The least lesbian Oscar nominations ever were announced this morning (caveat-‘least lesbian’ may be an exaggeration, but not by much). There was a dearth of lesbian and bisexual characters on the big screen in 2012, the likes of which have not been seen since Wings won the first Academy Award ever in 1927. Just last year Glenn Close and Janet McTeer were nominated for gender bending roles while Rooney Mara landed a nod for her incarnation of bisexual super hacker Lisbeth Salander in David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. 2011 saw a nomination for Annette Bening for her annoying lesbian character in The Kids are All Right (but at least it was something). And in 2009 Penelope Cruz won Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of a fiery bisexual artist in Vicki Cristina Barcelona.
Since there’s nothing overtly lesbian or bisexual about this year’s Oscars--a larger problem that is indicative of mainstream cinema's apparent disitnerest in the lives of queer women, which is a whole bigger rant --we’ll get to some very minor adjacencies, but first, the award for the most ridiculous snub of the season goes to Academy voters for failing to nominate Zero Dark Thirty director Kathryn Bigelow, who made history as the first woman ever to win a directing Oscar for The Hurt Locker. But this year the Academy failed to nominate Bigelow, even though she’s landed on virtually all of the end-of-the-year critics’ lists. Rather, the Academy saw fit to reward Stephen Spielberg for his bland hyper-American dreck with Lincoln.
While a lesbian make-up artist or director of documentary short feature may reveal herself to be gay during a speech when she thanks a female partner, for now, we can’t find any lesbian or bisexual nominees or nominees for queer characters, save for a hilarious reveal by Jennifer Lawrence’s character in Silver Linings Playbook (one that we won’t spoil).
Without further ado, since the Oscars is so damned straight this year, here are some nominees who’ve played gay or made out with other women on screen.
In the Best Actress category Naomi Watts is nominated for her turn as a mother struggling to survive in the wake of the 2004 tsunami. Watts famously played lesbian in David Lynch’s trippy 2001 thriller Mulholland Drive.
We’re pretty sure it doesn’t count as queer if Best Supporting Actress nominee for The Master, Amy Adams, lip locked with a chick for the sole purpose of turning on a dude in the masterpiece that was Cruel Intentions 2, but since it's all so sad and paltry, we decided to include it.
Other nominees include two in the Best Supporting Actress category who have gay family members. Sally Field, nominated for playing Mary Todd Lincoln, has been very out and proud about her gay son this year. Nominee for her visceral portrayal of Fantine in Les Miserable, Anne Hathaway, has a gay brother.
And that’s about it for this year’s nominees. Check out the full list below. We IMDBd until we got nerve damage in our fingertips trying to recall if Helen Hunt, Jessica Chastain or even Sally Field had played gay, but we can’t find anything. On that note though, at this point in Sally’s career she should have at least one lesbian role under her belt.
Read the complete list of nominees on the following page. Also, check out our running list of actresses nominated for Oscars in queer roles.
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Performance by an actor in a leading role
* Bradley Cooper in "Silver Linings Playbook"
* Daniel Day-Lewis in "Lincoln"
* Hugh Jackman in "Les Misérables"
* Joaquin Phoenix in "The Master"
* Denzel Washington in "Flight"
Performance by an actor in a supporting role
* Alan Arkin in "Argo"
* Robert De Niro in "Silver Linings Playbook"
* Philip Seymour Hoffman in "The Master"
* Tommy Lee Jones in "Lincoln"
* Christoph Waltz in "Django Unchained"
Performance by an actress in a leading role
* Jessica Chastain in "Zero Dark Thirty"
* Jennifer Lawrence in "Silver Linings Playbook"
* Emmanuelle Riva in "Amour"
* Quvenzhané Wallis in "Beasts of the Southern Wild"
* Naomi Watts in "The Impossible"
Performance by an actress in a supporting role
* Amy Adams in "The Master"
* Sally Field in "Lincoln"
* Anne Hathaway in "Les Misérables"
* Helen Hunt in "The Sessions"
* Jacki Weaver in "Silver Linings Playbook"
Best animated feature film of the year
* "Brave" Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman
* "Frankenweenie" Tim Burton
* "ParaNorman" Sam Fell and Chris Butler
* "The Pirates! Band of Misfits" Peter Lord
* "Wreck-It Ralph" Rich Moore
Achievement in cinematography
* "Anna Karenina" Seamus McGarvey
* "Django Unchained" Robert Richardson
* "Life of Pi" Claudio Miranda
* "Lincoln" Janusz Kaminski
* "Skyfall" Roger Deakins
Achievement in costume design
* "Anna Karenina" Jacqueline Durran
* "Les Misérables" Paco Delgado
* "Lincoln" Joanna Johnston
* "Mirror Mirror" Eiko Ishioka
* "Snow White and the Huntsman" Colleen Atwood
Achievement in directing
* "Amour" Michael Haneke
* "Beasts of the Southern Wild" Benh Zeitlin
* "Life of Pi" Ang Lee
* "Lincoln" Steven Spielberg
* "Silver Linings Playbook" David O. Russell
Best documentary feature
* "5 Broken Cameras" Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
* "The Gatekeepers" Nominees to be determined
* "How to Survive a Plague" Nominees to be determined
* "The Invisible War"Nominees to be determined
* "Searching for Sugar Man" Nominees to be determined
Best documentary short subject
* "Inocente"Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine
* "Kings Point"Sari Gilman and Jedd Wider
* "Mondays at Racine"Cynthia Wade and Robin Honan
* "Open Heart"Kief Davidson and Cori Shepherd Stern
* "Redemption"Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill
Achievement in film editing
* "Argo" William Goldenberg
* "Life of Pi" Tim Squyres
* "Lincoln" Michael Kahn
* "Silver Linings Playbook" Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers
* "Zero Dark Thirty" Dylan Tichenor and William Goldenberg
Best foreign language film of the year
* "Amour" Austria
* "Kon-Tiki" Norway
* "No" Chile
* "A Royal Affair" Denmark
* "War Witch" Canada
Achievement in makeup and hairstyling
* "Hitchcock" Howard Berger, Peter Montagna and Martin Samuel
* "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" Peter Swords King, Rick Findlater and Tami Lane
* "Les Misérables" Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)
* "Anna Karenina" Dario Marianelli
* "Argo" Alexandre Desplat
* "Life of Pi" Mychael Danna
* "Lincoln" John Williams
* "Skyfall" Thomas Newman
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)
* "Before My Time" from "Chasing Ice"
Music and Lyric by J. Ralph
* "Everybody Needs A Best Friend" from "Ted"
Music by Walter Murphy; Lyric by Seth MacFarlane
* "Pi's Lullaby" from "Life of Pi"
Music by Mychael Danna; Lyric by Bombay Jayashri
* "Skyfall" from "Skyfall"
Music and Lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth
* "Suddenly" from "Les Misérables"
Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg; Lyric by Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil
Best Picture of the Year
* "Amour" Nominees to be determined
* "Argo" Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck and George Clooney, Producers
* "Beasts of the Southern Wild" Dan Janvey, Josh Penn and Michael Gottwald, Producers
* "Django Unchained" Stacey Sher, Reginald Hudlin and Pilar Savone, Producers
* "Les Misérables" Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward and Cameron Mackintosh, Producers
* "Life of Pi" Gil Netter, Ang Lee and David Womark, Producers
* "Lincoln" Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, Producers
* "Silver Linings Playbook" Donna Gigliotti, Bruce Cohen and Jonathan Gordon, Producers
* "Zero Dark Thirty" Mark Boal, Kathryn Bigelow and Megan Ellison, Producers
Achievement in production design
* "Anna Karenina"
Production Design: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
* "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"
Production Design: Dan Hennah; Set Decoration: Ra Vincent and Simon Bright
* "Les Misérables"
Production Design: Eve Stewart; Set Decoration: Anna Lynch-Robinson
* "Life of Pi"
Production Design: David Gropman; Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock
* "Lincoln"
Production Design: Rick Carter; Set Decoration: Jim Erickson
Best animated short film
* "Adam and Dog" Minkyu Lee
* "Fresh Guacamole" PES
* "Head over Heels" Timothy Reckart and Fodhla Cronin O'Reilly
* "Maggie Simpson in "The Longest Daycare"" David Silverman
* "Paperman" John Kahrs
Best live action short film
* "Asad" Bryan Buckley and Mino Jarjoura
* "Buzkashi Boys" Sam French and Ariel Nasr
* "Curfew" Shawn Christensen
* "Death of a Shadow (Dood van een Schaduw)" Tom Van Avermaet and Ellen De Waele
* "Henry" Yan England
Achievement in sound editing
* "Argo" Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn
* "Django Unchained" Wylie Stateman
* "Life of Pi" Eugene Gearty and Philip Stockton
* "Skyfall" Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers
* "Zero Dark Thirty" Paul N.J. Ottosson
Achievement in sound mixing
* "Argo"
John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Jose Antonio Garcia
* "Les Misérables"
Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes
* "Life of Pi"
Ron Bartlett, D.M. Hemphill and Drew Kunin
* "Lincoln"
Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Ronald Judkins
* "Skyfall"
Scott Millan, Greg P. Russell and Stuart Wilson
Achievement in visual effects
* "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"
Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and R. Christopher White
* "Life of Pi"
Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott
* "Marvel's The Avengers"
Janek Sirrs, Jeff White, Guy Williams and Dan Sudick
* "Prometheus"
Richard Stammers, Trevor Wood, Charley Henley and Martin Hill
* "Snow White and the Huntsman"
Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, Philip Brennan, Neil Corbould and Michael Dawson
Best Adapted Screenplay
* "Argo" Screenplay by Chris Terrio
* "Beasts of the Southern Wild" Screenplay by Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin
* "Life of Pi" Screenplay by David Magee
* "Lincoln" Screenplay by Tony Kushner
* "Silver Linings Playbook" Screenplay by David O. Russell
Best Original Screenplay
* "Amour" Written by Michael Haneke
* "Django Unchained" Written by Quentin Tarantino
* "Flight" Written by John Gatins
* "Moonrise Kingdom" Written by Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola
* "Zero Dark Thirty" Written by Mark Boal
