This list details the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people who have been nominated for or received Academy Awards and/or cis-hetero actors who have been nominated for or won for playing queer characters. Individuals are identified as queer, though they may not have publicly or personally identified at the time of their nomination.
Best Actor in a Leading Role | |||||||||
Year | Name | Film | Role | Status | Actor's Demographic | Out at the time? | Observation | Reference | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1951 | Marlon Brando | A Streetcar Named Desire | Stanley Kowalski | Nominated | Cisgender Bisexual | No | Brando spoke more openly on his bisexuality later on in life, including a list of affairs he had with other celebrities, both men and women. On his greatest love affair, he [stated], “If Wally Cox had been a woman, I would have married him and we would have lived happily ever after.“ | [1] [2] [3] [4] | |
1952 | Viva Zapata! | Emiliano Zapata | Nominated | ||||||
1953 | Julius Caesar | Mark Antony | Nominated | ||||||
1954 | On the Waterfront | Terry Malloy | Won | ||||||
1957 | Sayonara | Major Lloyd 'Ace' Gruver, USAF | Nominated | ||||||
1968 | Alan Bates | The Fixer | Yakov Bok | Nominated | Bates was attached to several men privately, behind the heterosexual marriage facade, such as ice skater, John Curry, and British TV sleuth, Peter Wyngarde. | [5] | |||
1972 | Marlon Brando | The Godfather | Vito Corleone | Won (declined) | Brando did not attend the ceremony, choosing instead to have himself represented by Sacheen Littlefeather (a.k.a. Maria Cruz), who identified as Apache Native American. She stated that Brando refused the award due to the poor treatment of American Indians in entertainment, as well as the recent Wounded Knee Occupation. | [1] [2] [3] [6] [4] | |||
Paul Winfield | Sounder | Nathan Lee Morgan | Nominated | Cisgender Homosexual | Yes | First Black gay actor nominated in an acting category. In relationship with architect Charles Gillan Jr., until his 2002 death. Also, he was the first openly gay actor to be nominated for Best Actor and the first openly gay actor nominated in any category to have been out on their own terms. | [7] | ||
1973 | Marlon Brando | Last Tango in Paris | Paul | Nominated | Cisgender Bisexual | No | (See note above) | [1] [2] [3] | |
1984 | Tom Hulce | Amadeus | Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Nominated | Cisgender Homosexual | In an interview with Seattle Gay News , Tom Hulce acknowledged his status as a gay actor, although he emphasized the word "actor" is less applicable due to inactivity. | [8] | ||
1994 | Nigel Hawthorne | The Madness of King George | King George III of the United Kingdom | Nominated | Yes (outed) | Hawthorne was outed as gay in 1995 due to the attention his nomination at the 67th Academy Awards had gathered, but nonetheless he attended the ceremony with his long-time partner Trevor Bentham. He also spoke openly about his sexuality in interviews and in his autobiography Straight Face. | [9] | ||
1998 | Ian McKellen | Gods and Monsters | James Whale | Nominated | Yes | For each of his nominations ( Gods and Monsters in 1998 and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring in 2001), the star said he had speeches prepared beginning with the line: "'I’m proud to be the first openly gay man to win the Oscar.' I’ve had to put it back in my pocket twice." | [10] | ||
1999 | Kevin Spacey | American Beauty | Lester Burnham | Won | No | Spacey came out as a gay man in his statement addressing a sexual misconduct accusation by actor Anthony Rapp in 2017. | [11] [12] | ||
2023 | Colman Domingo | Rustin | Bayard Rustin | Nominated | Yes | First openly gay Black and Afro-Latino actor to be nominated for Best Actor. | [13] | ||
2024 | Sing Sing | John "Divine G" Whitfield | Nominated |
The following list is composed of actors who have been claimed to be LGBT by others. They have been outed by a third party either while alive or after their death. However, they never publicly came out.
Best Actress in a Leading Role | |||||||||
Year | Name | Film | Role | Status | Actor's Demographic | Out at the time? | Observation | Reference | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1930/31 | Marlene Dietrich | Morocco | Mademoiselle Amy Jolly | Nominated | Cisgender Bisexual | No | Morocco marks the first time in cinema history that two women share a kiss on screen (Dietrich and an uncredited actress). | [61] | |
1981 | Susan Sarandon | Atlantic City | Sally Matthews | Nominated | |||||
1988 | Jodie Foster | The Accused | Sarah Tobias | Won | Cisgender Unspecified | Foster has acknowledged her romantic relationships with women, but has not identified as a specific sexuality. Foster is the only openly queer woman to win two acting Oscars. | [62] | ||
1991 | The Silence of the Lambs | Clarice Starling | Won | ||||||
Susan Sarandon | Thelma & Louise | Louise Sawyer | Nominated | Cisgender Bisexual | |||||
1992 | Lorenzo's Oil | Michaela Odone | Nominated | ||||||
1994 | Jodie Foster | Nell | Nell Kellty | Nominated | Cisgender Unspecified | ||||
Susan Sarandon | The Client | Regina "Reggie" Love | Nominated | Cisgender Bisexual | |||||
1995 | Dead Man Walking | Sister Helen Prejean | Won | ||||||
2007 | Elliot Page (as Ellen Page) | Juno | Juno MacGuff | Nominated | Transgender Non-Binary & Queer | Assigned female at birth, Page was nominated in the Leading Actress category before publicly coming out as transgender a decade later. | [63] | ||
2008 | Angelina Jolie | Changeling | Christine Collins | Nominated | Cisgender Bisexual | Yes | [64] [65] [66] | ||
2018 | Lady Gaga | A Star Is Born | Ally Maine | Nominated | [67] | ||||
2019 | Cynthia Erivo | Harriet | Harriet Tubman | Nominated | No | [68] | |||
2021 | Kristen Stewart | Spencer | Diana, Princess of Wales | Nominated | Yes | [69] | |||
2023 | Lily Gladstone | Killers of the Flower Moon | Mollie Burkhart | Nominated | Non-Binary | Yes | [70] | ||
2024 | Karla Sofía Gascón | Emilia Pérez | Emilia Pérez/Manitas | Nominated | Transgender | Yes | First openly transgender person to be nominated for an acting Oscar | [71] | |
Cynthia Erivo | Wicked | Elphaba Thropp | Nominated | Cisgender Bisexual | Yes | [68] | |||
The following list is composed of actresses who have been claimed to be LGBT by others. They have been outed by a third party either while alive or after their death. However, they never publicly came out.
Academy Award for Best Actress | ||||||
Year | Name | Film | Role | Status | Alleged demographic | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1927/28 | Janet Gaynor | 7th Heaven | Diane | Won | Lesbian or Bisexual | [72] [73] |
Street Angel | Angela | |||||
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans | The Wife | |||||
1929/30 | Greta Garbo | Anna Christie | Anna Christie | Nominated | [74] [75] [76] [77] [78] | |
Romance | Rita Cavallini | |||||
1932/33 | Katharine Hepburn | Morning Glory | Eva Lovelace | Won | [84] | |
1935 | Alice Adams | Alice Adams | Nominated | |||
1937 | Greta Garbo | Camille | Marguerite Gautier | Nominated | [74] [75] [76] [77] [78] | |
Janet Gaynor | A Star Is Born | Esther Blodgett / Vicki Lester | Nominated | [73] [72] | ||
1939 | Greta Garbo | Ninotchka | Nina Ivanovna 'Ninotchka' Yakushova | Nominated | [74] [75] [76] [77] [78] | |
1940 | Katharine Hepburn | The Philadelphia Story | Tracy Samantha Lord | Nominated | [84] | |
1942 | Woman of the Year | Tess Harding | Nominated | |||
1951 | The African Queen | Rose Sayer | Nominated | |||
1955 | Summertime | Jane Hudson | Nominated | |||
1956 | The Rainmaker | Lizzie Curry | Nominated | |||
1959 | Suddenly, Last Summer | Catherine Holly | Nominated | |||
1962 | Long Day's Journey into Night | Mary Tyrone | Nominated | |||
1967 | Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? | Christina Drayton | Won | |||
1968 | The Lion in Winter | Eleanor of Aquitaine | Won | |||
1981 | On Golden Pond | Ethel Thayer | Won |
Best Actor in a Supporting Role | |||||||||
Year | Name | Film | Role | Status | Actor's Demographic | Out at the time? | Observation | Reference | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1955 | Sal Mineo | Rebel Without a Cause | John 'Plato' Crawford | Nominated | Cisgender Homosexual or Bisexual | No | Mineo confirmed his bisexuality slightly over a decade after his second nomination, in a 1972 interview with Boze Hadleigh—four years prior to his murder. | [126] [127] [128] [129] [130] | |
1960 | Exodus | Dov Landau | Nominated | ||||||
1964 | John Gielgud | Becket | King Louis VII of France | Nominated | Cisgender Homosexual | Yes (outed) | In 1953, Gielgud was arrested in Chelsea for cottaging (cruising for public sex), as homosexuality had not yet been decriminalized in the U.K. until the late 1960s. Gielgud was the first openly gay actor nominated in any category. | [131] | |
1971 | Leonard Frey | Fiddler on the Roof | Motel Kamzoil | Nominated | Yes | [132] | |||
1972 | Joel Grey | Cabaret | Master of Ceremonies | Won | No | Although once married (with children, including Jennifer Grey), Joel later acknowledged his orientation in 2015. | [133] [134] | ||
1978 | Christopher Walken | The Deer Hunter | Nikonar "Nick" Chevotarevich | Won | Cisgender Bisexual | Yes | [135] | ||
1981 | John Gielgud | Arthur | Hobson | Won | Cisgender Homosexual | Yes (outed) | (See note above with 1964 nom.). Gielgud was also the first openly LGBTQ actor to win an Oscar. | [131] | |
1989 | Marlon Brando | A Dry White Season | Ian McKenzie | Nominated | Cisgender Bisexual | Yes | [1] [2] [3] | ||
1992 | Jaye Davidson | The Crying Game | Dil | Nominated | Cisgender Homosexual | Felt that his "androgynous look alienated him from the gay community"; Davidson has since quit acting. | [136] | ||
1995 | Kevin Spacey | The Usual Suspects | Roger 'Verbal' Kint | Won | No | Spacey came out as a gay man in his statement addressing a sexual misconduct accusation by actor Anthony Rapp in 2017. | [12] [137] | ||
2001 | Ian McKellen | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring | Gandalf | Nominated | Yes | [138] | |||
2002 | Christopher Walken | Catch Me If You Can | Frank Abagnale Sr. | Nominated | Cisgender Bisexual | Yes | [135] |
The following list is composed of actors who have been claimed to be LGBT by others. They have been outed by a third party either while alive or after their death. However, they never publicly came out.
Best Actor in a Supporting Role | ||||||
Year | Name | Film | Role | Status | Alleged Demographic | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1944 | Clifton Webb | Laura | Waldo Lydecker | Nominated | Gay | [25] |
Monty Woolley | Since You Went Away | Colonel William G. Smollett | Nominated | [20] [21] [22] | ||
1945 | John Dall | The Corn is Green | Morgan Evans | Nominated | [139] | |
1946 | Clifton Webb | The Razor's Edge | Elliott Templeton | Nominated | [25] | |
1956 | Anthony Perkins | Friendly Persuasion | Josh Birdwell | Nominated | Gay or Bisexual | [140] [141] |
1961 | Montgomery Clift | Judgment at Nuremberg | Rudolph Peterson | Nominated | Bisexual | [24] |
1962 | Victor Buono | What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? | Edwin Flagg | Nominated | Gay | [142] |
1981 | James Coco | Only When I Laugh | Jimmy Perrino | Nominated | [143] | |
Howard E. Rollins, Jr. | Ragtime | Coalhouse Walker, Jr. | Nominated | [144] | ||
1986 | Denholm Elliott | A Room with a View | Mr. Emerson | Nominated | Bisexual | [145] [146] |
Performances of LGBTQ Characters Nominated for or Awarded Best Actor in a Supporting Role | ||||||||
Year | Film | Role | Character's Demographic | Actor | Actor's Demographic | Status | Refs | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1941 | The Maltese Falcon | Kasper 'The Fat Man' Gutman | Queer | Sydney Greenstreet | Cisgender Heterosexual | Nominated | [147] [148] [149] | |
1946 | The Razor's Edge | Elliott Templeton | Gay | Clifton Webb | Cisgender Homosexual | Nominated | [ citation needed ] | |
1955 | Rebel Without a Cause | John 'Plato' Crawford | Sal Mineo | Cisgender Bisexual | Nominated | [126] [127] [128] [129] [130] | ||
1962 | Lawrence of Arabia | Sherif Ali bin el Kharish | Omar Sharif | Cisgender Heterosexual | Nominated | [31] [30] [32] | ||
1975 | Dog Day Afternoon | Leon Shermer | Transgender woman | Chris Sarandon | Nominated | [150] [151] | ||
1981 | Only When I Laugh | Jimmy Perry | Gay | James Coco | Cisgender Undetermined | Nominated | [152] | |
1982 | The World According to Garp | Roberta Muldoon | Transgender woman | John Lithgow | Cisgender Heterosexual | Nominated | [153] [154] | |
Victor/Victoria | Carroll 'Toddy' Todd | Gay | Robert Preston | Nominated | [152] | |||
1990 | Longtime Companion | David | Bruce Davison | Nominated | [155] [156] | |||
1991 | JFK | Clay Shaw | Tommy Lee Jones | Nominated | [157] | |||
1992 | The Crying Game | Dil | Transgender woman | Jaye Davidson | Cisgender Homosexual | Nominated | [158] [159] | |
1997 | As Good as It Gets | Simon Bishop | Gay | Greg Kinnear | Cisgender Heterosexual | Nominated | [160] | |
2002 | The Hours | Richard Brown | Ed Harris | Nominated | [161] [162] | |||
2005 | Brokeback Mountain | Jack Twist | Gay or Bisexual | Jake Gyllenhaal | Nominated | [163] [164] [165] | ||
2011 | Beginners | Hal Fields | Gay | Christopher Plummer | Won | [166] | ||
2013 | Dallas Buyers Club | Rayon | Transgender woman | Jared Leto | Won | [167] [168] | ||
2017 | The Shape of Water | Giles | Gay | Richard Jenkins | Nominated | [169] | ||
2018 | Can You Ever Forgive Me? | Jack Hock | Richard E. Grant | Nominated | [170] | |||
Green Book | Don Shirley | Mahershala Ali | Won | [171] | ||||
2021 | The Power of the Dog | Peter Gordon | Bi-curious | Kodi Smit-McPhee | Nominated | [ citation needed ] | ||
2023 | American Fiction | Clifford "Cliff" Ellison | Gay | Sterling K. Brown | Nominated | [172] | ||
2024 | The Apprentice | Roy Cohn | Jeremy Strong | Nominated | [173] |
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress | ||||||||
Year | Name | Film | Role | Status | Actor's Demographic | Out at the time? | Observation | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1949 | Ethel Waters | Pinky | Dicey Johnson | Nominated | Cisgender Bisexual | No | [174] | |
1973 | Tatum O'Neal | Paper Moon | Addie Loggins | Won | [175] | |||
1975 | Lily Tomlin | Nashville | Linnea Reese | Nominated | Cisgender Lesbian | [176] [177] [178] [179] [180] | ||
1976 | Jodie Foster | Taxi Driver | Iris 'Easy' Steensma | Nominated | Cisgender Unspecified | (See note on Best Actress table.) | [62] | |
1980 | Eva Le Gallienne | Resurrection | Pearl | Nominated | Cisgender Lesbian | Yes | [181] | |
1983 | Linda Hunt | The Year of Living Dangerously | Billy Kwan | Won | Hunt portrayed a character who was a cisgender male, and was the first person to win an Oscar for playing a member of the opposite gender. | [182] [183] [184] [185] | ||
1993 | Anna Paquin | The Piano | Flora McGrath | Won | Cisgender Bisexual | No | [186] | |
1999 | Angelina Jolie | Girl, Interrupted | Lisa Rowe | Won | Yes | [64] [65] [66] | ||
2002 | Queen Latifah | Chicago | Matron 'Mama' Morton | Nominated | Cisgender Unspecified | No | Latifah hasn't identified her sexual orientation, but during her speech at the BET Awards 2021, she referenced Eboni Nichols as her partner. | [187] |
2007 | Tilda Swinton | Michael Clayton | Karen Crowder | Won | Cisgender Queer | [188] | ||
2009 | Mo'Nique | Precious | Mary Lee Johnston | Won | [189] | |||
2021 | Ariana DeBose | West Side Story | Anita | Won | Yes | DeBose is the first openly queer actor of color to win an Oscar, in any category. | [190] | |
Aunjanue Ellis | King Richard | Oracene Price | Nominated | Cisgender Bisexual | No | [191] | ||
2022 | Stephanie Hsu | Everything Everywhere All at Once | Joy Wang / Jobu Tupaki | Nominated | Cisgender Queer | Yes | [192] [ better source needed ] | |
2023 | Jodie Foster | Nyad | Bonnie Stoll | Nominated | Cisgender Unspecified | Yes | (See note on Best Actress table.) | [62] |
The following list is composed of actresses who have been claimed to be LGBT by others. They have been outed by a third party either while alive or after their death. However, they never publicly came out.
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress | ||||||
Year | Name | Film | Role | Status | Alleged demographic | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1938 | Spring Byington | You Can't Take It with You | Penelope 'Penny' Sycamore | Nominated | Lesbian | [193] [194] [195] [196] [197] |
1947 | Marjorie Main | The Egg and I | Phoebe 'Ma' Kettle | Nominated | Bisexual | [197] |
1966 | Sandy Dennis | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? | Honey | Won | [198] [199] [200] [201] |
Performances of LGBTQ Characters Nominated for or Awarded Best Actress in a Supporting Role | |||||||
Year | Film | Role | Character's demographic | Actress | Actress's demographic | Status | References |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1940 | Rebecca | Mrs. Danvers | Lesbian | Judith Anderson | Cisgender Heterosexual | Nominated | [202] [203] [204] |
1950 | Caged | Evelyn Harper | Hope Emerson | Nominated | [ citation needed ] | ||
1964 | The Night of the Iguana | Judith Fellowes | Grayson Hall | Nominated | [152] | ||
1968 | Rachel, Rachel | Calla Mackie | Estelle Parsons | Nominated | [205] [152] | ||
1983 | Silkwood | Dolly Pelliker | Cher | Nominated | [152] | ||
1985 | The Color Purple | Shug Avery | Bisexual | Margaret Avery | Nominated | [152] | |
1998 | Primary Colors | Libby Holden | Lesbian | Kathy Bates | Nominated | [206] | |
1999 | Being John Malkovich | Maxine Lund | Bisexual | Catherine Keener | Nominated | [207] | |
Girl, Interrupted | Lisa Rowe | Angelina Jolie | Cisgender Bisexual | Won | [208] | ||
2001 | Iris | Iris Murdoch | Kate Winslet | Cisgender Heterosexual | Nominated | [92] [93] | |
2008 | Vicky Cristina Barcelona | María Elena | Penélope Cruz | Won | [209] | ||
2011 | Albert Nobbs | Hubert Page | Transgender man | Janet McTeer | Nominated | [210] [211] | |
2015 | Carol | Therese Belivet | Lesbian | Rooney Mara | Nominated | [212] | |
2018 | The Favourite | Baroness Abigail Masham | Lesbian or Bisexual | Emma Stone | Nominated | [213] | |
Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough | Rachel Weisz | Nominated | [213] | ||||
2019 | Bombshell | Kayla Pospisil | Margot Robbie | Nominated | [214] [215] | ||
2022 | Everything Everywhere All at Once | Deirdre Beaubeirdre | Unclear [a] | Jamie Lee Curtis | Won | [216] | |
Joy Wang / Jobu Tupaki | Lesbian | Stephanie Hsu | Cisgender Queer | Nominated | [192] [217] [218] | ||
2023 | Nyad | Bonnie Stoll | Jodie Foster | Cisgender Unspecified LGBT | Nominated | [219] |
Academy Award for Best Animated Feature | |||||
Year | Name | Film | Status | Nominee's Demographic | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2008 | Byron Howard | Bolt | Nominated | Cisgender Homosexual | [220] |
2010 | Dean DeBlois | How to Train Your Dragon | Nominated | [221] | |
Lee Unkrich | Toy Story 3 | Won | Cisgender Bisexual | [222] | |
2012 | Chris Butler | ParaNorman | Nominated | Cisgender Homosexual | [223] |
2014 | Dean DeBlois | How to Train Your Dragon 2 | Nominated | [221] | |
2016 | Byron Howard | Zootopia | Won | [220] | |
2017 | Darla K. Anderson | Coco | Won | Cisgender Lesbian | [224] |
Lee Unkrich | Won | Cisgender Bisexual | [222] | ||
2018 | Scott Rudin | Isle of Dogs | Nominated | Cisgender Homosexual | [225] |
2019 | Chris Butler | Missing Link | Nominated | [223] | |
Dean DeBlois | How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World | Nominated | [221] | ||
2020 | Kori Rae | Onward | Nominated | Cisgender Lesbian | [226] |
2021 | Byron Howard | Encanto | Won | Cisgender Homosexual | |
2024 | Adam Elliot | Memoir of a Snail | Nominated | [227] | |
Jeff Hermann | The Wild Robot | Nominated |
Year | Title | Status | Relevant Theme | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|
2007 | Persepolis | Nominated | Gay | |
2012 | ParaNorman | Nominated | ||
2017 | The Breadwinner | Nominated | Non-binary | |
2021 | Flee | Nominated | Gay | |
The Mitchells vs. the Machines | Nominated | Queer | ||
2023 | Nimona | Nominated | Gay | |
2024 | Memoir of a Snail | Nominated | Gay |
Academy Award for Best Cinematography | ||||||
Year | Name | Film | Status | Milestone | Demographic | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1978 | Néstor Almendros | Days of Heaven | Won | Cisgender Homosexual | [228] | |
1979 | Kramer vs. Kramer | Nominated | ||||
1980 | The Blue Lagoon | Nominated | ||||
James Crabe | The Formula | Nominated | [229] | |||
1982 | Néstor Almendros | Sophie's Choice | Nominated | [228] | ||
1985 | David Watkin | Out of Africa | Won | [230] | ||
2017 | Rachel Morrison | Mudbound | Nominated | First female nominee for Best Cinematography | Cisgender Lesbian | [231] |
The following list is composed of directors who have been claimed to be LGBT by others. They have been outed by a third party either while alive or after their death. However, they never publicly came out.
Academy Award for Best Director | ||||||
Year | Name | Film | Status | Alleged demographic | Reference | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1978 | Michael Cimino | The Deer Hunter | Won | Transgender or Non-binary | [261] [262] |
Academy Award for Best International Feature Film | |||||
Year | Director | Film | Status | Demographic | Country |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1977 | Ettore Scola | A Special Day | Nominated | Gay | Italy |
1993 | Fernando Trueba | Belle Époque | Won | Lesbian | Spain |
Chen Kaige | Farewell My Concubine | Nominated | Gay | Hong Kong | |
Ang Lee | The Wedding Banquet | Nominated | Taiwan | ||
1994 | {co-directed by} Tomás Gutiérrez Alea Juan Carlos Tabío | Strawberry and Chocolate | Nominated | Cuba | |
1995 | Marleen Gorris | Antonia's Line | Won | Lesbian | Netherlands |
1999 | Pedro Almodovar | All About My Mother | Won | Transgender | Spain |
2017 | Sebastián Lelio | A Fantastic Woman | Won | Chile | |
2019 | Pedro Almodovar | Pain and Glory | Nominated | Gay | Spain |
2021 | Jonas Poher Rasmussen | Flee | Nominated | Gay | Denmark |
2022 | Lukas Dhont | Close | Nominated | Belgium | |
2024 | Jacques Audiard | Emilia Pérez | Nominated | Transgender | France |
Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject | ||||
Year | Name | Film | Status | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|
1952 | Norman McLaren | Neighbours | Won | [273] |
1991 | Debra Chasnoff | Deadly Deception: General Electric, Nuclear Weapons and Our Environment | Won | [274] |
1994 | Dee Mosbacher | Straight from the Heart | Nominated | [266] |
Frances Reid | Nominated | |||
2002 | Robert Houston | Mighty Times: The Legacy of Rosa Parks | Nominated | [275] |
2004 | Mighty Times: The Children's March | Won | ||
2018 | Rob Epstein | End Game | Nominated | [263] [276] |
Jeffrey Friedman | Nominated |
Academy Award for Best Film Editing | ||||||
Year | Name | Film | Status | Demographic | Reference | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1961 | William H. Reynolds | Fanny | Nominated | Cisgender Homosexual | [229] | |
1965 | The Sound of Music | Won | ||||
1966 | The Sand Pebbles | Nominated | ||||
1969 | Hello, Dolly! | Nominated | ||||
1972 | The Godfather | Nominated | ||||
1973 | The Sting | Won | ||||
1977 | The Turning Point | Nominated | ||||
2017 | Tatiana S. Riegel | I, Tonya | Nominated | Cisgender Lesbian | [277] | |
2018 | John Ottman | Bohemian Rhapsody | Won | Cisgender Homosexual | [278] |
Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling | |||||
Year | Name | Film | Status | Demographic | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1992 | Matthew W. Mungle | Bram Stoker's Dracula | Won | Gay | [279] |
1993 | Schindler's List | Nominated | |||
1996 | Ghosts of Mississippi | Nominated | |||
2002 | John E. Jackson | Frida | Won | ||
2005 | Tami Lane | The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe | Won | Lesbian | [280] |
2011 | J. Roy Helland | The Iron Lady | Won | Gay | [281] |
2011 | Matthew W. Mungle | Albert Nobbs | Nominated | [279] | |
2012 | Tami Lane | The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey | Nominated | Lesbian | [280] |
2020 | Matthew W. Mungle | Hillbilly Elegy | Nominated | Gay | [279] |
Sergio Lopez-Rivera | Ma Rainey's Black Bottom | Won | [282] | ||
2021 | Frederic Aspiras | House of Gucci | Nominated | [283] | |
Academy Award for Best Original Score | ||||
Year | Name | Film | Status | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|
1939 | Aaron Copland | Of Mice and Men | Nominated | [284] |
1940 | Our Town | Nominated | ||
1943 | The North Star | Nominated | ||
1949 | The Heiress | Won | ||
1954 | Leonard Bernstein | On the Waterfront | Nominated | [285] |
1965 | Jacques Demy | The Umbrellas of Cherbourg | Nominated | [286] |
1967 | Richard Rodney Bennett | Far from the Madding Crowd | Nominated | [287] |
1971 | Nicholas and Alexandra | Nominated | ||
1974 | Murder on the Orient Express | Nominated | ||
1980 | John Corigliano | Altered States | Nominated | [225] |
1992 | Richard Robbins | Howards End | Nominated | [288] |
1993 | The Remains of the Day | Nominated | ||
1995 | Marc Shaiman | The American President | Nominated | [289] |
1996 | The First Wives Club | Nominated | ||
1998 | Patch Adams | Nominated | ||
1999 | John Corigliano | The Red Violin | Won | [225] |
2013 | Owen Pallett | Her | Nominated | [290] |
2016 | Mica Levi | Jackie | Nominated | [291] |
2018 | Marc Shaiman | Mary Poppins Returns | Nominated | [289] |
2023 | Laura Karpman | American Fiction | Nominated | [292] |
Original Song Score or Adaptation | |||||
Year | Name | Film | Status | Milestone | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1939 | Aaron Copland | Of Mice and Men | Nominated | [284] | |
Roger Edens | Babes in Arms | Nominated | [293] | ||
1940 | Aaron Copland | Our Town | Nominated | [284] | |
Roger Edens | Strike Up the Band | Nominated | [293] | ||
1942 | For Me and My Gal | Nominated | |||
1948 | Easter Parade | Won | Only composer to win three consecutive awards in this category. | ||
1949 | On the Town | Won | |||
1950 | Annie Get Your Gun | Won | |||
1952 | Gian Carlo Menotti | The Medium | Nominated | [294] | |
1968 | Jacques Demy | The Young Girls of Rochefort | Nominated | [286] | |
1970 | Rod McKuen | A Boy Named Charlie Brown | Nominated | [295] | |
1972 | Ralph Burns | Cabaret | Won | [296] | |
1974 | Frederick Loewe | The Little Prince | Nominated | [297] | |
Angela Morley | Nominated | First openly transgender Academy Award nominee | [298] | ||
1977 | The Slipper and the Rose—The Story of Cinderella | Nominated | |||
1979 | Ralph Burns | All That Jazz | Won | [296] | |
1982 | Annie | Nominated |
Year | Title | Status | Relevant Theme | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|
1969 | Midnight Cowboy | Won | Bisexual | [325] |
1972 | Cabaret | Nominated | Bisexual | [326] |
1975 | Dog Day Afternoon | Nominated | Transgender | [327] |
1985 | Kiss of the Spider Woman | Nominated | Gay | [328] |
1991 | The Silence of the Lambs | Won | Transgender | [329] |
1992 | The Crying Game | Nominated | [330] | |
1999 | American Beauty | Won | Gay | [331] |
2002 | The Hours | Nominated | Lesbian and Gay | [332] |
2005 | Brokeback Mountain | Nominated | Gay | [333] |
Capote | Nominated | [334] | ||
2008 | Milk | Nominated | [335] | |
2010 | Black Swan | Nominated | Bisexual | [336] |
The Kids Are All Right | Nominated | Lesbian | ||
2013 | Dallas Buyers Club | Nominated | Queer Transgender | [337] |
2014 | The Imitation Game | Nominated | Gay | [338] |
2016 | Moonlight | Won | [339] | |
2017 | Call Me by Your Name | Nominated | Bisexual | [340] |
2018 | Bohemian Rhapsody | Nominated | [341] | |
The Favourite | Nominated | Lesbian and Bisexual | [342] | |
2021 | The Power of the Dog | Nominated | Queer | [343] |
2022 | Everything Everywhere All at Once | Won | Lesbian and Bisexual | [344] [345] |
Tár | Nominated | [346] [347] | ||
2023 | American Fiction | Nominated | Gay | |
Anatomy of a Fall | Nominated | Bisexual | ||
Maestro | Nominated | |||
2024 | Emilia Pérez | Nominated | Transgender |
The following list is composed of producers who have been claimed to be LGBT by others. They have been outed by a third party either alive or after their death. However, they never publicly came out.
Academy Award for Best Picture | ||||||
Year | Name | Film | Status | Alleged demographic | Reference | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1978 | Michael Cimino | The Deer Hunter | Won | Transgender or Non-binary | [348] [262] |
Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film | |||||
Year | Name | Film | Status | Demographic | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1969 | Ryan Larkin | Walking | Nominated | Bisexual | [354] |
2003 | Adam Elliot | Harvie Krumpet | Won | Gay | [227] |
2020 | Adrien Merigeau | Genius Loci | Nominated | Non-Binary | [355] |
Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film | |||||
Year | Name | Film | Status | Demographic | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1952 | Norman McLaren | Neighbours | Nominated | Gay | [273] |
1957 | A Chairy Tale | Nominated | |||
1960 | Ismail Merchant | The Creation of Woman | Nominated | [255] | |
1992 | Christian Taylor | The Lady in Waiting | Nominated | [356] | |
1994 | Randy Stone | Trevor | Won | [357] | |
2020 | Travon Free | Two Distant Strangers | Won | Bisexual | [358] |
Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing | |||||
Year | Name | Film | Status | Demographic | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2008 | Lora Hirschberg | The Dark Knight | Nominated | Lesbian | [319] |
2010 | Inception | Won |
The following list is composed of writers who have been claimed to be LGBT by others. They have been outed by a third party either alive or after their death. However, they never publicly came out.
Academy Award for Best Writing (Original Screenplay) | ||||||
Year | Name | Film | Status | Alleged demographic | Reference | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1978 | Michael Cimino | The Deer Hunter | Nominated | Transgender or Non-binary | [385] [262] |
Academy Award for Best Original Story | |||||
Year | Name | Film | Status | Demographic | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1946 | John Patrick | The Strange Love of Martha Ivers | Nominated | Gay | [229] |
1950 | Leonard Spigelgass | Mystery Street | Nominated | ||
1951 | James Bernard | Seven Days to Noon | Won | [386] | |
Paul Dehn | Won | [364] | |||
1955 | Nicholas Ray | Rebel Without a Cause | Nominated | Bisexual | [387] |
The Governors Awards are an annual ceremony hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences dedicated to honor actors and filmmakers with lifetime achievement awards. Three awards are given: the Academy Honorary Award, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, and the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. Unlike the Academy Awards, the nominations and voting for these awards are restricted to members of the Board of Governors of AMPAS.
The Academy Honorary Award honors exceptional career achievements, contributions to the motion picture industry, and service to the academy. [388] The Academy Honorary Award is often awarded in preference to those with noted achievements in motion pictures who have nevertheless never won an Academy Award. Thus, many of its recipients are Classic Hollywood stars, such as Lillian Gish, Barbara Stanwyck, Kirk Douglas, and Lauren Bacall.
Among its Honorary Awards for acting, the academy also presents deserving young actors with the Special Juvenile Academy Award. (Most of those are not listed here; some of the early "Special Awards" that later became known in that acting category as the "Special Juvenile Academy Award" are listed with "Special Award" added parenthetically.) [389]
The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award honors an individual's outstanding contributions to humanitarian causes.
The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award honors creative producers, whose bodies of work reflect a consistently high quality of motion picture production.
Governors Awards | |||||
Year | Name | Award | Achievement | Demographic | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1942 | Noël Coward | Academy Honorary Award | For his outstanding production achievement in In Which We Serve . (Certificate of Merit) | Gay | [375] |
1954 | Greta Garbo | For her unforgettable screen performances. (Statuette) | Bisexual (Alleged) | [390] | |
1961 | Jerome Robbins | For his brilliant achievements in the art of choreography on film. (Statuette) | Bisexual | [251] | |
1969 | Cary Grant | For his unique mastery of the art of screen acting with the respect and affection of his colleagues. (Statuette) | Bisexual (Alleged) | [18] [19] | |
1973 | Henri Langlois | For his devotion to the art of film, his massive contributions in preserving its past and his unswerving faith in its future. (Statuette) | Gay | [391] | |
2013 | Piero Tosi | A visionary whose incomparable costume designs shaped timeless, living art in motion pictures. (Statuette) | Gay | [237] | |
2014 | Angelina Jolie | Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award | Outstanding contributions to humanitarian causes. (Statuette) | Bisexual | [64] [65] [66] |
Brando's bisexuality was not a secret in the Broadway community or in Hollywood. His greatest love affair was with fellow actor Wally Cox. Their relationship lasted a lifetime and beyond. After Cox took his final curtain call in 1973, Brando kept his ashes. On Brando's final bow in 2004, in accordance with his wishes, their ashes were mixed together and scattered in Death Valley.
The clearly conflicted Bates was married and had children, yet in his personal life was frequently in gay relationships that had to be kept secret from the public.
Sacheen Littlefeather (a.k.a. Maria Cruz) refuses to accept the Best Actor Oscar® on behalf of Marlon Brando for his performance in The Godfather (1972) at the 45th annual Academy Awards® in 1973. Liv Ullmann and Roger Moore presented the award.
It was here he began a relationship with architect Charles Gillan Jr. that would continue until Gillan's death in 2002. "Paul was openly gay in his life, if not in the media," his friend Jack Larson (Jimmy Olsen from Adventures of Superman ) has said.
Andrews-Katz: 'How do you respond to the many lists that place you among openly Gay actors?' Hulce: 'I'm comfortable being among the lists, although I stopped acting about 10 years ago.'
In 1994 [sic], after Sir Nigel won his Oscar nomination, the tabloids seized on an interview he had reluctantly given an American gay magazine at the behest of his Hollywood studio. The headlines were the British press at its lowest - tasteless, intrusive, worse than cruel.
Speaking to The Guardian, McKellen added: 'No openly gay man has ever won the Oscar. I wonder if that is prejudice or chance....What about giving me one for playing a straight man?' asked McKellen,...
Rapp: Spacey followed me to the front door of the apartment, and as I opened the door to leave, he was leaning on the front door[frame]. And he was like, 'Are you sure you wanna go?' I said, 'Yes, good night,' and then I did leave.
George Cukor, of course, was very friendly with Katharine Hepburn. Hepburn and Spencer Tracy were both gay. They were publicly paired together by the studio. Everyone in Hollywood knows this is true, but of course I haven't seen it printed anywhere.
"So how gay was Spencer Tracy?" I asked him. "He got drunk and thanked the man beside him in the morning for taking care of him," he said with a gap-toothed grin,
These themes manifest in various ways, the most compelling, and controversial, however, was in the character Brick. An ex-athlete, Brick struggles with his homosexual feelings toward his recently deceased friend Skipper.
America, however, had its own censorship problems. In the cinema, the outdated Hays' Code was used to limit freedom of expression. The irony is that one of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof's great virtues is that it shows Big Daddy's tolerant understanding of Brick's sexuality.
Lean implied not only the queer nature of Lawrence (Peter O'Toole), but a homosexual relationship between him and companion Sherif Ali (Omar Sharif).
'So it does pervade it, the whole story, and certainly Lawrence was very if not entirely homosexual. We thought we were being very daring at the time: Lawrence and Omar, Lawrence and the Arab boys.'
Some point to Lawrence's close relationship with Dahoum, the Arab workman, as evidence of his homosexuality. Lawrence reserved his fondest words for a mysterious 'S.A.'--dedicating his book to this person with a love poem--and many believe S.A. stands for Sheikh, or Salim, Ahmed, i.e., Dahoum. These sources call Dahoum the love of Lawrence's life and say part of his disillusionment with the desert war was due to the fact that it caused the boy's death.
'I didn't think that it should be portrayed with any kind of apology,' director John Schlesinger said of Peter Finch and Murray Head's lip-lock in 1971 film.
Marcello's performance in A Special Day encouraged gay identification and cinematic recognition.
It is good that the film has a gay lead character, but it's bad that he is an effeminate stereotype, though, to be fair, both Harwood and Courtenay humanise him and try hard to keep him sympathetic.
Throughout the film, Luis uses she/her pronouns to self-describe.…The film itself also begs questions about Valentin's sexual fluidity; has he fallen in love with Luis, or just an idea the pair have created? If Hurt gets all the praise for his work in Kiss of the Spider Woman, Julia doesn't get enough. Both actors give sensational performances here.
'We had to say something about not just gay rights, but about feminine and masculine relationships, and the nature of courage and what it means to speak truth to a power so much greater than you are,' Hurt observed in 2015.
'One of the reasons people weren't afraid of that movie is that I was playing a gay man,' Hanks said. 'We're beyond that now, and I don't think people would accept the inauthenticity of a straight guy playing a gay guy.'
In reality, Clayton Boone never existed. While [spoiler alert] Whale's death played out as it does in the film, he, at the time, was living with his boyfriend Pierre Foegel. Far from the tragic figure portrayed in the movie, Whale was openly gay in Hollywood (quite remarkable for the era) and was with his partner, David Lewis, for more than 20 years. Hollywood is all too keen on presenting gay stories as brave, heroic tragedies. From Philadelphia to Brokeback Mountain, I worry about the legacy of the 'Dead Gay' trope. Why must gay stories inevitably end in death and weeping?
— returns to the same glittery stage that made [Javier Bardem] a global star in 2000. That's when he appeared at the [Venice Film Festival] in support of Before Night Falls, the Julian Schnabel-directed adaptation of gay Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas's 1992 memoir...The performance earned Bardem Venice's Volpi Cup for best actor.
I think Ennis is gay. He married Alma, had kids, and even tried to get another girl because that was considered 'normal' in society. Ennis is a perfect example of closeted gays living in countries where LGBT rights don't exist. Coming out as gay can mean a death sentence for some, depending on the area they live in. I think if Ennis grew up in a society where being gay was acceptable, he would've lived his life as gay man.
The men intermittently meet for clandestine 'fishing trips' and motel rendezvous. Jack schemes for a way for them to build a life together, away from society, while Ennis doesn't believe such a thing is possible. Ennis's fear and inability to believe in—or try for—a future together, and Jack's relentless pursuit of it, drives a wedge between them.
I've always felt that Ennis was homosexual, but it was difficult to fit some of his clothes together. In the reunion kiss scene, he initiated a kiss that left him speechless.
Same-sex love within rurality is intrinsically rooted to love for the landscape itself—Ennis has not only lost Jack, he has lost Brokeback Mountain. In the final scene of the movie, we see that Ennis keeps the two shirts in his closet below a tacked postcard of Brokeback Mountain, though this time his own shirt is the one that covers Jack's, like some final protection of Jack's memory.
Fortunately, Truman--unlike so many writers, ahem--had a boyfriend to ground him [Jack Dunphy, played by Bruce Greenwood]. They were companions for a long, long time. They had confidences together and Truman trusted Jack implicitly.
With Sean Penn starring as Harvey Milk, the openly gay San Francisco supervisor who was gunned down in 1978, the movie makes its message clear: Gay people must be 'out' to be counted....But there's also a certain irony: Not only is none of the featured players in the film openly gay, there isn't one openly gay leading man in all of Hollywood.
Everett touched on the topic of straight actors playing gay roles, and while he doesn't think all gay roles should be played by gay actors, he seemed annoyed that the straight-identifying Firth played a gay role in Tom Ford's 2009 film.
'It was not because we were afraid it would offend anybody,' Tyldum said. 'If I … had this thing about a straight character, I would never have a sex scene to prove that he's heterosexual. If I have a gay character in a movie, I need to have a sex scene in it — just to prove that he's gay?'
Trans actors would hardly want to be restricted to playing trans characters, so why should the reverse not be countenanced? This logic makes no sense and it does not help trans people. Trans people are human beings just like everyone else – and trans characters should be played by the best actor available. In The Danish Girl that meant a man – Redmayne – played the lead role.
If anything, I'd argue this shows how layered Elio's sexuality is. Is he homo-romantic and bisexual, or bi-romantic as well?
The result is far more hurtful than your average unconsciously homophobic film. Bohemian Rhapsody is a movie that consciously tries to position a gay man at its center while strategically disengaging with the 'gay' part as much as it can,
The Mr. Robot star played Freddie Mercury in the critically-panned release, which spent years in development amid rumoured fall-outs between the production and surviving Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor over the focus of the film. Malek previously hinted at his unhappiness with the lack of focus on the gay icon's private life in the film, saying he 'would've loved to have incorporated more' about Mercury's relationship with [long-term partner] Jim Hutton prior to his death from AIDS-related illness.
'I just kept pushing for more of that aspect of his life,' he said. 'I don't know if we ever felt fulfilled by it.' It was difficult to work in more, Malek says, since much of the film focuses on Queen's early days and subsequent commercial peak, and Mercury's first relationship – with 'the love of his life,' Mary Austin (Lucy Boynton) – to whom he comes out as bisexual in the film.
Throughout Pain and Glory, the audience discovers Salvador's first desire (cinema), first adult love in the '80s (he's gay), and the lasting pangs of a painful breakup.
Phil (Benedict Cumberbatch) is not depicted as a comically evil gay cowboy, but rather as a flesh-and-blood being with mortal desires and frustrations.
In the next scene, Charlie is seen, and it is shocking — and not just because he is masturbating to gay porn when Thomas (Ty Simpkins), a missionary, drops by. It because Charlie is severely obese.
In the thirties, before her marriage to Adrian, Janet was linked to co-star Margaret Lindsay. Although a celebrated beauty and highly regarded actor, Margaret Lindsay never became a great star, allegedly because she refused to play the Hollywood game and marry. When she required a male date for a red carpet event, she inevitably turned to gay friends like Cesar Romero and Liberace.
but with the film colony's most famous closet cases (including Cary Grant, and, gossip avers, the neurotic bisexual and biplane addict Howard Hughes). Still, the marriage was a true meeting of minds: Adrian made the trousers and Janet wore them. Roll that Happy Ending.
In Morocco (1930) and Blonde Venus (1932), von Sternberg cast her as a cabaret performer who flirts with men, women, and disaster. It was the former film that gifted what Laura Horak identifies as probably our era's 'most-reproduced likeness' of Dietrich, as drolly-named performer Amy Jolly – jolly as synonym for gay? – in her perfectly-fitted top hat and tails, cigarette dangling.
Martin Gottfried's often questionable biography, All His Jazz, states that the frequently noted incident in the film in which Lenny manipulates Honey into bisexual threesomes with other women, was entirely an invention of Fosse and Julian Barry, inspired by Fosse's personal obsession with three-way sex.
…Once the screenplay begins burying Rose alive. By the time her demurely dressed lesbian lover appears on the scene,…
There were certain things in the [lesbian] relationship between Shug Avery and Celie that were finely detailed in Alice's book, that I didn't feel could get a [PG-13] rating. And I was shy about it.
Telling the story of the real life murder of Brandon Teena, a trans man murdered in Nebraska in 1993, Boys Don't Cry was an indie film made on a shoestring budget. Its director Kimberly Peirce was barely out of film school, and Hilary Swank, who played Teena, was relatively unknown. She was paid $3,000 for being in the film. When it came out, it debuted in 25 cinemas, before going nationwide, making it all the way to the Oscars, where Swank won an award for Best Actress…for playing a man. But we'll come back to that.
Even though the film focuses on Murdoch's marriage it doesn't shy away from glimpses into her lesbian affairs. '[Iris] was bisexual and had lots of affairs with men and women at the same time,' Winslet recently told an interviewer.
...and taking a shower with her friend, Janet Stone (Wilton)....The film is edited to exacerbate the contrast between the ferociously bright young Iris (Winslet) and the confused and childlike older Iris (Dench), frequently as she is observed by John. Young John (Bonneville) watches Iris kiss another woman in a café...old John (Broadbent) watching Iris struggling to form the word 'puzzled'...
She supports the Mexican Revolution, she dresses in men's clothes, she has premarital sex, and she has one super sexy tango with Tina Modotti (Ashley Judd), that ends in a kiss.
Virginia Woolf herself was rumored to have had same-sex affairs, although The Hours doesn't spend much time discussing them (it does, of course, open with her infamous suicide).
The third is between Virginia Woolf and her sister Vanessa Bell (Miranda Richardson), who Virginia kisses strongly and passionately at the end of a visit. Each disrupts the pacing and tone of the scene it's in—the axis the characters spin on tilts unaccountably.
Theron launched her production company, Denver & Delilah, in 2003 when she got the sense, she has said, that some of the financiers behind Monster wanted 'a hot lesbian movie with me and Christina Ricci'. Theron wanted to protect the vision of the film's director, Patty Jenkins, who, at the time, was making her first feature.
…The film also highlights some of Holiday's romantic entanglements with Jimmy (Trevante Rhodes); her volatile husband and manager, McKay (Rob Morgan); and actress Tallulah Bankhead (Natasha Lyonne).
At the time of his death, Mineo had been in a relationship with fellow actor Courtney Burr III for six years.
As he got older and matured in his acting, Mineo sought to explore his gayness in his life and his art.
After accepting Jim's jacket, Plato not only tenderly cradles it, but even holds it up to his face and sniffs it.
[Director Nicholas Ray and James] Dean knew what was going on. Prior to filming the intense encounter with Mineo in the abandoned Getty Mansion, he told him, "Look at me the way I look at Natalie."
The Maltese Falcon's gay squad constitute the glory of the studio era's character-actor legacy. Among the Falcon chasers: Papa bear Kasper Gutman, a part that won Sydney Greenstreet an Oscar nomination,
...disguises the glaring truth, which is that The Maltese Falcon can be accurately described as the story of a group of gay men who went on an antiquing trip that got out of hand.
For Caspar Gutman, similar direct textual evidence is lacking, but he is largely thought to be homosexual because he is the older man who "keeps" the young Wilmer Cook.
"The Honorary Award is not called a lifetime achievement award by the Academy, but it is often given for a life's work in filmmaking – to Polish director Andrzej Wajda in 1999, for example, and to Elia Kazan the previous year [1998].... The Honorary Award also may be given for outstanding service to the Academy. The last time this happened, however, was in 1979, when an Oscar statuette was presented to Academy Governor Hal Elias, who had served more than a quarter century on the Board of Governors.