Barbenheimer saved the movie industry, so why shouldn’t the most famous portmanteau in film history also be the big story of the Oscar nominations?
Universal’s Oppenheimer and Warner Bros.’s Barbie, which together grossed almost one billion dollars at the domestic box office last summer, have now earned a combined 21 Academy Award nominations. Both films made the shortlists for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay, although Barbie’s Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig surprisingly missed the cut in their respective Best Actress and Best Director categories. With its list-topping tally of 13 nominations as well as its wins at the Golden Globes and Critics’ Choice Awards, Oppenheimer remains the presumptive frontrunner at the moment in the Best Picture and Best Director races.
Other big winners overall include Apple’s powerful drama Killers of the Flower Moon, which was recognized in 10 categories, and Searchlight’s whimsical period piece Poor Things, which scored an impressive 11 nominations. In the acting categories, early favorites like The Holdovers‘ Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Maestro’s Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan all heard their names called, alongside a few veteran performers who scored the first Oscar nominations of their careers: Sterling K. Brown for American Fiction, Oppenheimer costar Emily Blunt, and The Color Purple standout Danielle Brooks. For Cooper, his hat trick of nominations as producer, co-screenwriter, and star of Maestro means that he is now a 12-time Academy Award nominee, although he has never taken home a trophy. Tough competition from the likes of Giamatti and Barbenheimer means that disappointing streak could very well continue.
Among Barbie’s notable achievements is a pair of nominations in the Best Original Song category, where both “What Was I Made For?” and “I’m Just Ken” were both recognized. (Recent rules dictating no more than two nominated songs from any film meant that Dua Lipa’s “Dance the Night” was left out, even though it may have received more votes than some of the other nominated songs.) “What Was I Made For?,” a stark ballad by siblings Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell —past Oscar winners for their James Bond theme “No Time to Die”—could provide a much-needed shot in the arm for the awards ceremony. Thanks to the songwriters’ massive fanbase, ABC’s telecast stands to benefit from higher ratings, and if the twosome were to win, they would become the youngest two-time Oscar winners of all time.
In other words, for the entire entertainment community, Barbenheimer will be the gift that keeps on giving.
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