I've always been fascinated by Hollywood and cinema. Going to the movies is one of my favourite things to do, and I sometimes even go alone (I swear it's not as sad as it sounds).

Each year I have a list of my most anticipated movies to be released over the next 12 months and reading reviews of movies I'm excited about seeing is a common occurrence.

All of the other movie buffs out there would be aware that it's currently awards season. The Golden Globes, Critics Choice Awards and the Emmys are just some of the big award shows I've been eagerly watching over the past few weeks.

My fellow Port Macquarie News and Macleay Argus colleague Emily Walker is just as passionate about movies and TV shows as I am. We even had a competition to guess who we thought would take out all of the big wins at the Golden Globes.

It's no doubt that the biggest award show for cinema is the Oscars. The nominations for the 96^th Academy Awards were released earlier this week and there were some interesting choices which saw one of the biggest movies of 2023 snubbed in quite a few categories.

I wrote an opinion piece last year about how Oppenheimer and Barbie brought crowds in the hundreds back to our local cinemas.

Well, Barbie went on to become the highest-grossing movie directed solely by a woman and was the highest grossing film of last year.

And while it did receive nominations for eight Academy Awards this year, director Greta Gerwig and Australian actress Margot Robbie, who played the titular character of Barbie, were snubbed from the Best Director and Best Actress categories. (They have both been nominated in these respective categories at previous award shows.)

To rub more salt into the wound, actor Ryan Gosling, who portrayed Ken in the film, has been nominated for Best Supporting Actor.

While I think this nomination is deserved, it looks like the Academy took a page out of Ken's book in regards to who gets nominated for the biggest film of last year... and it's not the women who created it.

I won't spoil the movie for those who haven't had the chance to see it yet, but the plot of Barbie is about a lot more than just a doll. The movie started conversations about how women feel silenced and the unrealistic expectations we experience from girlhood.

All of the women I have spoken to who have seen the film resonate with its main message and what it says about our society, unfortunately.

The Academy snubbing the women who created this movie proves that Hollywood, and our society, still has a long way to go.

I'm not surprised, but I am disappointed.

Ruby Pascoe

Senior Journalist