This could be the year of the queer Oscars.
The cis-written, cis-directed trans story Emilia Pérez took home 13 Oscar nominations—the most of any movie—during Thursday’s announcement by Bowen Yang and Rachel Sennott. Wicked and The Brutalist followed with 10 nods each and LGBTQ+ cast were showered with nominations, including an historic moment with Emilia Pérez star Karla Sofía Gascón becoming the first out trans woman to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Here is the queer take on the Oscar nominations you’ve been looking for.
Starting at the top with Best Picture, several films have LGBTQ+ storylines. Conclave includes a surprise twist ending relating to sex and gender, but since it’s a surprise twist ending, we’ll keep that quiet. Dune: Part Two is also nominated and has a complex relationship with homoeroticism, with some critics saying the queer villain trope is handled better in Part Two than the original. We think Wicked is pretty queer and of course, the transness of the titular protagonist Emilia Pérez is the driving storyline of her movie.
While a movie starring a trans woman actress playing a trans woman character would seem like an exciting step for a Best Picture nomination, Emilia Pérez has been widely criticized for its approach to a transgender story. GLAAD says it is “a step backward for trans representation” and points out the rave reviews from its premiere at Cannes that set off the film’s successful award-season trajectory were not written by trans people. Trans critics almost universally call it regressive.
The star of Emilia Pérez, Karla Sofía Gascón, is nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role, along with other out actors nominated for their craft. Openly gay actor Colman Domingo is nominated as Best Actor in a Leading Role for Sing Sing and queer women Cynthia Erivo (Wicked) and Zoe Saldaña (Emilia Pérez) secured Best Actress in a Supporting Role noms. A straight actor, Jeremy Strong, was given a nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for playing Donald Trump’s gay advisor in The Apprentice.
In categories like cinematography and costume design, other movies with queer themes and cast received recognition from the Academy: Nosferatu stars openly queer Lily-Rose Depp and Maria stars bicon Angelina Jolie.
It’s tough to predict who will win in any of the categories, but check out our coverage of who won at the Golden Globes for some insight.