Judd Apatow says it's 'insulting' to classify 'Barbie' as adapted screenplay in Oscars race

Los Angeles: After it was announced that Barbie will compete for a best adapted screenplay nomination at the 96th Academy Awards despite campaigning for original screenplay, filmmaker Judd Apatow says it's an insult to the writers to say they were working off 'existing material'.

Greta Gerwig directed Barbie from a script she co-wrote with her husband and frequent collaborator Noah Baumbach. Fronted by Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, the film grossed over $1 billion at worldwide box office in 2023.

Apatow, director of Knocked Up and This is 40, shared his disagreement in an X post quoting the Academy's decision reported by a news portal.

"It's insulting to the writers to say they were working off of existing material. There was no existing material or story. There was a clear box," he wrote on Saturday.

According to Variety, each awards body and voting group has its own subset of rules for movies in terms of which screenplay category they can submit or ultimately be nominated.

The Writers Branch executive committee of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences apparently classified Gerwig's film as an adapted screenplay because Barbie and Ken were pre-existing dolls from Mattel.

Meanwhile, the Writers Guild of America has designated 'Barbie' an original work, and it will remain in that category for the upcoming WGA Awards.

Gerwig, who became the first woman to helm a billion-dollar movie, has been nominated for three Oscars in her career: Lady Bird (2016) for original screenplay and directing, and Little Women (2019) in adapted.