From the Newsroom: Barbie hasn’t been ‘snubbed’ at the Oscars, as many people seem to think

Let’s get one thing straight – Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig have not been ‘snubbed’ at the Oscars, as plenty of stubborn ‘Barbie’ fans seem to believe.

There has been uproar ever since Robbie failed to receive a nomination for Best Actress at the upcoming Academy Awards, while Gerwig wasn’t included in the Best Director category.

These make up two of the most difficult categories to triumph in – alongside Best Actor – with just five nominations making it through to the final stage. Missing out does not automatically mean you have been ‘snubbed’.

The thing is, though, that their misses are more than warranted. Robbie alone has had many better performances than in Barbie – think ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’, ‘I, Tonya’, and ‘Babylon’.

She put in a very strong showing, but that does not equate to being Oscar-worthy. Put simply, she wasn’t quite that good.

The same goes for Gerwig. While ‘Barbie’ is well-directed, she came up against juggernauts such as Christopher Nolan and Martin Scorsese, while the likes of Yorgos Lanthimos impressed as well with ‘Poor Things’.

Robbie and Gerwig missing out on nominations does not “prove Barbie’s point” or “prove that sexism still exists”, as plenty have been desperate to try and point out.

These people tend to try and use the film’s out-of-this-world box office results as “proof” that Barbie was the best movie of the year and should have dominated in every category.

If that were the case, where was Robert Downey Jr’s Oscar nomination for carrying ‘Avengers: Endgame’ in 2019? What about Daisey Ridley for ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’?

The answer is simple – having the highest-grossing film doesn’t give you a god-given right to be put up for an Oscar, the most coveted of film accolades.

I would argue that Barbie has in fact been boosted by one particularly controversial nomination – America Ferrera for Best Supporting Actress.

Without wanting to sound too harsh, she should be absolutely nowhere near the podium after such a cookie-cutter performance.

If you liked Barbie and thought it was a good film, then fair enough. But stop making the assumption that just because something was popular and made a bundle of cash, it warrants the highest of critical praise too.