Here’s what you should be paying attention to ahead of the 94th Academy Awards…
The 2022 Oscars are almost upon us! Regina Hall, Wanda Sykes, and Amy Schumer will host the big ceremony on Sunday March 27, including a more diverse group of nominees than usual.
The Oscars have been better about acknowledging and recognizing some of the great LGBTQ+ centric films of the 21st century [think: Brokeback Mountain (2005), Milk (2008) Moonlight (2016), Call Me by Your Name (2017), The Favourite (2018)], but the same can’t be said for recognizing queer actors themselves. In fact, in the history of the Oscars, only a small number of queer actors, including Jodie Foster and Tilda Swinton have taken home acting awards. However the previous winners were not publicly out while accepting their awards and none have accepted an award since publicly coming out.
That could change this year, with Kristen Stewart up for Best Actress for Pablo Larraín’s drama Spencer about Princess Diana and Ariana DeBose up for Best Supporting Actress for Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story remake.
Stewart identifies as bisexual, while DeBose identifies as queer. This is the first time two publicly out LGBTQ+ actors have been nominated in the same year, and either (or both) winning would be historic. Prognosticators are especially optimistic for DeBose, currently a clear favourite in the betting, while Stewart is coming in third or fourth in her category.
So tune in on Sunday March 27 at 8:00pm to watch a little LGBTQ+ history potentially unfold before your eyes.
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