by Nathaniel R
The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Journalists have announced their official nominations for 2018. It's GALECA's 10th year as an organization making this an anniversary year. As ever, full disclosure on such things, a few of our contributors here at TFE are members of this organization with encompasses over 200 journalists from the UK, US, Australia, and Canada. The all time most-awarded films by GALECA were Carol (2015) and Moonlight (2016) so that's a good track record. The Favourite leads the movie nomination this year while Pose led the TV side.
Recently the Online Film Critics Society had a slate that also favored The Favourite but the Yorgos Lanthimos pitch-black comedy emerged with nothing when the actual winners were selected. It kinda makes you think. Could The Favourite also lead the Oscar nominations but lose everything?
After the jump the full list of nominees with quick commentary...
Film of the Year
CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?
THE FAVOURITE
IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK
ROMA
A STAR IS BORN
Solid.
Director of the Year
ALFONSO CUARON, ROMA
MARIELLE HELLER, CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?
BARRY JENKINS, IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK
YORGOS LANTHIMOS, THE FAVOURITE
SPIKE LEE, BLACKKKLANSMAN
Pleasantly surprised to see Marielle Heller on the list!
Film Performance of the Year — Actress
YALITZA APARICIO, ROMA
TONI COLLETTE, HEREDITARY
OLIVIA COLMAN, THE FAVOURITE
LADY GAGA, A STAR IS BORN
MELISSA MCCARTHY, CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?
The expected Oscar list minus Glenn Close plus Toni Collette. If the gays have forsaken Close (they used to worship her), she might actually be in trouble.
Film Performance of the Year — Actor
CHRISTIAN BALE, VICE
BRADLEY COOPER, A STAR IS BORN
ETHAN HAWKE, FIRST REFORMED
RAMI MALEK, BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY
JOHN DAVID WASHINGTON, BLACKKKLANSMAN
I'll just be over here scratching my head about the continuously impervious appeal of mimicry for awards citations. Bale and Malek really aren't doing anything above and beyond that in their movies. Where's the soul-baring or depth in those characterizations?
Film Performance of the Year — Supporting Actress
ELIZABETH DEBICKI, WIDOWS
REGINA KING, IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK
EMMA STONE, THE FAVOURITE
RACHEL WEISZ, THE FAVOURITE
MICHELLE YEOH, CRAZY RICH ASIANS
I do try every year to bring awareness to the unethical games played in awards campaigns but it's hard to convince entertainment journalists and critics to care. They regularly just play along with the studios in this regard, thereby only worsening the problem. But 60% of this list is magnificent! (For the record I think Stone & Weisz are also great, performance wise, so in terms of quality this is a phenomenal lineup)
Film Performance of the Year — Supporting Actor
MAHERSHALA ALI, GREEN BOOK
TIMOTHEE CHALAMET, BEAUTIFUL BOY
SAM ELLIOTT, A STAR IS BORN
RICHARD E. GRANT, CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?
MICHAEL B. JORDAN, BLACK PANTHER
Two leads in the male supporting category too, sigh, and unlike in Supporting Actress they aren't even sensational performances so why wedge them in, and thereby crowd out awesomness like Alessandro Nivola in Disobedience or whomever. What's more if Ali had missed here for being a lead, we would have been Green Book free in our nominations!
Surprised how closely this list is hewing to the typical slate suspected at the Oscars with only Adam Driver (of the regularly predicted set) missing.
LGBTQ Film of the Year
BOY ERASED
CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?
DISOBEDIENCE
THE FAVOURITE
LOVE SIMON
Extremely disappointed not to see We The Animals in this selection. Especially from a Queer organization.
Foreign Language Film of the Year
BURNING
CAPERNAUM
COLD WAR
ROMA
SHOPLIFTERS
Everyone keeps coming up with samey-samey lists in Foreign Film but that's okay since all five movies are just great. These five are the clear frontrunners for the Oscar nomination, though Oscar will generally surprise on the morning of the nominations in this category, in at least one slot. I still consider Birds of Passage and Never Look Away to be the probable spoilers if one of these films stumbles at the finish line.
Screenplay of the Year
BO BURNHAM, EIGHTH GRADE
ALFONSO CUARON, ROMA
DEBORAH DAVIS AND TONY MCNAMARA, THE FAVOURITE
NICOLE HOLOFCENER AND JEFF WHITTY, CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?
BARRY JENKINS, IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK
I continue to not understand the screenplay appeal of Roma (it's all Cuaron's visual brilliance -- there wasn't even a script that people could look at during filming according to the producer) and If Beale Street Could Talk (which feels way too bookish to me with all the narration) but I'm clearly in the minority. Love the other three choices.
Documentary of the Year
FREE SOLO
RBG
SHIRKERS
THREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS
WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR?
Shirkers sure is building momentum of late. Will that be enough to make Oscar notice? It's not a typical kind of nominee for them. The others are of course very very big hits and likely Oscar nominees .
LGBTQ Documentary of the Year
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ANDRE
MCQUEEN
SCOTTY AND THE SECRET HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD
STUDIO 54
WHITNEY
Visually Striking Film of the Year
ANNIHILATION
BLACK PANTHER
THE FAVOURITE
IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK
ROMA
Disappointed not to see Cold War or Spider-Verse here.
Unsung Film of the Year
COLETTE
DISOBEDIENCE
THE HAPPY PRINCE
TULLY
WE THE ANIMALS
WIDOWS
I wasn't aware that Colette and The Happy Prince had die hard fans! The other nominations are very much awesome and I voted for most of them in this exact category :)
Campy Flick of the Year
AQUAMAN
BOOK CLUB
MAMMA MIA! HERE WE GO AGAIN
A SIMPLE FAVOR
SUSPIRIA
"Camp" is so hard to define so it makes the nominated shortlists quite an odd grabbag of styles each year.
TV Drama of the Year
AMERICAN CRIME STORY: THE ASSASSINATION OF GIANNI VERSACE
THE HANDMAID’S TALE
HOMECOMING
KILLING EVE
POSE
Great list, huh?
TV Comedy of the Year
BARRY
GLOW
THE GOOD PLACE
THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL
SCHITT’S CREEK
Schitt's Creek is usually ignored by awards bodies but not GALECA
TV Performance of the Year — Actor
DARREN CRISS, THE ASSASSINATION OF GIANNI VERSACE: AMERICAN CRIME STORY
HUGH GRANT, A VERY ENGLISH SCANDAL
BILLY PORTER, POSE
MATTHEW RHYS, THE AMERICANS
BEN WHISHAW, A VERY ENGLISH SCANDAL
Look at A Very English Scandal hogging the male acting TV categories
;)
TV Performance of the Year — Actress
AMY ADAMS, SHARP OBJECTS
RACHEL BROSNAHAN, THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL
JODIE COMER, KILLING EVE
SANDRA OH, KILLING EVE
JULIA ROBERTS, HOMECOMING
Look at Killing Eve hogging the female acting categories. That's thrilling though because that show wouldn't work without both of them totally acing that sapphic cat & mouse game.
LGBTQ TV Show of the Year
A VERY ENGLISH SCANDAL
THE ASSASSINATION OF GIANNI VERSACE
KILLING EVE
POSE
QUEER EYE
Lots of double nominees this year
Unsung TV Show of the Year
THE BISEXUAL
DEAR WHITE PEOPLE
THE GOOD FIGHT
ONE DAY AT A TIME
SCHITT’S CREEK
Pretty solid list in terms of shows you hear people raving about that never seem to make a dent in mainstream awardage. Well, The Bisexual is brand new though so that hasn't had much time to permeate anybody's lists. It's from Desiree Akhavan who previously made that lesbian comedy we totally loved Appropriate Behavior and also the Sundance winner The Miseducation of Cameron Post. I voted for Younger which I always vote for and it's so unsung that it doesn't even make lists like this one.
TV Current Affairs Show of the Year
THE DAILY SHOW WITH TREVOR NOAH
FULL FRONTAL WITH SAMANTHA BEE
LAST WEEK TONIGHT WITH JOHN OLIVER
THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW
Full Frontal won this the last two consecutive years and Last Week Tonight the year before.
TV Musical Performance of the Year
ADAM LAMBERT, “BELIEVE”, 41ST KENNEDY CENTER HONORS
BILLY PORTER, MJ RODRIGUEZ AND OUR LADY J, “HOME”, POSE
NOAH REID, “SIMPLY THE BEST”, SCHITT’S CREEK
KEALA SETTLE, “THIS IS ME”, 90TH ACADEMY AWARDS
SUFJAN STEVENS, “MYSTERY OF LOVE”, 90TH ACADEMY AWARDS
Hmmm, huge fan of Sufjan Stevens here but I found his Oscar performance so underwhelming so it's a bit surprising to see it triumph with a nomination (the list of suggestions compiled for this category behind the scenes at GALECA was epically long). I voted for "Home" and "This is Me" and I sense that if I watched Schitt's Creek that great cover would have packed an emotional wallup.
Campy TV Show of the Year
AMERICAN HORROR STORY: APOCALYPSE
CHILLING ADVENTURES OF SABRINA
QUEER EYE
RIVERDALE
RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE
The “We’re Wilde About You!” Rising Star Award
AWKWAFINA
ELSIE FISHER
HENRY GOLDING
INDYA MOORE
MJ RODRIGUEZ
Two Crazy Rich Asians, two Pose members and Eighth Grade's brilliant tween.
Wilde Wit of the Year
(Honoring a performer, writer or commentator whose observations both challenge and amuse)
SAMANTHA BEE
HANNAH GADSBY
KATE MCKINNON
JOHN OLIVER
MICHELLE WOLF
Kate McKinnon and John Oliver have both won this award in the past. I suspect this is Hannah Gadsby's to lose this year.
Wilde Artist of the Year
(Honoring a truly groundbreaking force in film, stage and/or television)
BRADLEY COOPER
HANNAH GADSBY
LADY GAGA
NICOLE KIDMAN
RYAN MURPHY
I don't remember who I voted for other than Bradley Cooper who I figure deserves it for being a writer / director / moviestar/ Gaga acting coach / producer /songwriter all in one film!!!