Life is fantastic for Greta Gerwig, even without that statue.
The Barbie director spoke out for the first time since the Academy did not nominate her for the Best Directing award at the 2024 Oscars. (Instead, the organization recognized Justine Triet for Anatomy of a Fall, Martin Scorsese for Killers of the Flower Moon, Christopher Nolan for Oppenheimer, Yorgos Lanthimos for Poor Things and Jonathan Glazer for The Zone of Interest.)
Gerwig's inner circle quickly noticed the omission, as she told TIME for an article published Feb. 21, "A friend's mom said to me, ‘I can't believe you didn't get nominated.'"
But the Little Women alum is choosing to focus on the positive, including Barbie's nomination for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay for her and husband Noah Baumbach.
"I said, ‘But I did. I got an Oscar nomination,'" Gerwig recalled telling her acquaintance. "She was like, ‘Oh, that's wonderful for you!' I was like, ‘I know!'"
However, the 40-year-old acknowledged there could have been more love for Barbie, considering star Margot Robbie also failed to get a nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role.
"Of course I wanted it for Margot," Gerwig noted. "But I'm just happy we all get to be there together."
It's a sentiment that Robbie also expressed when reflecting on her Oscars snub, sharing at a SAG screening on Jan. 30, "There's no way to feel sad when you know you're this blessed."
"Obviously I think Greta should be nominated as a director," the actress continued, "because what she did is a once-in-a-career, once-in-a-lifetime thing, what she pulled off, it really is."
Take a look at more Oscars snubs and surprises before the show airs March 10:
SNUB: Greta Gerwig & Margot Robbie
Despite Barbie being one of the year's most successful films, two of its most important players did not find themselves among this year's Oscars hopefuls.
Director Greta Gerwig and actress Margot Robbie were not nominated in either the Best Director or Leading Actress, despite both having earned nods at the Golden Globes in the equivalent categories.
Barbie is nominated for Best Picture (which includes Margot as a Producer), and Greta and her husband and writing partner Noah Baumbach were nominated in the Adapted Screenplay category.
FUN SURPRISE: Couples
There were a total of four couples nominated together across the categories this year: Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach in the Adapted Screenplay category for Barbie, Justine Triet and Arthur Harari for Anatomy of a Fall's Best Original Screenplay, and couple Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas are nominated alongside Margot Robbie and her husband Tom Ackerly in Best Picture, for Oppenheimer and Barbie respectively.
SNUB: May December
May December only earned a nomination in the Best Original Screenplay category, leaving lead actors NataliePortman, Julianne Moore and Charles Melton unrecognized.
SNUB: Charles Melton
Unfortunately, despite general critical acclaim for his work in May December, Charles Melton has been left off the list for Best Supporting Actor—dashing our hopes and dreams of the Riverdale-to-Academy-Award-Winner pipeline coming to fruition this year and earning the actor a personal snub designation.
SURPRISE: Nyad
Netflix's Nyad tells the biographical story of Diana Nyad's journey to be the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida. Though the film has relatively flown under the radar, it earned deserved nominations for its two female leads: Annette Bening in the Best Actress category for her work as Diana, and Jodie Foster in Best Supporting Actress for her role as Bonnie Stoll.
SNUB: Past Lives
In what became one of the fan-favorites of the year, Past Lives only earned two nominations for the 2024 Oscars.
Though up for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, Greta Lee and director Celine Song did not earn individual nods for their work despite both being nominated at the Golden Globes.
GOOD SURPRISE: Female Directors
This is the first year in which three of the Best Picture nominees were directed by women: Greta Gerwig's Barbie, Celine Song's Past Lives and Justine Triet's Anatomy of a Fall.
Unfortuantely, only Justine also earned a nomination in the Best Director category.
SNUB: Leonardo DiCaprio
Leo missed out on a Lead Actor nomination for his work in Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon.
The film did earn a number of nods, including in the Best Picture and Director categories. Robert De Niro was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, while Lily Gladstone received a much-deserved nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role—it is also a historic one, making Lily the first Native American actress to be nominated in the category.
SNUB: Fantasia Barrino
The American Idol alum was left off the Leading Actress nominations for her work as Celie in The Color Purple—a role which she also played in the Broadway adaptation—despite previous Oscar buzz.