The Oscars are almost here and considering that some of the biggest box office champions of 2023 are nominated for major awards, this could be an Oscars telecast that people actually watch. Jimmy Kimmel is returning to host and he brought together the Barbie cast to film a significant promo for the show, which has apparently upset some people who feel he’s playing favorites.
Speaking with Deadline, it’s mentioned that some other contenders for Best Picture are upset that Kimmel filmed a promo with the cast of Barbie, and not all of the other nominees. The late-night host says nobody has spoken to him directly about that, but he’s aware there are some hard feelings, that "one of the joys of hosting" is hearing what everybody thinks. There seems to be fear from some that Kimmel could have actually swayed Oscar voting, but he doesn’t buy that argument, saying…
Yeah. I heard that (complaint) too. I haven’t heard that, specifically, from anyone, but you know, if a promo is going to tip the scales, as far as voting, for best picture, then I don’t know, maybe people’s convictions should be a little bit stronger, you know? I don’t really think that that’s going to have any impact on who people actually vote for, but people do like to complain. And that is one of the joys of hosting the Oscars is you get to hear from all manner of everyone, inserting their own agendas, and complaining about this and that, and why isn’t there more of this, why isn’t there enough of that? And you know, I feel for the producers of the show because they have to deal with all that.
Kimmel is almost certainly correct here. If filming a promo with the cast of the biggest box office hit of 2023 is going to convince somebody to vote for the movie who wouldn’t have otherwise done so, then that’s probably an issue with the voter, not Jimmy Kimmel. It’s understandable that other 2024 Oscar nominees might be jealous that Barbie got this opportunity when the other nominees did not, but it’s hard to imagine an Oppenheimer promo that would work in the same way. Check out the offending video below.
The use of Barbie for this rather than another film is, of course, an attempt to draw in the Barbie audience to watch the Academy Awards. The viewership of the annual Oscar show has been struggling for years and one of the main reasons that’s the case is believed to be the fact that most movies nominated for Oscars are not the movies audiences go see, so most casual fans don't care. Barbie is a rare exception of a widely seen crowd-pleaser that has been nominated, so promoting its Oscar chances is good for the show.
While some feel Barbie got snubbed out of a couple of nominations it should have received, the movie has a solid chance of having a big Oscar night. We’ll find out when the Oscars take place this Sunday.
