Here's the deal ... as the 96th Academy Awards approach, the potential nominations are taking shape BTS -- and on the issue of screenplay, Margot Robbie and co. got kinda screwed because of what bucket they'll land in for consideration by voting members.

Last week, Variety reported that "Barbie" was going to be relegated to the Best Adapted Screenplay category as opposed to Best Original ... since the characters already "existed."

Film snobs thought that was a bad call, seeing how the plot of "Barbie" is, in fact, pretty original -- in the sense that it isn't a rework of another existing "Barbie" story out there ... and Judd is among those who are outraged on behalf of the scribes who came up with it.

He writes, "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." Frankly, many agree.

The reason folks are bummed that "Barbie got thrown into Adapted as opposed to Original -- despite campaigning for the latter -- is 'cause there's tougher competition in Adapted ... including "Oppenheimer," "Killers of the Flower Moon," etc. Oscar shoe-ins, basically.

Considering how packed that category is, the movie buffs feel like "Barbie" will have a harder chance at actually winning ... and seeing how big of a cultural impact it had this year, a lot of people want to see it get some shine in as many ways as possible this year.

Fact is, "Barbie" checked all the boxes -- and lines like "I don't control the railways or the flow of commerce" most certainly warrant some recognition somewhere along the way.