Barbie director Greta Gerwig wanted her leading actress Margot Robbie to be recognised for her portrayal of the doll after both of them were snubbed in two categories at this year's Oscars.
Australian actress Robbie, 33, lost out on a best actress nomination but was recognised with a nomination as a producer of Barbie - the highest-grossing film of 2023.
Gerwig told Time magazine: "Of course I wanted it for Margot. But I’m just happy we all get to be there together."
The US director, 40, also failed to receive a nod for her directing of the film but was nominated with her husband Noah Baumbach for best adapted screenplay.
She also said: "A friend’s mum said to me, 'I can’t believe you didn’t get nominated’.
"I said, ‘But I did. I got an Oscar nomination’. She was like, ‘Oh, that’s wonderful for you!’ I was like, ‘I know!’"
The blockbuster film, which sees Barbie having an existential crisis and entering the real world, received eight Academy Award nominations overall.
America Ferrera, who plays Gloria, and Ryan Gosling, who plays Ken, were both given nods for their supporting roles.
Barbie won a Golden Globes for cinematic and box office achievement and Billie Eilish’s theme song hit What Was I Made For?
However, the movie has not been very successful during awards season.
At the Bafta ceremony on Sunday, it received no awards.
Barbie lost out on the best actress prize to Poor Things’ Emma Stone, while best screenplay went to French courtroom drama Anatomy Of A Fall by Justine Triet and Arthur Harari.
Oppenheimer’s Robert Downey Jr also beat Gosling to the supporting actor gong at the British film award event.
Gerwig told Time that she wanted "to be able to make a body of work that feels like it’s undeniable in terms of the work itself" after being asked about gender and the film industry.
"I don’t want there to be an asterisk next to my name," she added.
"Do I have more of that than male filmmakers? I don’t know. I know plenty of deeply insecure male filmmakers who are plagued in their own ways."
Her next project is an adaptation of CS Lewis’s classic children’s fantasy series The Chronicles Of Narnia, which she suggested was going to be difficult as it drew on a "combination of different traditions".
"As a child, you accept the whole thing - that you’re in this land of Narnia, there’s fauns, and then Father Christmas shows up," Gerwig said.
"It doesn’t even occur to you that it’s not schematic. I’m interested in embracing the paradox of the worlds that Lewis created, because that’s what’s so compelling about them."
Source: Press Association
