So the 2024 Academy Award Nominations have been announced,  The (very) good news is that Colman Domingo is the second gay actor nominated in Oscar history for playing a gay character  ….Bayard Rustin. The first one was back in 1999 when Sir Ian McKellan was nominated for for his portrayal of James Whale in Gods and Monsters.  

Jodie Foster joins this elite club for her nomination for playing out lesbian Bonnie Stoll, the real-life friend and coach of the long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad in NYAD. Her (straight) co-star Annette Benning was nominated as best actress in a leading role category for her portrayal of the outspoken lesbian swimmer.

In the Best Actor Category, Domingo is up against Bradley Cooper for his performance as bi-sexual Leonard Bernstein in Maestro.

The bad news is the complete lack of any LGBTQ+ peeps/roles in the year’s Nominations, unlike the British Academy.  For starters, in their Best Actor category as well as nominating both Domingo and Cooper they added Barry Keoghan for playing the closeted Oxford student in Saltburn.  The subject of Keoghan’s affection on the screen Jacob Elodi was nominated for Best Supporting Actor and the Rising Star Award.   The Brits also nominated it as Outstanding British Film.

Leading queer filmmaker Andrew Haigh‘s wonderful gay romance All Of Us Strangers netted a nomination for Outstanding British Film, plus Best Director, Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor for Paul Mescal, Best Supporting Actress Claire Foy, and Best Casting.  Its one disappointment was the absence of a nomination for Andrew Scott 

The film adaptation of The Color Purple by lesbian novelist Alice Walker is up for two well-deserved awards. Fantasia Barrino earned a nomination for Best Leading Actress for her role as protagonist Celie Johnson, and Danielle Brooks will be considered for Best Supporting Actress for playing Sofia.

Finally following the Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series Award at the Emmys for her role in The Bear, queer actor Ayo Edebiri was nominated for the EE Rising Star award