As I said on Twitter yesterday, I was still reeling hours after the Oscar nominations came out. I expected many of the snubs – Andrew Scott really wasn’t a huge Best Actor contender, no one put any serious money behind Dominic Sessa, and it was clear from SAG’s May December snubs that the actors’ branch of the Academy felt that film hit too close to home. But the snubs for Margot Robbie in Best Actress and Greta Gerwig in Best Director are truly shocking. Those two snubs and the backlash to the Academy’s decision-making have become a pretty big pop culture story. Average people who don’t even pay attention to the awards season are reacting to the sexism of it all. Worse yet, the toxic right-wingers are declaring victory because of the snubs.
There are always Oscar snubs. But this one is striking the media as particularly egregious: Greta Gerwig wasn’t nominated for best director for Barbie — a film that was not only the biggest hit of the year and helped to bring moviegoers back to cinema with the success of “Barbenheimer,” but was also nominated for best picture and, by any measure, was a very tricky project to pull off. In addition, Barbie star Margot Robbie was snubbed for best actress, while Ryan Gosling and America Ferrera were nominated for supporting. People have thoughts.
“Both Gerwig and Robbie ignored … it’s still so easy for Hollywood to overlook and discount artistic contributions of women — EVEN WHEN ITS THE POINT OF THE YEAR’S BIGGEST MOVIE!” wrote MSNBC host Jennifer Palmieri. “My God. It was nominated for best picture. Didn’t direct itself, friends!”
“The joke I made to my wife walking out of BARBIE: ‘Watch Gosling get nominated and Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie get shut out’ … just happened,” wrote sports host Joey Wright. “The Academy needs a REAL man in the mirror moment because the whole idea and premise of Barbie completely flew over their heads.”
“Greta Gerwig’s omission is crazily wrong,” wrote author Kurt Andersen. “Could’ve easily been in place of Scorsese, nominated for a film that isn’t even one of his own ten best.”
“Greta Gerwig snubbed for Best Director?” wrote TV host Julie Stewart-Binks. “How is this even possible? Margot Robbie not nominated, but Ryan Gosling is? Did anyone even understand the plot of the highest grossing movie of all-time?”
“After Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie made a film about patriarchy that generated a billion dollars for Hollywood, the man in the film got nominated for a major award and I’m honestly not sure what I expected,” wrote columnist Brandon Friedman.
While some right wingers seemed to celebrate the snubs. U.K. columnist Eilis O’Hanlon wrote, “That Ryan Gosling was nominated for #BarbieMovie at the Oscars, but not Margot Robbie, actually confirms what many people who watched the film spotted at the time — the film is really about Ken, it’s his story. Blame Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach for it, not the Academy!” And British podcaster Connor Tomlinson wrote, “Kenergy claims its final victory over Feminism.”
Gerwig was also nominated for best adapted screenplay with co-writer Noah Baumbach, though that’s received criticism, too. Many felt the Barbie script should be categorized as an original screenplay, as Barbie is “adapted” only so much as, yes, the dolls exist.
I haven’t even waded into the “adapted screenplay” discourse, but yes, that’s asinine too – they’re treating Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach’s completely original, needle-threading, Feminism 101 script like it was “adapted” from other material because… dolls. Seriously!! As for the backlash… yeah, I see some contrarians smugly declare that Gerwig and Robbie “didn’t deserve” nominations or that “Barbie wasn’t even good” or that this is all some kind of white-feminist discourse. Yes, Gerwig and Robbie are white and yes, several artists of color were also snubbed. But if you can’t see how utterly misogynistic and close-minded these snubs are, I can’t help you. It speaks to the larger issues with AMPAS voters – instead of playing a game of whataboutism, try “yes and.” Yes, Oscars So White AND Oscars So Sexist.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images, Warner Bros/Barbie.
-
- LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – JULY 09: Director/Writer/EP Greta Gerwig attends the World Premiere of “Barbie” at the Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall on July 09, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.,Image: 788399692, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Greta Gerwig, Credit line: Jeffrey Mayer / Avalon
-
- Greta Gerwig attends ‘ Barbie ‘ – European Premiere at Cineworld Leicester Square in London, UK. Monday 12th July 2023. -,Image: 788877457, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NORESTRICTIONS, Model Release: no, Pictured: ‘ Barbie ‘ – European Premiere, Credit line: James Warren / Bang Showbiz / Avalon
-
- Sydney, AUSTRALIA – Australian pink carpet premiere of the Barbie movie in Sydney. Pictured: Greta Gerwig, Issa Rae, Margot Robbie, America Ferrera BACKGRID USA 30 JUNE 2023 BYLINE MUST READ: Marc Skinner / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
-
- ‘Barbie’ photocall at the Four Seasons Hotel. Featuring: Margot Robbie Where: Mexico City, Mexico When: 07 Jul 2023 Credit: Carlos Tischler/EyePix/INSTARimages
-
- European premiere of ‘Barbie’ at Cineworld Leicester Square in London. Featuring: Margot Robbie Where: London, United Kingdom When: 12 Jul 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
-
- Photocall for ‘Barbie’ after the premiere at Cineworld Leicester Square in London. Featuring: America Ferrera, Simu Liu, Margot Robbie, Issa Rae, Ryan Gosling and Greta Gerwig Where: London, United Kingdom When: 12 Jul 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
These two white women will be FINE. Greta will make another movie with her husband, probably about how they’re both cheating homewreckers, and Margot will make another movie with a male abuser that she’ll gush over, and they’ll get nominated again. They’ll be fine.
Can’t be nominated again if you weren’t nominated.
Greta’s been nominated three times before. Margot has been nominated twice.
As KASalvy said, BOTH OF THEM ARE ALREADY MULTI-TIME OSCAR NOMINEES. This wasn’t some big breakout year for them. Margot usually gets nominated for showing up and looking pretty so this was actually a nice change of pace.
Of course they’ll be fine. It’s not like an actual tragedy for them. It’s more like a gauge of where the academy is and what its demographics are and a microcosm of how those demographics play out in society. These nomination snubs only serve to prove the point the movie was trying to make imo.
This is my take as well. They’ll be fine, we’ll all be fine. But it *is* illustrative of a broader issue. To echo a quote in the piece, the movie that was nominated for Best Picture didnt direct itself.
@Slush I mentioned this below, but there are only 5 slots for best director nominees, there are 10 for best picture. So if 10 films are nominated, only half of those will have their directors nominated as well. It’s not just Greta Gerwig who did not get nominated for best director but had a movie nominated for BP.
Great point, Becks!
Delphine: Agree
I’m with you.
The outrage over the non-nominations is so over the top. Greta may have been snubbed, but I can’t say the same for Margot. The same people who scream about Margot deserving a nom get really quiet when you ask them which one of the other WOMEN in her category she should have been nominated over.
And Barbie is 100% an adapted screenplay. There is SO much material they were able to work with. Never mind that they didn’t have to worry about introducing the movies’ main characters to the audience.
The Academy proved the point of the message in the movie Barbie THAT is the outrage. The biggest movie of 2023 had a message about misogyny in society and the Academy embraced that misogyny. Of course Greta and Margo will be fine but their work on that movie should have been acknowledged instead of discounted. It’s okay cause they are white? wtf?
I think Ryan Gosling’s message said it perfectly.
Vanity Fair said it even better:
“It’s the Oscar snub so egregious even the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation felt compelled to weigh in: “Hypothetically, if I was going to nominate a film about a badger, starring a badger, called Badger, for best picture…I would also nominate the badger, right?”
I think the comment from Vanity Fair says it all!
If we are really being honest Margot Robbie did not give a performance deserving of an Oscar. Greta maybe should have gotten the nomination but she’s been nominated so many times.
However Ryan Gosling knocked it out of the park and so did America. The nominations were fine. Ryan should have already won an Oscar for Lars and the Real Girl.
I really don’t think America deserved a nomination.
Yeah, Greta and Margot are gonna be fine. They white women, period.
Nomination and wins for Black people leads to have more power and control over projects because those nominations and wins will show they ain’t playing.
I just find it interesting this contortion about it and America Ferrera got a nomination and the energy is around two white women and not her getting the nom. Interesting indeed.
Tiffany it isn’t interesting at all. I’m Black and I’m puzzled how America gets nominated but NOT the director or the lead actress – who IMO had a much harder job than America did. To be like “well they’re white so whatever” is frankly just short-sighted thinking because the SAME old white men who refuse to vote to nominate Greta and Margot are the same old white men who refuse to nominate Black directors, actors, writers, etc.
100% agree with you @ameerah M
“And that is a you problem” just made me cackle. Get ’em Tiffany. LOL
I get what you’re saying. I’m happy for America (fellow Latina here, woot woot!), but also think that Greta and Margot were snubbed. It does clearly highlight the plot of the movie, which people STILL aren’t getting. And like Kaiser said (and I’m paraphrasing), it’s not a sport where only one team “wins”. We can celebrate America and still point out that these (white) women were wronged.
I liked Barbie and like Margot and Greta, but some of the comments about this are peak white feminism. It came to the point an actual journalist from the LA Times downplayed Lily Gladstone’s work and historic nomination to say Margot deserved a nod.
I’m Black. And I agree with a lot of the comments about this. Lily and Margot BOTH deserved a nomination and the journalist who said otherwise is ridiculous and they should leave Lily’s name out of their mouths. The person who shouldn’t have a nomination is Carey Mulligan for that awful Maestro film
I saw that and rolled my eyes so hard. Margot got a nom as a producer which is much more deserved than for acting imo and I agree with the Greta snub. I don’t anyone from the Barbie cast deserved an acting nom tbh. Billie, set production, hair, makeup and wardrobe along with the marketing team hard carried Barbie.
I thought Margot did an exceptional job with all of Barbie’s emotions throughout the film (going from doll to real woman). That was so tricky acting work and she did that.
Agree with all of this. I did like goslings performance though and thought he plus the hair, makeup, costume team carried the movie. But Robbie was much better in that Tonya hardwick movie and I feel like Gerwigs direction was uneven here.
Thank you Kaiser! I saw some comments about Black women and WOC being snubbed and while I agree with all of that these snubs play a part in that as well. Which is that AMPAS and the Academy are still ultimately a white sausage fest. And they don’t want to acknowledge anything outside of that. That they can nominate Barbie as best film but not it’s director – as if the film MAGICALLY directed itself is laughable. And they have done this time and time again with women-led and directed films. Meanwhile Scorsese gets nominated for his white male-centered trauma pron film.
Ameerah M, you’re on fire 🔥 today! And I agree with everything you said in your last two comments. 👏👏👏
hopefully there’s a justice for barbie campaign that leads to an argo type situation.
Yes, just because others were snubbed doesn’t mean these women weren’t snubbed! It’s just egregiously obvious because the film was so huge. The selection process has a lot of problems, we’ve been talking about this for years. This is further evidence of that. They need to get their sh*t together over there if they want to stay relevant.
1000% Correct!
You nailed it, Ameerah!
+1
This is my big bone to pick as well. I didnt see many of the other movies, so idk where Margots performance falls in relation to the rest. But, it is wild to me that Best Picture nomination doesnt warrant Greta a Best Director nomination. Like…..? Make it make sense.
Justice for Barbie. Agree with everything you’ve said Amereach.
This all day.
Every year half the BP nominees don’t get a Best Director nod. It’s been that way since they expanded the BP category. In my opinion the real snub for Best Director was Celine Song but at the same time, I couldn’t tell you who I would take out. There’s no denying that all the Best Director nominees did incredible jobs.
I don’t really care but Ryan getting nominated but Margot and Greta not being nominated is the point of the movie.
Ryan should not have been nominated.
Exactly right. These are just Oscar’s mojo dojo casa nominations. Pfft.
Honestly, it tracks.
Omaiga, these comments are giving today. LOL
Ryan getting a nom over Charles Melton was certainly a choice. I know Charles wouldn’t have won because the Academy doesn’t like to reward young actor so early in their careers but he 100% deserved a nomination.
Charles should have been nominated but Ryan is excellent in the film and was predicted to received a nod all awards season, his nomination probably wasn’t the one that knocked Charles out. The surprise nod was Sterling K Brown’s in American fiction and if we are talking who could have been left off for Melton it should have been Ruffalo who while good in Poor Things does TERRIBLE accent work in the film.
Yep. And sadly, I highly suspected that this would happen.
Sorry no Ryan Gossling gave a brilliant performance and deserved his nomination. IMO Margot and certainly Greta did as well but this idea that Ryan doesn’t deserve is is bullshit.
And yes Charles should have been nominated but that movie was not that good and took some hits when the actual victim of the story came out and said he felt exploited.
Well, the whole “a movie is nominated but not the director” thing is going to continue to happen as long as there are more nominees for Best Picture than director – there are always going to be some that are left out of the director nominees – the Past Lives director wasn’t nominated this year, neither was the Holdovers, etc.
So maybe the logical step is to increase the nominees for best director to better reflect the best picture category.
and yes, Greta and Margot are going to be fine. And honestly, I don’t think either would have won in those categories anyway – not sure about Best Actress, but I feel like picture/director is going to Oppenheimer/Nolan. But I still think they should have been nominated.
I think the outcry would have been less if America wasn’t nominated (who was not as good as Robbie – she just wasnt’ – even if its a different category) and if Gosling wasnt (that just makes the whole thing seem ludicrous……a movie about Barbie and Ken gets the nomination!)
“Well, the whole “a movie is nominated but not the director” thing is going to continue to happen as long as there are more nominees for Best Picture than director…”
And ironically it’s only been like that for about a decade; and they changed it because commentators, journalists and the public were absolutely outraged (outraged!) by the snub of……Christopher Nolan and the billion dollar grossing cultural giant that was The Dark Knight. Yep, Greta was “snubbed” in a very similar fashion to Nolan. (Hey, could bode well for her future!)
The ten film list was meant to allow lighter and more popular fare to get in to Best Picture, but the Academy always favours “serious” (in their eyes) works.
Oscars gonna Oscar folks! 🤷♀️
Personally, for directing, I would say split the category into Best female Director & Best male Director like they do for the Actors? Idk… If they don’t separate for gender and even if they add 5 more slots to “Best Director” and keep it genderless, women will still have trouble getting nominated/winning. Because it’s old Hollywood white guys voting and until they all die off, it won’t change. I really wish the voting system would change for the Academy!
I’m not a fan of “hey did this BP nominee direct itself?”. Sometimes it’s the other way round. Baz Luhrmann got so much sympathy for his Moulin Rouge snub. But he was snubbed for David Lynch’s direction of Mulholland Drive which was the film of the decade.
I wasn’t a big fan of the film (or, historically, Barbies) but the Barbie BP, Eilish song, and craft noms are more than generous for the film. I didn’t find American Ferrara especially deserving but after the CC speech she was a lock.
Hi, Ken!
@Laalaa childish comments like that in response to @yellowy’s thoughtful point are exactly why the Barbie backlash is brewing. There are no winners in that scenario other than the patriarchy.
Haven’t seen Barbie but don’t the Oscar’s usually go to the most dull boring unconnecting movies that most people haven’t heard of before? The snubs are totally on brand for the Oscar’s and people should stop giving a sh!t about them.
I want Gosling to win, and then to stay seated while Margot and Greta go pick up his award and do THEIR speeches.
Yes
That would be awesome.
Why? He earned his nomination and if he wins his award. He deserves to get to give his speech.
I really hate how people are trashing his accomplishment and completely erasing the other female director nominated.
People just aren’t giving credit where credit is due for this movie. I was not expecting Gosling to knock it out of the park as Ken, but he did, and he really deserves this nomination.
thankfully he won’t win and we will be spared this cringe fest. rdj who gave the superior performance will win.
both greta and margot are nominated, they weren’t snubbed at all so this faux outrage is crazy. all the best director nominees directed better movies than greta.
Oohhhh, yes, please!!! While he gives them a standing ovation.
I’m afraid men think playing “dumb” comes “naturally” for women, and therefore isn’t really acting, but a male expressing emotion is a god.
Generations of women have had to downplay their intelligence, value, and self worth simply to survive and protect the welfare of their children. Barbie dolls awakening to their power is an inconvenient truth for the patriarchy. Greta Gerwig’s and Margot Robbie’s snub will backfire and will do more for the cause than if they had been nominated.
That would just be embarrassing
This is getting unhinged!
Yes, Oscars so White and Oscars so sexist. Sadly, when a person, or entity, or what have you, reaches a certain level of hubris, I lose hope that they will ever see the point beyond their own limited scope because, it would seem, they don’t have to when they have some level of power and/or influence. Especially in capitalist society. 🙁
Multiple people of color were nominated, many for the first time ever. And here you are saying this junk. STOP.
@Lily, between these takes and Hillary Clinton’s tweet, I’m genuinely worried that Greta and Margot are being (unwillingly) dragged into Oscar villain territory.
@Lily like this entire conversation is starting to feel like peak yt feminists because so many POC and even BIPOC were nominated this year yet there is outrage that these privileged yt women didn’t get a shot at this particular brass. It doesn’t sit right in my spirit. I had no idea that America’s nomination is actually historic or that an Afro-Latino man also picked up a nom because the headlines want to make this about Barbie. This is not cool.
I think Hollywood is reflective of every major industry in the world, in that they don’t trust women to take charge. Greta and Margot made this movie and are the reason it was such a huge success. But I do find it ironic that the categories that Margot and Greta were nominated, they both share with their husbands.
Anyway I don’t think Barbie is going to win anything anyway, films that are actually fun and enjoyable never do. Instead I think we should be worried that Poor Things is going to clean up. A film that glorifies a child in a woman’s body having sex for the entire film. Emma’s stones character is basically being sexually exploited, and yet the film is passing it off as her being liberated, when she doesn’t even know what sex is? My gawd…
That’s…….what Poor things is about??? oh my……
No, that’s not what Poor Things is about.
@lily, erm yes it is. Instead it’s being promoted as a film about self exploration, I even saw one headline describe it as Emma’s stones ‘sexual adventure’. Children are not supposed to be on sexual adventures. Whilst her character is technically making her own choices, she doesn’t have the mental capacity to make those choices, as she is too young to understand what sex is.
*Sigh* No, it’s not. My goodness, there is a robust groundswell of people who have clearly NOT seen this movie giving misinformed hot takes.
@LTA I have seen this movie actually. So are you saying she doesn’t have the brain of a child in her mothers body and doesn’t have sex throughout the whole film with grown men?
If that isn’t the film, please explain what you think it is actually about?
LTA, I totally agree with you. There is so much more to the movie, including about the growth of her agency and the development into a woman in full control of her body and sexuality. Sad that so many are reducing it to such a simplistic and surface interpretation.
@mimic I studied film and feminism so I am well educated on these subject matters. You say she’s a woman in charge of her sexuality, but she’s a child who doesn’t know what sex is. All she know is that it feels nice having things in her adult lady parts.
The film had so much opportunity for Emma’s character to grow through her interest in exploring the world and at times touched on that. Yet everything always came down to sex. She leaves her creator, to have sex with ruffolo, she leaves ruffolo to become a sex worker. Her freedom and independence comes at a price that is sex. You can see towards the end she’s becoming slightly more uncomfortable with being a sex worker, which implies she’s maturing and starting to understand what’s happening, but it never reaches a conclusion that she fully understands what sex actually is. She should have acknowledged that these men were creeps out to use her body.
You could see the potential in her and how smart she was becoming and her interest in education. The husband coming in at the end felt rushed, so much more could have been made out of her origin story. There’s so much more that could have been explored further to understand Bellas journey, which got pushed aside to make way for all that sexual content.
A baby with a woman’s body who has continual sex. Sounds like a male fantasy. Wait, it is. See the Playboy and Hugh Hefner. Very gross when you think about it.
Margot Robbie was amazing in Barbie both in terms of her performance and especially what she anchored and enabled in her fellow performers and the movie as a whole. She’s so foundational and is the ground that makes the big, insane swings of the plot (errr, talking dolls for starters) even possible. Her work as an actress in this film are 100% responsible for the massive suspension of disbelief you need theater goers to take on to get on this ride to begin with, and it is so subtle. Masterful. She makes it look effortless!
AND…
I think it’s OK that she didn’t get nominated. I would have nominated her, but that doesn’t mean I think she was “snubbed”.
But GRETA LEE?!?!?!?!?!????? OMG, I can’t even. THAT is the biggest acting snub in any of the acting categories, male or female. I think the actors’ guild has come a long way over the last few years in broadening its membership through intentional expansion and attrition. Margot Robbie’s exclusion is a disappointment, but not everyone can get nominated. Greta Lee’s exclusion makes my head explode and indicates (to me) that the actors’ branch of the academy still has a long way to go.
My two (or twenty) cents.
The directors’ branch of the academy is a g.d. JOKE SHOW. No Greta Gerwig?!?!?!?
It’s not like the academy has a history of honoring “popular” cinema. But– unpopular opinion — Barbie was infinitely more “important” than either Oppenheimer or Killers of the Flower Moon. Oppenheimer is a biopic that was always going to be interesting, and any number of directors could have told versions of that story that would be equally (or more, imho) compelling because the premise is both obvious and universally engaging right out of the gate. And Killers of the Flower Moon’s sole value to me was to raise the profile of Lily Gladstone. The event that the film is based on is absolutely important and I would LOVE to see a movie based on it…directed by almost anybody else. Particularly someone with some kind of connection to the First Nations peoples who should have always been the main event of the story. But sure – leave it to Marty Scorcese to take a First Nations story and center it around Robert Deniro and Leo Dicaprio. Sheesh. I’m not blaming him, that’s what he does. But it’s obvious and it’s wholly unoriginal and he could have directed that movie in his sleep — but he’s Marty Scorcese and so all the fan (white) boy directors in the directing branch who hero worship him aren’t physically capable of nominating a woman who directed a movie called “Barbie” over the “great” Scorcese.
Gerwig made a movie that was groundbreaking and original on all fronts — thematically, visually, musically, production wise, story wise, culturally, financially, etc etc etc — FROM SCRATCH. She and Margot Robbie created this entire juggernaut, unlike anything we’ve ever seen before, out of NOTHING!! It’s an ASTOUNDING creative work and quite possibly an auter’s masterpiece. But…???
I mean, I’m not surprised. Because don’t even get me started on Ava DuVernay’s adaptation of Caste being held back for consideration until it was too late for anyone, including audiences, to even SEE her film. I mean, it’s only one of the most IMPORTANT books of our lifetime, I’ve been excited about it ever since I heard Ava was directing it, and yet I didn’t even know it was in contention for *this* year’s oscars until Anjelina Jolie held a private screening and the press picked it up. All of a sudden Origin was everywhere (except in theaters, ahem), but I didn’t hear about it until the week before Oscar nom voting happened. Come ON. This is giving me similar vibes to last year’s The Woman King. Hmmmm…I wonder what could be going on here…
The director’s branch nominated one woman — only the 8th (EIGHTH!?!?!) in history — and she was white. I mean, I guess I’m not surprised. I just would like to see women in film take a cue from Beyonce (of course, a black woman) and stop treating the Oscars like they have any value. The grammy’s…the globes…and the academy…these organisations are taking themselves right out of the culture when they could be leading. I say stop showing up to their awards shows, stop thanking them for their sad crumbs, and find a way to recognize and reward game changing art in a way that women would actually *aspire* to.
I just watched Barbie on the weekend, and maybe I read more into it than I was supposed to, but it had a very dark undercurrent, from both the male and female perspective.
Without any spoilers, the roller blade scene shows how different Barbie and Ken experience the world. She is scared for the first time and he realizes that maybe he has a purpose. I thought it showed that both sides matter, and what happens with the Ken’s later on is what happens if we don’t raise people to respect both sexes. They have no value at home, as clearly stated by Barbie can’t answer where the Ken’s live. This is what happens to the world if EVERYONE is not treated as an equal, not just the women and not just the men.
I personally thought that Ryan did a great job and, considering she was working with toys that were sold to kids with no real story line, Greta put together a great movie. I’m bummed that her and Margot did not get a nod but I am happy it got nominated for other things. It could have been tossed in a ditch and passed by as it is a toy movie, not some typical Oscar dreck.
As an aside, as a Metis woman, I am tickled about Lily’s nom! Woohoo!