2005 may be remembered as “Oscar’s gayest year” in terms of GLBT-themed nominees, with
Brokeback Mountain,
Capote and
Transamerica each receiving multiple commendations. Happily, the movies and artists
vying for the gold on March 7 of this year likely represent the second-highest number of GLBT contenders in Academy Awards history.
Leading the pack is
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire. The film received six nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director (
Lee Daniels), Best Actress (Gabourey Sidibe) and Best Supporting Actress (
Mo’Nique). This deeply felt story of an abused, HIV+ teenager trying to escape her horrific home life features a sympathetic lesbian teacher (movingly portrayed by the lovely Paula Patton) and her partner.
Daniels is one of only a handful of openly gay directors who have ever been nominated for an Oscar, which is cause for rejoicing in and of itself. Not even Ang Lee, who won the Best Director Oscar for
Brokeback Mountain, is gay. Daniels’ homosexuality naturally informed his approach to
Precious, resulting in a powerful film with broad appeal for anyone who has ever considered themselves oppressed or marginalized.
It is unlikely, though, that Daniels will win this year. While this is unfortunate on one hand, it is tempered by the fact that the likely winner will be Kathryn Bigelow for her highly acclaimed but little seen bomb-squad drama,
The Hurt Locker. I haven’t yet seen
The Hurt Locker (it’s next in my Netflix queue) but I’ve heard from other gay critics that it’s not without a homoerotic sensibility. Bigelow would be the first woman ever to win the Best Director award. I think this historical opportunity will be enough to clinch it for her, despite some competition from
Avatar director (and Bigelow’s ex-husband) James Cameron.
Speaking of
Avatar, it leads this year’s nominations, along with
The Hurt Locker, with nine nominations each. While the ten-foot tall, loincloth-clad aliens and amazing 3-D effects of
Avatar offer plenty of eye candy for GLBT and other viewers, its plot is a fairly familiar hybrid of such prior films as
Dune,
FernGully: The Last Rainforest and Cameron’s own
Aliens. I think this will cost it the Best Picture Oscar, but I’m not convinced
The Hurt Locker will win.
With a roster of ten Best Picture nominees for the first time since 1943 and a resultant new voting system for the top award, it is very possible that one of the other eight films will emerge as the winner.
Precious is a candidate, as are
Up in the Air (which is overrated, in my opinion) and popular favorite — and surprise nominee —
The Blind Side.
Among this year’s acting nominees, gay and lesbian faves
Sandra Bullock (
The Blind Side) and
Meryl Streep (so convincing as Julia Child in
Julie & Julia) are neck-in-neck for Best Actress. I expect Bullock will win, and her award will be well deserved. The sight of Matt Damon in short soccer shorts in
Invictus was apparently too much for the acting members of the Academy to ignore, as Damon is among the nominees for Best Supporting Actor. It will be a startling upset, though, if
Christoph Waltz fails to win for his supporting performance as the evil-but-charming “Jew hunter” in Quentin Tarantino’s
Inglourious Basterds.
The most noteworthy, overtly gay role among the acting nominees, however, is Colin Firth’s grieving George Falconer in
Tom Ford’s beautiful film,
A Single Man. I was greatly disappointed that
A Single Man received no other nominations, deserving as it is of commendations in the Screenplay and Art Direction categories, at least. Also, Julianne Moore, largely expected to be nominated for her performance as George’s overly devoted friend, was passed over in favor of
Crazy Heart’s Maggie Gyllenhaal.
It would be most unjust had Firth’s performance been similarly neglected. Firth would likely be this year’s Best Actor winner, too, if it wasn’t for Jeff Bridges’ late-in-the-game performance in
Crazy Heart. Also nominated for Best Actor, pleasantly so, is super cute star-on-the-rise
Jeremy Renner for
The Hurt Locker.
I find it interesting that the costume drama, historically a genre virtually guaranteed to dominate the Best Picture category, is increasingly on the wane. If not, such 2009 releases as
The Young Victoria,
Bright Star,
Coco Before Chanel and
The Last Station would have been included among this year’s top ten. While
Last Station stars
Helen Mirren and
Christopher Plummer are deservedly nominated in the acting categories, the other three films were relegated to the Best Costume category.
Inglourious Basterds is the only costume drama among this year’s Best Picture nominees, and arguably so since it’s really more of a comedy.
So, who will win this year’s Academy Awards? Tune in on Sunday, March 7 to find out.
By Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Orange County and Long Beach Blade.
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