Dorian TV Awards: "Interview with the Vampire" and "Hacks" win big!

by Cláudio Alves

AMC's beautiful bloodsuckers vamped their way to three Dorian Awards.

As a proud new member of GALECA, I was overjoyed to vote on the Dorian TV Awards for the first time ever. Of course, I can't say I agree with every choice, but this is the way of judging art and prizes. Indeed, disagreement is part of the fun. Not that I'd ever say a word against the two awards juggernauts that took the Dorians by storm this television season. Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire surprises by taking three major categories, including Best Drama, while Hacks is the overall leader with four individual wins. But then, half of the Max comedy's victories were for its acting, which, along with the drama duo, makes one question the current system and the ever-present curse of category fraud. 

The complete winners' list, plus some personal ruminations, after the jump…

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Meet the Vampire Lestat

by Cláudio Alves

The best show currently on TV is coming for a third season. Though its renewal was only announced at the end of last month, shooting for the next chapter in Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire seems well underway. At least, that's what one can surmise from the just-released teaser, where Sam Reid dons the Vampire Lestat's rock persona and sits down for a filmed interview. Moving from the literary-minded recordings of the first two seasons, the show is moving into the realm of concert tour mockumentary. One hopes that the updated format maintains the queer Gothic romance sensibilities that have earned it a small army of devoted fans. But of course, judging from the online reaction, the showrunners have nothing to worry about. The fandom is over the moon...

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Dorian TV Awards: Horny Vampires, Queer Comedians, Fellow Travellers, and Baby Reindeers

by Nathaniel R

Fellow Travelers © Showtime

The Society for LGBTQ Entertainment Journalists have released the Dorian Award nominations for the 2023-2024 TV season in twenty-four categories. As per our usual disclaimer, multiple members of TFE are in the 500-wide membership of GALECA. It's a four way tie for the leading show between AMC's interpretation of Interview with the Vampire, perennial Emmy favourites Max's Hacks and FX/Hulu's The Bear, and Netflix sensation Baby Reindeer all grabbing six nods each. FX/Hulu's remake of classic period epic Shōgun and Showtime's thrilling romantic drama Fellow Travellers were not far behind with five nods each. 

After the list, the full nominations and a few scattered comments...

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A Star Is Born: Kirsten Dunst in 1994

by Cláudio Alves

For all its controversies, Alex Garland's Civil War has gifted us with more than just an (a)political provocation. The chosen format limits the film's considerations of conflict journalism, and its overall construction has flaws aplenty. Yet, in the picture's lead, Kirsten Dunst delivers another worthwhile turn as a disillusioned photographer. Exhaustion laces every gesture and actorly choice, and though Garland seems to abandon her for the film's final act, whenever the camera finds Dunst, she delivers. Whether portraying cynical apathy or shell-shocked grief, apprehensive over a younger colleague's fate or breaking down at the eleventh hour, the actress can weave straw into gold and elevate any material.

Considering her latest performance, I couldn't help but reminisce about Dunst's early days and how, thirty years ago, she became a star at just twelve years old…

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Horror Actressing: Kirsten Dunst in "Interview With the Vampire"

by Jason Adams

All of the best moments in Interview With the Vampire belong to the eleven-year-old. Re-watching the film now here on its 25th anniversary there's a lot to like (Tom Cruise allows himself to be camp in ways that he usually is but this time purposefully, and Neil Jordan floods everything with opulent blood-red atmosphere) and there's a lot to hate (it's a slog and Brad Pitt is awful) but there's really only one thing to love, and that thing is Kirsten Dunst every single second she's on-screen as the immortal vampire trapped in a little girl's perpetual curls.

The story goes that Dunst was the first girl that they auditioned for the role of "Claudia" but that she auditioned twice -- her agent supposedly told her she was terrible the first time through and forced her back into the room to do it all over again. "How avant-garde," indeed. Still that gambit worked, and one of our greatest actresses got her start by slashing up multiple nannies and kissing Brad Pitt on the mouth -- an experience Dunst maintains was "gross," speaking for exactly zero other people aged eleven to one hundred and eleven...

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