The year of 'Barbenheimer' comes to an end

This Sunday's Oscars close a long journey that began on July 21, 2023. That day,

Oppenheimer

and

Barbie

premiered in the United States, launching a cultural phenomenon known as

Barbenheimer

.

Seven months later, it can be said that Mattel's doll movie has won the battle at the box office, grossing $1.45 billion worldwide.

On the other hand, the

biopic

of the father of the atomic bomb, barring any surprise, aspires to be crowned on the big night of the industry after its triumphant passage through the Golden Globes, the Critics Choice and the BAFTAs.

The 96th edition of the Oscars seems to be the one of the big productions.

The film about J. Robert Oppenheimer, nominated in 13 categories, reduces an ambitious biography that required 25 years of research and 50,000 documents to three hours.

Thanks to the vision of its director, Christopher Nolan, who seems to be on the verge of winning his first statuette, the film became a phenomenon close to a billion dollars at the box office.

Barbie

, on the other hand, despite her many millions and her immense social and cultural impact, will go more unnoticed at the awards.

He is up for eight statuettes, two of them for best song, which it seems he will win thanks to

What Was I Made For?

, by Billie Eilish, which is close to her second Oscar at only 22 years old.

I'm just Ken

, performed on stage by Ryan Gosling, will be one of the great shows of the night.

More information

All the nominees for the 2024 Oscar Awards

Some 19 million Americans tuned in on television last year to watch the Academy modernize itself by handing out seven awards for

Everything at Once Everywhere,

an independent film that resonated with the young people who came to the room.

The producers of the ceremony want to keep the honeymoon with the audience.

The show, hosted again by Jimmy Kimmel, presenter of the ABC network, in the Dolby theater, will begin this year an hour earlier than usual, at 4:00 p.m. local time (00:00 on Monday in Spanish peninsular time).

Fans taking a selfie in front of one of the statues on Hollywood Boulevard, on Friday, March 8 in Los Angeles.Sarah Meyssonnier (REUTERS/)

The schedule adjustment will make it easier for the followers of Juan Antonio Bayona and Pablo Berger, who aspire to surprise in the categories of best international film and in the makeup and hairdressing category for

The Snow Society

and best animated film for

Robot Dreams

, respectively, find out the result live.

Especially the latter, because although the order of awarding the awards has not yet been announced, Berger himself told this newspaper on Friday that he believes that his candidacy will be one of the first to be known.

This way the nerves pass sooner.

In France there will also be a sleepless night.

Anatomy of a Fall

, a film that became a phenomenon in theaters and in the Oscar campaign thanks, among others, to the charismatic dog Messi, appears in five sections, including Best Picture.

Its director, Justine Triet, could become the fourth woman to win a statue as a director.

The night will also be followed closely in Latin America.

The director of photography Rodrigo Prieto, of

The Assassins of the Moon,

by Martin Scorsese and nominated in 10 categories

,

aspires to become the fourth Mexican with an Oscar in that category along with Guillermo Navarro, Emmanuel Lubezki and Alfonso Cuarón.

El Conde

, by Pablo Larraín, is up for a statuette for best photography, while his Chilean colleague Maite Alberdi competes with

La memoria infinite

in best documentary feature film, a category where all the nominees are non-American, including the big favorite,

20 days. in Mariupol

, about the Russian siege of the Ukrainian city.

If its director, the reporter Mstyslav Chernov, goes up to collect the award, we will be facing one of the most serious and vindictive moments of the night.

Some not so white awards...

This is the first gala where the Academy presents the awards under new rules to promote diversity, adopted in 2020 after the #OscarsSoWhite controversy of 2015 and 2016, when all 20 nominees in the acting category were white. .

The films that aspire to win the most important statuette of the evening had to meet at least two of these criteria: that they have at least one protagonist who is not white and that 30% of the supporting roles are played by women, minorities, members of the collective LGTBQ or people with different abilities.

Or that the plot is about one of these groups.

Minority activists say these guidelines are too easy to comply with.

They qualified 265 films out of 321 that were presented to the Academy.

Many believe that the problem of inclusion in Hollywood will not be corrected until studio executives come from more diverse backgrounds.

However, the 96th edition of the awards may leave us with the first Native American to win an acting award.

Lily Gladstone, nominated for

The Moon Killers,

(if Emma Stone and her brilliant performance in Poor Creatures allows it).

Gladstone

He leads a diverse generation in which there are seven of 20 nominated actors who are not Caucasian

.

Another favorite is the African-American Da'vine Joy Randolph, for her role in

Alexander Payne's

Those Who Remain

.

Montage of part of the Oscars red carpet on Friday morning in Los Angeles.Mike Blake (REUTERS)

It is clear that

Barbie

complies with these rules, despite the fact that the nominations left out its director, Greta Gerwig, which caused some discomfort in the industry.

So does

American Fiction

, where a black writer, played by Jeffrey Wright, invents an alias to satisfy the superficial appetite for plurality of American cultural institutions (a more than ironic nod to these Oscars).

Or

Past Lives

, a love story starring a Korean American.

The American press has wondered these days if

Oppenheimer

really complies with this set of new rules.

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