Snubbed! Kenough already.

If anyone would have told me six years ago that I'd be writing an impassioned essay about how Greta Gerwig was wronged by the Motion Picture Academy for failing to recognize her brilliant directorial effort with Barbie, I would have snickered and made a snide crack about various levels of mental delusion.

But times change. People evolve (hopefully, that includes me). Unfortunately, Hollywood has not changed or evolved, as this week's Oscar nominations suggest.

Looking back at some of my recent Oscar predictions, I was pretty harsh toward Greta. Not that I didn't think she was talented, only that I wasn't yet certain she was "all that." Mostly, I was waiting to see if she emerged as something more than then partner/now husband Noah Baumbach's muse. Suffice to say, Gerwig's creative conceptualization of "Barbie" not only won me over, it's turned me into an ardent Greta-phile. She may well be one of the best writer/director's of any generation, not just her own, and her deep understanding of the transformative power of film is evident in every frame of Barbie.  

Tuesday's shocking Oscar snub - and if it wasn't shocking to you, why not? - is one for the ages. Gerwig, in collaboration with actress/producer Margot Robbie, literally saved the Hollywood film industry amidst two guild strikes (WGA and SAG-AFTRA) and declining box office returns in the current age of (long pause) streaming.

Last year, Tom Cruise worked his movie star magic by enticing audiences out of their easy chairs and back into the theater with his visually stunning, ultimate "buddy" reconciliation sequel, Top Gun: Maverick thirty-five years after the original graced the silver screen. Even my husband, who is not a fan of action adventure movies, found Cruise's macho redemption story entertaining and the aerial scenes stunning. Who could match - let along surpass - Cruise's undeniable star power in luring people back to the big screen remained a mystery?

Then, to the surprise of many, two woman with an idea about a much beloved (or hated, depending on your personal experience) doll set box office records AND received praise from critics around the world. To date, Barbie has been nominated for over 300 awards and won over 100 of them for everything from performances (Ryan Gosling), music (Billie Eilish's soulful "What Was I Made For?" and Mark Ronson's prog-rock anthem, "I'm Just Ken"), plus makeup, costumes and production design, best comedy and, of course, the Golden Globes' newest award for "Achievement in Cinema."

That's quite a haul. Period. 

Now, after all that has been achieved, Oscar turns its back on Greta and Barbie co-creator Margot Robbie with nary a nod for Gerwig's direction or Robbie's fine performance as lead actress. Yes, Gerwig received a nom for Best Adapted Screenplay, after the Academy decided the script was "based on a toy" and moved it from the Original Screenplay category. And, as producer, Robbie is nominated in the Best Picture category. But that's beside the point. Two very strong, creative women were not recognized for the breadth and depth of their work.

Perhaps Billy Crystal's crack during the1992 Oscar opening monologue about Barbra Streisand's snub as Best Director for The Prince of Tides, which received seven nominations overall, is the most appropriate question about Gerwig's omission: "Did this movie direct itself?" Barbie has eight nominations, but none in two of the categories that were the foundations of the film's success: director and lead actress.

Streisand's snub happened twice: first, in 1983 for Yentl and then again in 1992. Of course, that was back in the day when there were only five Best Picture nominees and five for Best Director. The recent expansion of Best Picture to "up to 10" movies means up to five directors may get overlooked, but Gerwig's omission isn't about ratio of Best Picture to Best Director nominations. It's about Hollywood's ongoing inability to recognize powerful, creative messages that resonate with audiences worldwide. Barbie's record-breaking $1.4 billion box office take shows its message was heard round the world, and the corresponding critical acclaim shows it is more than a stale popcorn film. 

Various apologies and rationalizations have begun popping up all over social media, with one of the most offensive comments focusing on Gerwig and Robbie's other nominations. Seriously? Are these two woman supposed to be "satisfied" to have been nominated at all? In 2019, when producer/director/writer/actor Bradley Cooper was nominated in all but the directing category for A Star is Born, he admitted being embarrassed to have been passed over in as director. And many movie critics empathized as an understandable disappointment. So why is it okay for men to be disappointed, but woman are supposed to be grateful that they were nominated at all?

The other swipe, of course, is the joke that Ryan Gosling received a supporting actor nomination for his portrayal of Ken, but nothing for Robbie's Barbie, proving that Hollywood is happy to recognize the patriarchy so cleverly skewered in the movie, so Gosling's nod is a sort of victory for male superiority. What about America Ferrara? She was nominated as supporting actress. Doesn't she count? One critic actually suggested that Ferrara didn't "deserve" to be nominated, attributing the inclusion to her Hispanic heritage. Gosling's performance could have been a throwaway, a one-dimensional plastic caricature. It is anything but, and nothing short of iconic.

In defense of his colleagues, Gosling issued a powerful, if scathing, critique of the snub: "There is no Ken without Barbie, and there is no Barbie movie without Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie, the two people most responsible for this history-making, globally celebrated film. To say that I am disappointed that they are not nominated in their respective categories would be an understatement." Bravo, Ken - and cheers to every celebrity, politician, and movie goer who has called out this travesty of an omission.

Everyone from Hillary Clinton to Whoopi Goldberg has weighed on on the snub, with Clinton showing great compassion for the omission and Goldberg declaring there is no such thing as a Oscar snub. Really, Whoopi? Weren't you very vocal a few years ago when "Oscars So White" was a rallying cry for the lack of diversity among nominees. No snubs? Just racism? Does that mean, in this case, no snubs, just misogyny? Ditto, 2023 Best Actress winner Michelle Yeoh, who deadpanned that "snubs happen." Guess when you've won an Oscar it's easy to dismiss other injustices.

What's also odd is that both Gerwig and Robbie have been nominated in the director and actress categories before. This year, they have already been recognized from multiple groups: HFPA, Critics Choice, SAG, etc., and various guilds. The only exception so far was BAFTA: Gerwig did not receive a directorial nom, though she did receive a DGA nom this year. Robbie, a native Australian, did receive a BAFTA nomination as lead actress, but no Oscar. So what's up?

I'm thinking about some patterns emerging from the past few years: In 2019, after a see-saw battle between Glenn Close and Lady Gaga in the Best Actress category, Olivia Colman, a Brit, was the surprise Oscar recipient. In 2021, the much anticipated posthumous win for Chadwick Boseman was so viewed as a "lock" that order of Oscar's awards was switched to make Best Actor the last category instead of the traditional Best Picture. To everyone's surprise (mortification?), Anthony Hopkins - yes, another Brit - who did not attend the ceremony, emerged victorious, ending the show with a thumping, awkward silence. 

I'm beginning to wonder now if the largest AMPAS voting membership other than Americans, the British, is starting to impact the final nominations. Given, too, that Barbie is an unabashedly sharp feminist (but not male bashing) manifesto, I suspect that many AMPAS voters, including the largely white American male technical arm, might not be as enthusiastic about Barbie as a subject they might about Oppenheimer or even the FBI investigating the Osage murders. 

For all its glitter, Hollywood has long tried to assert its gravitas by aligning its awards with movies that are considered "serious." Back in the 80s, I recall a friend commenting about how unfortunate it was that Amadeus was named Best Picture over The Killing Fields. I inquired why and was told that The Killing Fields dealt with a much more important subject: the Cambodian Civil War. Granted, The Killing Fields depicted a brutal "based-on-a-true-story" journalistic approach the mid-70s conflict in Cambodia, but I'd be hard pressed to say that the topic made the movie better or more deserving of a Best Picture win. Picking a politically correct topic is not a requirement for making a fine film.

Comedies have long taken a back seat to lesser, but more consequential subjects, even if the humor underscore a serious social or political issue. When is the last time an actor won the Oscar for a comedic role? Probably Kevin Kline in 1988's A Fish Called Wanda. Diane Keaton's win as the titular Annie Hall was the last lead comedy win until Olivia Colman won for The Favourite.

Still, I'm not convinced that comedy's second class status is the driving force behind the snubs - and they were snubs. For whatever combination of reasons, AMPAS voters did not value Gerwig's vision as director or Robbie's incarnation of Barbie. There's more going on here, but the constant is the theme of failing to recognize powerful, creative, intelligent women cannot be dismissed.

Remember, too, that AMPAS voters are not required to verify proof of seeing any performance or film before voting. So, word of mouth plays a part, as does the age of many AMPAS voters, which is beginning to shift younger but remains an older (re: over 55) crowd. Even I have heard some really odd comments about Barbie since its release - mostly that it is a man-hating, male-bashing indictment of the patriarchy - I could see where someone who hadn't seen the movie but heard some potentially objectionable comments might be swayed to cast their vote elsewhere.

To say that this year's Oscar ceremony has lost a lot of its luster is an understatement for me. I was so looking forward to a global celebration of woman and the creative forces that shaped this year's most beloved movie. But there's still six weeks to go before the Oscars. A lot can happen, especially as other awards ceremonies are held. This week's outrage could gain momentum or fade away. I'm holding out hope that we'll see a sea of pink on Oscar night - and not just from women. 'Cause, you know, as Lizzo sings, "Pink goes with everything."

Years (well, decades now) ago when I first started teaching film history and the Oscars came up as a discussion point, I remember telling students that the Oscars were as much a political popularity contest as they were an acknowledgement of excellence. Though AMPAS voting demographics have changed, just like the number of Best Picture nominees, the lingering sting of underlying racism and sexism remains. In its almost 100 year history, only eight women have been nominated in the Best Director category, and only three have won. Two of those films, The Hurt Locker, directed by Kathryn Bigelow and Power of the Dog, directed by Jane Campion, clearly had male/macho storylines and themes.

Only Chloe Zhao's Nomadland reached into broader, humanistic themes, but it's definitely not a "woman's" movie. It's clear that Hollywood is willing to award a woman the Best Director Oscar so long as she stays away from specific feminist themes. Even this year's sole female nominee, Justine Triet, made a film - Anatomy of a Fall - that is more "family" drama than woman's story. Gerwig's Barbie, though timely and timeless in its expression of women's issues and the relationship between men and woman, may seem too militant, too forcefully revolutionary to some, especially now when MAGA hats symbolize machismo to half of America. In short, there are no good reasons for Gerwig and Robbie's egregious omissions, only poor excuses and weak rationales for their absence in the director and lead actress categories.

For me, in a year that boasted some fine movies, it remains disappointing and unimaginable that the largest grossing movie - and not a Marvel Comics one at that - with equally lucrative critical currency and global appreciation, couldn't even garner a nomination for the woman whose creative vision inspired it all. Because, for all those women out there who have been told they are smart, funny, beautiful and amazing, only to be dissed or reviled as being "too much," let's hope we can someday find the space to be fearless in recognizing outstanding, creative achievements in a world where every individual's talent is celebrated, and women aren't punished for exceeding expectations. 

Kenough? I'm just getting warmed up.