Oscars voters were immune to “The Power of Love,” apparently, since they declined to nominate the fantastical gay romance All of Us Strangers and Andrew Scott, its leading man. But there are plenty of other LGBTQ+ nominees for whom we can root during Sunday’s 96th Academy Awards telecast, and X users are doing just that.
For the first time, we have two openly queer actors nominated for queer roles in the same year, as GoldDerby points out: Colman Domingo is up for Best Actor for playing civil rights activist Bayard Rustin in Rustin, while Jodie Foster is up for Best Supporting Actress for playing friend-turned-coach Bonnie Stoll in Nyad.
In fact, Domingo is only the second openly queer male actor to earn a nomination for playing a gay character, per The New York Times, after Ian McKellen was nominated (but ultimately passed over) in 1999 for his performance in Gods and Monsters.
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“We can only hope that today’s nominations for Colman Domingo and Jodie Foster signal that we’ll see many more LGBTQ+ actors — and LGBTQ+ writers and directors and all crafts — celebrated for telling authentic LGBTQ+ stories in the near future and beyond,” NewFest programming director Nick McCarthy told NBC Out when the nominations were announced this January.
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And there’s LGBTQ representation elsewhere on the ballot, too. Lily Gladstone, who uses she/they pronouns and identifies as “kind of being middle-gendered,” earned a Best Actress nomination — as the Oscars still have gendered acting categories — for their performance as Osage woman Mollie Kyle in Killers of the Flower Moon.
Meanwhile, Christine Vachon, a queer film producer, could win Best Picture with the rest of the Past Lives producers. Laura Karpman, who lists herself as queer on Instagram,could win the Original Score category for soundtracking American Fiction. And Billie Eilish, who says she’s “attracted to boys and girls,” could win her second Oscar this year, as she’s nominated in the Original Song category for Barbie’s “What Was I Made For?”
Here are X posts rooting these nominees on:
Colman Domingo
Jodie Foster
Lily Gladstone
Lily Gladstone should win it without a single doubt #Oscars2024 pic.twitter.com/qIWHwFvBj2
— Saham's Reviews (@SahamReviews) February 28, 2024
Lily Gladstone better win best actress or I’m eating dust off the ground for the next month
— SkeeterBeavers (@SkeeterBeavs) February 26, 2024
Christine Vachon
Laura Karpman
Billie Eilish
Related:
Oscar nominations 2024: All the snubs, surprises, and history-making LGBTQ+ nods
Colman Domingo and Jodie Foster make history as only the second and three out actors to be nominated for playing LGBTQ+ roles.
Wheelerman
What Was I Made For? Is a maudlin, dreary song sung by a barely there Billie Eilish. I honestly do not get why she is so popular. I’m Just Ken in a much better up tempo radio play worthy song. It being sung by Ryan Gosling is just icing on the cake. I am looking forward to his live performance of the song on the Oscar’s show.