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This will be quick.
Warner Brothers
A lot of ink, electrons, and noise has been spilled over the fact the fact that Barbie was nominated for ‘Best Picture’ by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences but its director Great Gerwig did not receive a nomination for Best Director. Some have suggested that this is misogyny which sorts of proves the theme of the film, some have advanced the idea that as a comedy the films struggles against a bias, but that doesn’t seem to explain no Best Director but still getting Best Picture. Yesterday I heard an interesting theory.
Best Director is a nomination that is determined by directors not the Academy at large and the suggestion is that directors really dislike it when actor come along and ‘usurp’ the director’s chair. The person advancing the idea presented as evidence that Ben Affleck was not nominated as director for Argo despite the film being nominated and winning Best Picture, nor was Bradley Cooper nominated for his direction even though A Star is Born was nominated for Best Picture.
Of course, with ten nominations open for Best Picture but only five for Best Director it is a given that each award cycle is going to have films nominated for the top prize without their directors being recognized. Was it bias against women, against comedy, against actors, or perhaps no bias at all that kept Greta Gerwig off the nomination list? We will never know, and people will believe the explanation that in all likelihood conforms to their already held beliefs.
I do think that part of the issue is that there are ten nominations for best picture but only five for best director. I have never understood why Hollywood opened the number running for best picture to 10.
I have another theory: The directing and acting of the directors and actresses in the other films nominated in their categories was just better. To judge that someone should have been nominated in a category, one really must see all of the contenders.
I LOVED “Master and Commander” and I still consider it a great film. It won almost no awards because it came out the same year as “Return of the King.”
I will also point out, that if people think comedies have a tough time winning awards, they should look at fantasy and Science-Fiction films – which rarely win any awards that aren’t technical awards. (“Return of the King” being an exception – and STILL garnering no acting award wins!)