GLAAD: Oscar nominations 'lack significant LGBTQ representation'
Wed. March 17, 2021 11:15 AM by Carlos Santoscoy
Media watchdog GLAAD on Monday lamented the lack of "significant LGBTQ representation" in this year's Oscar nominations.
The 93rd Annual Academy Awards will take place on Sunday, April 25th at Los Angeles' Union Station and Hollywood's Dolby Theater, the ceremony's traditional home.
Viola Davis and Andra Day received acting nominations for playing real-life bisexual music legends Ma Rainey and Billie Holiday, respectively. Davis played Rainey in Netflix's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, while Day played Holiday in The United States vs. Billie Holiday, which was originally set for a theatrical release but instead premiered on Hulu due to the pandemic.
Lena Waithe was nominated for playing the voice of a queer character in Pixar's animated film Onward.
Bisexual writer Travon Free received a nomination for Two Distant Strangers, a short film.
"[I]n a year expected to yield several LGBTQ inclusive nominees, very few emerged," GLAAD said on its website.
Among those that GLAAD expected to be nominated were director David France for Welcome to Chechnya, which documents the anti-LGBT purges in Chechnya, and the film Two of Us, which centers on a lesbian couple. GLAAD also said that out artist Janelle Monae should have been nominated in the Best Original Song category for "Turntables" from All In: The Fight for Democracy.
The Netflix documentary Disclosure, which looks at the history of transgender representation in film and television, was also snubbed.
"There were no LGBT actors nominated in any acting category," GLAAD said.
GLAAD did applaud the Academy for its slate of diverse nominees, including the nominations of two women in the Best Director category.
The 93rd Annual Academy Awards will take place on Sunday, April 25th at Los Angeles' Union Station and Hollywood's Dolby Theater, the ceremony's traditional home.
Viola Davis and Andra Day received acting nominations for playing real-life bisexual music legends Ma Rainey and Billie Holiday, respectively. Davis played Rainey in Netflix's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, while Day played Holiday in The United States vs. Billie Holiday, which was originally set for a theatrical release but instead premiered on Hulu due to the pandemic.
Lena Waithe was nominated for playing the voice of a queer character in Pixar's animated film Onward.
Bisexual writer Travon Free received a nomination for Two Distant Strangers, a short film.
"[I]n a year expected to yield several LGBTQ inclusive nominees, very few emerged," GLAAD said on its website.
Among those that GLAAD expected to be nominated were director David France for Welcome to Chechnya, which documents the anti-LGBT purges in Chechnya, and the film Two of Us, which centers on a lesbian couple. GLAAD also said that out artist Janelle Monae should have been nominated in the Best Original Song category for "Turntables" from All In: The Fight for Democracy.
The Netflix documentary Disclosure, which looks at the history of transgender representation in film and television, was also snubbed.
"There were no LGBT actors nominated in any acting category," GLAAD said.
GLAAD did applaud the Academy for its slate of diverse nominees, including the nominations of two women in the Best Director category.
This article appeared at On Top Magazine and has been published here with permission.