Here's what Jimmy Kimmel said about Barbie being snubbed at the Oscars

The 2024 Oscars, hosted this year by Jimmy Kimmel are underway! Ahead of the award show airing on March 10, one of the biggest stories surrounding the star-studded night was the fact that Barbie director Greta Gerwig had been snubbed for a Best Director nomination.

Despite the fact that the film, which grossed over a billion dollars worldwide at the box office, received several nominations at the 96th Annual Academy Awards, Greta Gerwig was notably left off the nominations for Best Director. The film was nominated for a host of other awards, including Best Picture, Best Original Song for "I'm Just Ken" and "What Was I Made For?", Best Supporting Actor, and others, Greta Gerwig was left out.

When he made his opening monologue at the award show, Jimmy Kimmel didn't leave out the fact that Gerwig had been snubbed in a move that many people criticized the Academy for.

"Barbie was a monster hit. What a thing, what an achievement. To take a plastic doll nobody even liked anymore... Now Barbie's a feminist icon thanks to Greta Gerwig, who many believe deserved to be nominated for Best Director," Kimmel said in his opening monologue. But, recognizing the fact that many people believed that Gerwig should've been up for an award for her work wasn't where his joke stopped.

He told the crowd to "hold on a second" before he continued by directly addressing the Academy with the last part of his joke: "I know you're clapping but you're the ones who didn't vote for her by the way. Don't act like you had nothing to do with this."

In her Woman of the Year interview with TIME, Greta Gerwig said that she wanted for Margot Robbie to receive a Best Actress nomination, but said of the then-upcoming award show, "I'm just happy we all get to be there together."

While Barbie may not have had its director up for Best Director at the 96th Academy Awards tonight, the movies that did have their directors' nominated for the award are Anatomy of a Fall, Killers of the Flower Moon, Oppenheimer, Poor Things, and The Zone of Interest.