By Steven McIntosh, entertainment reporter for the BBC
Margot Robbie and director Greta Gerwig, right, arrive for the world premiere of Barbie at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, on July 9, 2023. Photo: AFP
Barbie star Margot Robbie and director Greta Gerwig have missed out on being nominated for some major Oscar prizes.
Gerwig missed out on the best director category, but a nomination for Anatomy of a Fall's Justine Triet meant the line-up was not entirely male.
Despite her snub, Gerwig became the first woman to have directed three best picture nominated films.
This year also marks the first time three films nominated for best picture were directed by women.
However, as Barbie was the highest-grossing film of 2023, taking $US1.44 billion ($NZ2.3b) worldwide, many expected Gerwig and Robbie to show up in their respective categories.
Robbie missed out on a best actress nod, but her co-star America Ferrera scored a surprise supporting nod.
Ryan Gosling was nominated for best supporting actor, while two tracks from the film's soundtrack were nominated for best original song.
Although Gerwig and Robbie missed out on best director and best actress, Robbie is nominated as a producer in the best picture line-up, and Gerwig for best adapted screenplay.
Cillian Murphy accepts the award for best actor in a motion picture drama for Oppenheimer at the 81st Golden Globe Awards held in Los Angeles on 7 January, 2024. Photo: AFP/ Golden Globes - Rich Polk
Oppenheimer leads the field at this year's Academy Awards overall, with 13 nominations.
Christopher Nolan's three-hour epic about theoretical physicist J Robert Oppenheimer was acclaimed by critics and a huge success at the box office.
Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt and Robert Downey Jr were nominated for acting prizes, and Nolan for best director.
Poor Things, Killers of the Flower Moon, Barbie and Maestro are among the other nominations this year.
Jimmy Kimmel will host the Oscars ceremony from Los Angeles on 10 March.
The top nominees:
- 13 nominations - Oppenheimer
- 11 - Poor Things
- 10 - Killers of the Flower Moon
- 8 - Barbie
- 7 - Maestro
- 5 - American Fiction, Anatomy of a Fall, The Holdovers, The Zone of Interest
For the first time in Oscar history, three of the best picture nominees were directed by women: Past Lives (directed by Celine Song), Barbie (Gerwig) and Anatomy of a Fall (Triet).
With Barbie's nomination for the top prize, Gerwig becomes the first female to have directed three best picture nominees - Little Women, Lady Bird and Barbie.
The nominations also saw Killers of the Flower Moon star Lily Gladstone became the first ever Native American actress to be recognised, while Jodie Foster received her first nomination in nearly three decades for Nyad.
Her co-star Robert De Niro broke the record of longest tune between first and most recent Oscar nominations - 49 years overtaking Katharine Hepburn's previous record of 48.
The Zone of Interest's nomination in best international feature marks the UK's first appearance in the category in 24 years.
Half of this year's acting nominees are nominated for the first time.
Snubs and surprises
In the leading actress category, there was recognition for Nyad star Annette Bening - whose nomination had been seen as an outside bet.
One of the biggest surprises in the acting categories was America Ferrera being nominated for her supporting performance in Barbie.
She was in the outer lane but her monologue in the film about what it means to be a woman clearly connected with Academy voters.
May December struggled - receiving one nomination for original screenplay but missing out on acting nominations for its stars Julianne Moore, Charles Melton and Natalie Portman.
And there were no nominations whatsoever for All of Us Strangers or Saltburn, despite their strong performance at the Bafta nominations last week.
Far less surprising, but still notable, were Leonardo DiCaprio's absence from best actor for his role in Killers of the Flower Moon, and Poor Things star Willem DaFoe's miss in best supporting actor.
Leonardo DiCaprio has missed out in the best actor category. Photo: AFP
Martin Scorsese secured his 10th nod for Killers of the Flower Moon, a record for a living director. But he has only won the award once, for 2007's The Departed.
Meanwhile, 91-year-old composer John Williams achieved his 54th nomination for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. He is the second most-nominated person in Oscar history after Walt Disney, but has said the film will be his last major work.
This story was first published by the BBC.