The Academy Awards announced its nominations on Jan. 23, and there are some obvious selections, but some surprise ones as well. However, out of all the nominations, the ones surrounding the movie “Barbie” are the most fascinating.

“Barbie”’s nominations highlight one major problem with the Oscars in general: it only feature big-budget movies with favored actors and actresses or directors. A lot of foreign movies like “Godzilla: Minus One” deserve to get nominated in more categories, but since they don’t have big names attached to it, they don’t get the recognition they deserve. The only category that is usually inclusive are the animation ones, but there are only a handful of those.

While I do agree that big movies like “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” deserve to get nominated, lower-budget and foreign film should also get recognized. Nominations should be taken as more selective, and not just adding movies and actors in because they’re recognizable.

While “Barbie” was definitely not one of my favorite movies of this year, if it’s going to get nominated at the Oscars, they needed to do the right nominations. The biggest problem with “Barbie”’s nominations is Margot Robbie not getting one. While the chances of her winning the Best Actress award were slim, she should’ve at least gotten a nomination, especially since Ryan Gosling and America Ferrera both got nominations for the film. She definitely did a way better job than America Ferrera, and Ferrera got a nomination.

Similar to Margot Robbie, Greta Gerwig also did not get a Best Director nomination. While, again, I would be surprised if she won, she definitely deserved a nomination. She poured so much effort into making that movie and her vision come alive, and she definitely deserved recognition for that.

I will be surprised if “Barbie” wins any of the categories, but movies and actors/actresses nominations are still super important, and it says a lot about the Oscars on who they nominate and don’t. Margot Robbie or Greta Gerwig not getting a nomination sends a message on what the Oscars really is: rigged.

However, this year’s Oscars don’t have that many problems, rather a couple big ones. The nominations with “Barbie” are more ironic rather than irritating, because it mirrors the plot of the movie, since it’s a movie about being overlooked. Despite my personal problems, I will be excited to watch the Oscars this year and see who wins.