“Barbenheimer” could not be denied.
“Barbie” director Greta Gerwig, on the other hand, will have to wait till next year. Or the year after.
The summer’s movie sensation, individually known as “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” scored 21 Oscar nominations combined Tuesday. “Oppenheimer” looks to be the big winner on March 10, with a possible sweep for director Christopher Nolan’s look at the atomic bomb’s creation.
“Barbie” snagged a Best Picture nod along with two Best Supporting Actor categories, but Gerwig’s snub will make the most noise in an industry obsessed with checking identity boxes.
That #OscarsSoWhite hashtag might get a workout, too.
“The Color Purple,” the musical update on Steven Spielberg’s 1985 classic, got shut out in most major categories.
Shut out entirely? Black filmmaker/activist Ava DuVernay’s “Origin.” The film divided critics with its lecturing look at race in America, adapted from Isabel Wilkerson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.”
The film’s key players have made noise about it being overlooked during the bigger awards season competition. DuVernay complained the studio’s modest budget prevented it from competing against the better-funded competition.
“Origin” star Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor predicted her film would come up empty earlier in the week, telling Variety “that ship has sailed, and that’s all right.”
She previously played the race card to explain away the film’s poor award-season showing.
“I think it is brave creatively, I think it is brave in its message, I think it confronts things in a way that is innovative,” Ellis-Taylor continued. “And I just think that we [in Hollywood] award the white guys for that kind of work.”
Yet “American Fiction,” the story of a black intellectual stymied by the literary world’s woke virtue-signaling, performed far better. The stinging satire got warmly received by both liberal Hollywood and the progressive critics despite skewering virtue-signaling tropes.
Plus, multiple black performers scored acting nominations, from Da’Vine Joy Randolph of “The Holdovers” to Colman Domingo for “Rustin.”
The nominations recognized several films unfamiliar to most moviegoers. “The Zone of Interest,” a subtle assault on the monsters behind the Nazi-era concentration camps, has made just $1.5 million so far in U.S. theaters.
The import “Anatomy of a Fall” similarly underwhelmed with $3.9 million stateside.
“Past Lives,” a touching story of childhood sweethearts reuniting as adults, made $10.9 million.
At least “The Holdovers,” another modest grosser ($18 million), can now be seen on Peacock’s streaming service.
The most stupefying nomination may belong to America Ferrera. The “Ugly Betty” alum snagged a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for “Barbie.” She plays a woman whose daughter rejects everything the Barbie doll stands for.
Ferrera’s rant-slash-lecture on why it’s “impossible” to be a woman stops the feminist film cold. Her performance is fine overall, but that moment likely wooed a few voters to her cause.
The actress leaned into the film’s feminist DNA during awards season, complete with a speech at the Critics Choice Awards that read like a woke manifesto.
“To me, this is the best and highest use of storytelling: to affirm one another’s full humanity, to uphold the truth that we are all worthy of being seen — black, brown, indigenous, Asian, trans, disabled, any body type, any gender. We are all worthy of having our lives richly and authentically reflected.”
Ferrera also called the film’s overt feminism necessary.
“There are a lot of people who need feminism 101.”
Message received. Now, will audiences be receptive to this year’s nominees?
Far-left comedian Jimmy Kimmel will once again host the Oscars ceremony, to be held March 10 on ABC. The former “Man Show” host’s transformation from dude-bro comic to propagandist is undeniable, courtesy of ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” showcase.
Still, Kimmel toned down the political banter last year and watched the show’s ratings perk up from 2022. That made it the third-worst ratings performance ever for the gala, but a rare uptick given the sorry state of awards shows today.
(The recent Emmys telecast slumped to record-low numbers.)
President Donald Trump, barring a seismic change in polling, is now the presumptive GOP candidate to unseat President Joe Biden this fall. The U.S.-Mexico border is on the minds of both Democrats and liberals. And every week, there’s a new, unsettling video clip of President Biden looking lost on stage.
Can Kimmel resist all of the above and do his best Billy Crystal imitation, giving us a unifying show that honors Hollywood, not the industry’s politics?
We’ll find out March 10.