Greta Gerwig’s Feminist Fable Barbie Scores Most Nominations at the Golden Globe

In Martin Scorsese’s KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, Mollie Burkhart, a member of the Osage Nation, tries to save her community from a spree of murders fuelled by oil and greed.

LOS ANGELES — The nominations for the 81st Golden Globe Awards are out, and Barbie and Oppenheimer are leading with nine and eight nominations respectively. Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, together known as ‘Barbenheimer’ among fans, were the film industry’s highlight this year. 

Barbie, although made by the brand for the brand, has been acclaimed for its funny, smart take on patriarchy and capitalism through the world of the plastic doll. Oppenheimer is a surreal saga about the ‘father of the atomic bomb’. Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone Of Interest, nominated for best non-English language film, puts into sharp focus the other side of WWII—the banality of Nazism in Auschwitz. Both films portray the evil of the war and violence without showing it directly. 

Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon follows with seven nominations. Named best picture by the National Board of Review, the film, a crime-thriller about the genocide of the Osage community for land-grab in the 1920s, has created an Oscar buzz. 

Io Capitano, also nominated for best non-English language film, puts a human face to the crisis of migration. Matteo Garrone’s film, inspired by true events, begins in Senegal and follows the protagonist to Italy’s shores.

George C Wolfe’s Rustin and Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple are both nominated for the Best Performance award. While the former is the story of Bayard Rustin, an often unsung Black queer man who fought alongside Martin Luther King, the latter based on Alice Walker’s powerful novel is a tale of a Black woman who survives incredible abuse and violence.

The Golden Globe Awards are scheduled to take place on January 7 in Los Angeles. After facing flak for lack of diversity, it has vastly expanded its voting body to 300 members.

In OPPENHEIMER, a film by Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer and a team of scientists spend years developing and designing the atomic bomb until they witness the world's first nuclear explosion, forever changing the course of history.

In THE ZONE OF INTEREST, a film by Jonathan Glazer, a Nazi commandant tries to build a dream life for his family near the Auschwitz concentration camp.

IO CAPITANO by Matteo Garrone, follows Seydou's and Moussa's migration from Dakar, Senegal, to Europe.