The Oscar nominations are in and already the hashtags #OscarsSoWhite, #OscarsSoMale, and #OscarsSoStraight are trending on social media.
As usual, this year’s nominations are devoid of diversity. In fact, it might be the least diverse group of nominees since the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite first became a thing in 2015.
Just two actors of color are nominated in the major acting categories (Cynthia Erivo for Harriet and Antonio Banderas for Pain & Glory), women have been completely shut out of Best Director, and LGBTQ representation is virtually nonexistent.
See the complete list of nominees here.
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Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Here’s what folks are saying…
So women and POC and queer stories are ignored by #Oscars once more. Are we really surprised? #OscarsSoWhite #OscarsSoMale #OscarsSoStraight
— JediGalJo (@GalJedi) January 13, 2020
Can we make something called The Gay Oscars that gets it right?
— Nick Westrate (@westratenick) January 13, 2020
Also while I haven’t been able to see it yet because of its garbage release and even worse marketing, I suspect “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” deserved some nominations. “Booksmart” was also left out. Is #OscarsSoStraight a thing? Because it should be a thing.
— Liz S. (@LizShattler) January 13, 2020
still thinking about how toy story 4 really doesnt deserve the nom as theres nothing particularly memorable about the film. frozen 2 on the other hand literally said gay rights and conveyed a very strong and powerful message on mental health. im just a tad bit upset
— marriage story’s oscar (@waltdibneyworld) January 13, 2020
I mean #OscarsSoWhite and #OscarsSoMale and #OscarsSoStraight and #OscarsSoCis but also just #OscarsSoBad
— Klaudia Amenábar WATCH INFINITY TRAIN (@kaludiasays) January 13, 2020
I've seen all the Oscar contenders except Joker (I WILL NOT WATCH JOKER) and I feel fairly qualified to say that these nominations are insanely sexist and racist, so brazenly biased toward white men that it feels like the Academy is straight up trolling us.
— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) January 13, 2020
I've had time to process, and it's fine that Taron wasn't nominated. After all, Leonardo had to STRETCH to play an aging straight actor, and that's so much more Oscar worthy. pic.twitter.com/6s93ExIaRO
— Skimblesnicks the railway cat (@therealSnicks) January 13, 2020
These Oscar nominations…..girls and gays, we riot at dawn
— conor mcgrath (@conor_mcg) January 13, 2020
“THE OSCARS ARE IRRELEVANT!” I log on to yell for the 5th straight year. “THIS DUSTY INSTITUTION DOESN’T MATTER!!!!!” I yell for 20 days straight. “I’M GOING TO BURN THE ACADEMY DOWN I’M SO MAD!!!!!!” I tweet about this flailing, irrelevant institution.
— Mother Suspiriorum Fan Account (@coucouaaron) January 13, 2020
Why don’t we kill award shows? We killed the Victoria secret runway show. The oscars, golden globes, Grammys, etc have proven to us they hate women, actors/artists of color, and lgbt people. Just stop watching it and giving them reasons to continue to disappoint.
— Xtra (@soo_xtra) January 13, 2020
Every year I think – maybe this time I'll have reason to support & watch the Oscars. Every year – nope, let's go watch whatever great non white/non male/LGBT/action movie they snubbed. Haven't regretted it in 5 years but wish it wasn't a tradition I had #OscarSoWhite #OscarNoms
— sarah jade (@sarah31733) January 13, 2020
Taron Egerton and @rocketmanmovie were robbed! #oscars #pissed #rocketman #oscarssostraight
— Jason Boegh (@jasboegh) January 13, 2020
Pretty sure my Dad did all the Oscar Nominations this year. Sorry everyone. #OscarNoms
— Gay Bachelor Bitch ? (@BGaytion) January 13, 2020
The 92nd Annual Academy Awards will air live from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on February 9. Will you be tuning in?
jayceecook
More women filmmakers across all the various categories were nominated than ever before.
There are many POC nominated outside the acting categories which often get way too much attention in my opinion.
I’m sure many of the nominees are members of the LGBTQ community.
Honestly, you just can’t win?
Cam
1. No women directors have been nominated so what do you mean by “Filmakers”.
2. The rest of your comment is all about people who aren’t visible publicly. So how convienient for the Oscars.
jayceecook
@Cam “Filmmaking is the process of making a film, generally in the sense of films intended for extensive theatrical exhibition. Filmmaking involves a number of discrete stages including an initial story, idea, or commission, through screenwriting, casting, shooting, sound recording and pre-production, editing, and screening the finished product before an audience that may result in a film release and exhibition.” Filmmakers are people who work/participate in the process of filmmaking.
It takes many, many people with various specific talents to bring a film to life. The film director or directors are just one cog in the machine of filmmaking. The concept of the film director being the sole filmmaker within the art form has always been a reductionist approach. And simply ego driven.
So, as I said, this year a record number of female filmmakers have been nominated by The Academy. Could it have been more? Should it have been? Maybe. This is all subjective territory we’re dealing with here. You can argue that Greta Gerwig should have gotten a nomination. However look at all the men nominated. Those are some very, very talented and respected film directors there. Also, why is GG the only woman on the tips of people’s tongues? How many people are outraged that Lulu Wang didn’t get nominated? What about Lorene Scafaria? Melina Matsoukas? Or Alma Har’el? Kasi Lemmons? Céline Sciamma? All just as talented women who made some very, and arguably, great films. Where is their outrage and “justice for” hash tags?
And all those other specific filmmaking categories that you so typically (and telling) dismissed are the reason more young non-white people don’t grow up saying things like, “I want to be a film sound editor when I grow up” or “I’m studying to be a camera operator”. In our society if you’re not the director or actor then you’re irrelevant. That’s not only extremely sad but somewhat narcissistic. You said it yourself, being visible is what determines your value.
Kangol2
Sorry, but isn’t Antonio Banderas from Málaga, Spain? Is that centuries-old country no longer in Europe? Are Spaniards no longer White people? According to whom? Is someone going to tell them this?
TedV
EXACTLY!
Raphael
He is Hispanic and Latin, which, to the surprise of many, it’s not a race and does not define skin color. That are many white Latin/Hispanic people. As you said, people from Spain and Portugal, both on Europe, are mainly white, and they are still Latin and Hispanic… In the US they mix nationality, race and ethnicity into one single thing. Depending on where you’re born, you’re automatically of a particular race, therefore; automatically of a certain ethnicity (skin color)… It wouldn’t surprise me if they said that Charlize Theron is of color, after all, according to their thinking, she was born in Africa, so she is African, which automatically makes her a person of color.
Kangol2
Raphael, yes, I know he’s technically “Hispanic” in the full sense of that term (as opposed to the common US usage), but as far as I know he does not consider himself a person of color and most White Spaniards do not. (Also “Latin” would encompass French, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian-speaking people, whose languages and cultures also derive from Latin and the Romans, and in the case of French and Francophone people, most of the ones from outside France are not consider “Latin,” etc.). At any rate, the official statement said nothing about “race,” and Banderas has since been removed from the commentary about the lack of actors/actresses of color. I guess someone in the PR office saw his Spanish name and just (wrongly) assumed he was from Latin America, even though he’s quite clear about and proud of being a Spaniard.
TedV
Uhmmm, you’re not much better, Queerty. Calling Antonio Banderas a POC simply because he speaks Spanish? He’s a white European, Queerty, he’s no more a POC than an actor from France, Germany, or any other Euporean country would be/
Jake123
Would love more representation but I do think the actors and actresses nominated all deserve their nominations.
soonersteve88
They probably just chose the nominees based on which movies, actors, etc they actually thought were most deserving of it.
Bottom line: the best movie, actor, director, etc should win without regard to race, sex, or anything else because that’s what the awards are about. I don’t want to see someone get an award they don’t actually deserve just so the academy can check off a box for “representation”. It’s like the “groundbreaking gay kiss” in Star Wars! I watched the movie and didn’t even see it happen, I guess I must have blinked at the wrong time. It was meaningless. Tokenism is not a helpful thing and I’m not going to criticize the academy for choosing not to engage in it.
Don’t forget that Moonlight won three Academy Awards and was nominated for a fourth. So they have proven that they can make nominations based on merit alone, which is as it should be.
Cam
“”Don’t forget that Moonlight won three Academy Awards and was nominated for a fourth. So they have proven that they can make nominations based on merit alone, which is as it should be.””
So after being called out harshly they finally did it once.
Sister Bertha Bedderthanyu
I saw Moonlight and Get Out and found both to be ok but neither worthy of an Oscar nor a nomination. Politics and nothing else played a big role in their wins. I think it a shame that the FX series Snowfall wasn’t made into a theatrical movie. It is well written (though last season’s sudden death of John Singleton weighed heavily on its quality and writing), acted and is based on fact.
white-queer-african
Time to can the Oscars and all those other back slapping so called “award shows”? Just asking. Because never ever will all be satisfied. Us fags the worst to satisfy.
Cam
All of the people saying “But they just selected the most deserving.
See, the problem is, black, LGBT, etc… actors aren’t allowed to win the parts, or get funding to direct a movie, so they are choosing from an already segregated pool.
Rock-N-RollHS
“Aren’t allowed”? Are they being held in basement prisons? LGBT are a minority of the population but make up a large percentage of Hollywood. Tired of the whining. No one owes you or anyone anything, especially in show biz.
TedV
>>>But they just selected the most deserving.<<<
Uh huh. Scarlet Johanssen deserved her Best Actress nomination for "Marriage Story." But did she also need a SECOND nomination as as Best Supporting Actress for "Jo Jo Rabbit?" – a film (directed by a man) with both anti-Semitic and homophobic overtones that made a paltry $20 million at the Box Office. Of COURSE she did – you can never have enough blond white women. And if that means that Jennifer Lopez, who CARRIED "Hustlers" by virtue of a bravura performance in a movie directed by a woman that grossed over $150 million, gets snubbed, well, so be it. I mean it's not like she was believable – she didn't play a maid or a drug mule – who's gonna believe her as an unapologetic, smart woman who takes charge of her own life? And anyway, we just had a Latina nominated – Rosie Perez was nominated in 1994, so it's not like we're due for a Latina nomination or anything.
Sister Bertha Bedderthanyu
Not one movie hit the theaters in the last two years that could be considered a blockbuster or a must see movie. With the exception of Avengers (I had to see that in 3D Imax) I waited until whatever it was I wanted to see hit the $2 Tuesday senior special movie theatre eleven miles away from my town. Even though I paid only two dollars I walked out on three of them. If they said something came out last year that was worth of an Oscar then who am I to argue?
ShiningSex
To get nominated for an Oscar, a film doesn’t have to be a blockbuster. Most blockbuster are awful to begin with.
It is sad women directors tend to get left out over and over.
Wheelerman
You must have a very short attention span. The movie 1917 is a masterpiece. Two other standouts for me are Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, and Midsommar. Pain and Glory, and Parasite are excellent foreign films.
Marvel superhero & Star Wars movies are fillers, meant to pull dollars from the wallets of teenage boys, which they do to the tune of multi-millions. Studios can then afford to make some adult themed films.
ShiningSex
I BET MISS ELTON IS FURIOUS. THAT OLD QUEEN PROBABLY PUNCHED HIS HUSBAND AND KIDS AND A GARDNER.
IT IS SAD THAT WOMEN AND LGBT WERE LEFT OUT AND OFTEN ARE.
MOST OF THE FILMS NOMINATED SUCKED.
I CAN’T BELIEVE QUEENS ARE FURIOUS THAT BEYONCE AND J.HO WERE ALSO LEFT OUT. THEY’RE HORRIBLE OF COURSE THEY WERE LEFT OUT.
rustyiam
Oh oh the angry mob is at it again demanding everything go their way!
JeffreyNobleDonahue
Can we please stop pitting gays against straights, men against women, young against old, black against white or whatever you choose to complain about? Do people ever stop and think that the pictures nominated were better than the ones skipped over…or there’s other issues other than race, gender etc. people get so upset and bent out of shape that is not in your control or truly none of your business.
JessPH
The problem is NOT the Academy but the movie writers, producers, directors who don’t write LGBT and POC stories, feature LGBT and POC characters, and hire female and POC as actors and directors. That’s the problem.
baggins435
Is anyone else bemused by the fact that the right complains that “liberal Hollywood” is run by LGBTs, yet very few LGBT actors/directors/movies get nominated much less win Oscars? I remember when the right bitched that Hollywood was run by “the Jews” at the same time Jews were saying Hollywood was anti-Semitic. Years ago I had a boss whose favorite saying was “perception is the only reality.” People tend to focus only on their own concerns.