Can ‘Barbie’ pull an ‘Argo’ at the Oscars? Outrage over Best Director snub could lead to Best Picture redemption

The 2012 political thriller “Argo” made waves when its director, Ben Affleck, was shockingly snubbed for Best Director by the Oscars. But Affleck ended up winning everywhere else he was nominated (BAFTA Awards, Critics Choice Awards, Golden Globes, Directors Guild Awards), and then his film won Best Picture at the Oscars. Could “Barbie” follow a similar path to the academy’s top prize?

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Fans of “Barbie” have been vocally protesting the academy’s snub of Greta Gerwig, who was left out of Best Director despite spearheading a movie about a doll that managed to become a box office phenomenon and a critically acclaimed take on feminism and patriarchy. It’s rare for a film to capture the cultural imagination the way “Barbie” did, especially after a long period when COVID shuttered movie theaters and depressed attendance. Many expected the academy to highlight such a directorial achievement, but no.

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Oscar voters did nominate one woman for Best Director, Justine Triet (“Anatomy of a Fall”), but she’s the only woman in the lineup despite three Best Picture nominees directed by women (“Barbie,” “Anatomy” and Celine Song‘s “Past Lives”). And she’s only the eighth woman nominated for directing in the almost-century-long history of the Oscars. Clearly the academy still has a long way to go despite its efforts in recent years to expand and diversify its membership.

But there are still opportunities to reward “Barbie.” Gerwig herself is nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay alongside Noah Baumbach. And the film could win Best Picture, which would give an Oscar to Best Actress-snubbed producer and star Margot Robbie.

SEERyan Gosling, America Ferrera criticize Greta Gerwig, Margot Robbie ‘Barbie’ Oscar snubs: ‘Incredibly disappointing’

“Barbie” can’t follow the exact trajectory of “Argo,” though. Gerwig can’t win all the other available Best Director prizes because she already lost to Christopher Nolan (“Oppenheimer”) at the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards. Nolan has such a strong overdue narrative in that category that he may very well sweep up every other major award as well, and so far he’s been pushing his film to Best Picture victories too.

Nevertheless, voters could be inspired to make it up to Gerwig by giving her and Baumbach the writing award. There’s no clear consensus in the Adapted Screenplay category, especially since “Barbie” competed as an original script at most other awards events. The original script for “Anatomy of a Fall” won the sole screenwriting Golden Globe, and then “American Fiction” and “Barbie” took Adapted and Original Screenplay, respectively, at the Critics Choice Awards. We won’t get Writers Guild winners until after the Oscars this year, so those won’t help us narrow things down.

In such a divided field, extra sentiment for Gerwig could be enough to push her over the top. Do you think her Best Director snub will indeed lead to big wins for the film elsewhere?

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