Yes, let’s start with the elephant in the room: what happened to Greta Gerwig? The director who stopped the world in 2023 with Barbie fever, breaking box office records, transforming bubblegum pink into fashion again, and, was praised by journalists as a genius, was one of the winners announced at the 2024 Golden Globes Awards. However, it fell out of her hands (almost) wagging, in a painful refusal to follow. I felt like I was part of the Mean Girls reality show with Regina George as the scriptwriter.

Barbie and Oppenheimer were phenomena in 2023, practically simultaneously released and arousing equal passion among moviegoers. However, Barbie was more because she created a worldwide cultural movement and the fact that, at the Golden Globes, Comedy and Drama are considered distinct arts, there was a chance of it being a Barbieheimer night: the two biggest with the biggest recognitions. Nobody expected that among the TV categories, we would have other winners than Succession and The Bear, just as Oppenheimer won (almost) all the prestigious categories for which he was nominated, why not Barbie? Furthermore, why not Greta Gerwig?

Greta wrote and directed a pamphlet film that redefined a doll over 60 years old as a symbol of patriarchy: an impossible female body, latent racism (the original was blonde with blue eyes), and unhealthy materialism: anyone who had Barbie wanted a car Barbie, Barbie house, Barbie clothes, and shoes so you can play with her. And yes, a Ken as a boyfriend on duty. The director reversed all of this with current questions, and unusual situations and removed the shame of many women and girls from still liking Barbie. I didn’t enjoy the film, in the sense that it didn’t take my breath away, but it’s an achievement that deserved recognition from its peers even more than from the public that made Barbie a historic film. I’m going to launch the superstition: don’t call Ryan Gosling to your cast. After La, La Land, the rejection of Barbie is his presence in the group. The chewing gum while laughing at the situation on stage is getting too frequent to take it off his shoulders.

Now on a more serious note. If Barbie had lost to a male screenwriter or a film about and with men, we know the answer. The fact that he lost to a woman, the French director – Justine Triet – who wrote a dramatic comedy about a woman who is forced to face the accusation of having murdered her husband, is complex to criticize. In other words, the journalists who cover entertainment didn’t specifically think that Greta’s work was the best of 2023. The providential creation of the Box Office Award was the consolation of the night, but it belongs to the work’s producer, Margot Robbie, and Greta only got to speak a few words in the actress’s ride. Maybe after so much rejection, the stage was the last place she wanted to be…

The two significant victories of Anatomy of a Fall, in the week in which the votes for the SAG and the Oscar are still to be announced, could change the preferences in the awards, although Greta Gerwig is assured of being nominated among all parties. The expectation of victory, however, was reduced dramatically after the Golden Globes. The final answer will be at the SAG Awards.

What hasn’t changed at all in the awards is the eternal dispute between popularity and Art, not always combined unanimously in a single work. In fact, in general, it seems that one cancels out the other. In particular, in the view of journalists and critics, Golden Globes voters. I didn’t see any injustice in any of the night’s winners, even though I was wrong in some guesses. I’ll talk about the party separately.

About Greta? She’ll be fine. The answer for those who ignored her lies in the billions she generated with Barbie and the potential she has to be creative again in her next work. And may she have learned casting lesson number 1… just letting you know!

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