Warner Bros.’ Barbie is the most successful film of 2023, taking in more than $1.4B at theaters around the world. Directed by Greta Gerwig (
Little Women,
Lady Bird) and based on Mattel’s legendary doll, the film stars Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken.
Barbie is leading the Golden Globes’ with nine nominations, including those for Cinematic and Box Office Achievement; Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy; Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture; Best Director - Motion Picture; and
Best Screenplay - Motion Picture. The film also has three Golden Globe nominations in the Best Original Song - Motion Picture category, with “What Was I Made For?,” “I’m Just Ken” and “Dance the Night.”
At the 2023 FilmLight Colour Awards, Barbie was honored for its color grading, with Company 3’s Yvan Lucas winning the award for the grading of a theatrical feature.
The feature was shot by cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, with Gerwig aiming for the perfect Barbie-look. The skin tones in Barbie Land were designed to be more pastel and less saturated, but everything else about the shots were created to be full of pinks, turquoises and other colors that stand out. The look was partially defined by a specific LUT that Lucas and Prieto created to enhance the strong feeling of saturation, while pushing the colors into the Barbie Land space.
“It is like the recognition of a lifetime’s work,” notes Lucas of the awards honor. “It brings me immense joy that color grading is recognized as an essential part in crafting the look of a film. The experience of working on this film with Rodrigo and Greta was one of the most artistically gratifying of my career.”
Barbie began shooting on March 21, 2022, at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden in Hertfordshire, England. The date came nearly two years after Gerwig and Noah Baumbach shut themselves away in their New York apartment to craft the screenplay that Gerwig would later sign on to direct. There is no natural sunlight until Barbie and Ken arrive in Los Angeles. The entirety of the Barbie Land scenes were filmed on the soundstages at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden. And the view outside of the Mattel boardroom was a scenic panorama, painted by hand and measuring over 250-feet long.