas, why wasn’t Greta Lee nominated for Past Lives?

While we’re at it, I noticed that Celine Song didn’t get a best director nomination for Past Lives either. At this point, I’ve stopped even hoping to see Sofia Coppola recognized for her films about girlhood and, sure enough, Priscilla was entirely shut out.

I absolutely understand that the concept of Oscar snubs is murky: nobody is owed an Academy Award just because. And maybe this seems churlish because Gosling really was fabulous in Barbie and of course I’m pleased for Justine Triet, the one woman who managed to break into the Best Director category this year. But still, I can’t shake the feeling that the academy is just reluctant to whole-heartedly recognize films created by and for women. And certainly not more than one at a time.

It’s worth noting, too, that in August, Barbie officially surpassed $1 billion at the global box office, making it the biggest blockbuster of the summer, and made history being the biggest opening weekend for a female director.

During the past 20 years, women have been nominated in the Best Director category only seven times. In only one of those years was more than one female director nominated at the same time. A woman has actually won the Academy Award for Best Director a grand total of thrice. Before being passed over for Barbie, Gerwig was snubbed in the directing category for 2019’s Little Women, and lost the Oscar in 2017 for Lady Bird.

If Barbie and Past Lives were both good enough films to be nominated for Best Picture, why weren’t the women who lead them also nominated for their work?