The Academy award nominations on Tuesday contained, among the plethora of announcements, intriguing evidence of the strength of familial connections underpinning major Oscar bids, with a number of the 10 films nominated for best picture containing both members of high profile relationships, working together on the same film. Barbie, the doll-inspired blockbuster that, to the chagrin of many including Ryan Gosling, appeared to be snubbed in the best actress and best director categories, even contains two of them. Star Margot Robbie and husband Tom Ackerley are co-founders of LuckyChap Entertainment, the company that produced the film, while director Greta Gerwig is up for best adapted screenplay alongside her husband Noah Baumbach.
The 2024 Oscar crop appears to have been particularly favourable to these kind of partnerships: the director-producer team behind best picture nominee Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas, are also married, while Anatomy of a Fall director Justine Triet is up for a best original screenplay Oscar along with Arthur Hariri, with whom she is in a long-term relationship and has two children. Elsewhere on the list is May December writer Samy Burch, who shares a “story by” credit with husband Alex Mechanik, and Napoleon Dynamite director Jared Hess, who has co-directed and co-written best animated short film nominee Ninety Five Senses with wife Jerusha.
