The gay community's national holiday—the annual Oscar telecast—is once again upon us. ( The awards don't air until this Sunday at 7 p.m. on ABC but trust me: Gay men all over the city are already decorating for their viewing parties as you're reading this. ) As far as queer Oscar nominations go, the year is refreshingly tilted toward the ladies.
The Kids Are All Right, out writer-director Lisa Cholodenko's dramedy, is the most prominent of these with four nominations including one for Best Picture, one for Annette Bening as one of the lesbian moms, Cholodenko's script ( co-written with Stuart Blumberg ) and a supporting actor nod for Mark Ruffalo. I think the script has a chance of winning ( and certainly hope it does ) but the movie's shot at Best Picture isn't great. ( The King's Speech and The Social Network are the odds-on favorites and out producer Scott Rudin might get an Oscar for the former or, in a long shot, his other contender, True Grit. ) Bening might finally also make it to the stage if voters have weighed her multiple nominations versus Natalie Portman, whose intense, technically brilliant, much more showy performance in Black Swan is only her first Best Actress nod. Whether it's Natalie or Annette, a lesbian character is going to win that Oscar ( okay, a really screwed-up ballerina with lesbian fantasies, in the case of Portman ) .
As for Best Actor, expect the talkative Colin Firth ( who would have won last year playing gay in the sublime A Single Man if not for Jeff Bridges and his worthy performance in Crazy Heart ) to make one of the drollest yet heartfelt speeches of the night for his role in The King's Speech. He will beat James Franco, who's co-hosting the Oscars along with Anne Hathaway, who is nominated for 127 Hours. The "I might be gay" Franco is hot stuff and saw his public profile take off in 2010. But suspiciously, the media blitz surrounding the actor who has played gay myriad times ( and will play gay again ) has either downplayed or completely ignored Franco's startling performance as queer poet Allen Ginsberg in Howl—the performance that should have garnered him the nomination.
But there are dozens of examples I, and a lot of other Oscar watchers, could cite when it comes to movies and performances that didn't get the all important nod. Then there are the movies and performances that nearly missed the winners' circle for business reasons. Slumdog Millionare, for example, was supposed to be released straight to DVD ( aka: oblivion ) before making it to theaters. Probably Blue Sky, which eventually got released in 1994 after being locked in the vault for four years during the bankruptcy proceedings of Orion Pictures, is Oscar's most celebrated Cinderella story. When the movie finally emerged ( it was the last film of bisexual director Tony Richardson, a casualty of the AIDS plague in 1991 ) , Jessica Lange won a Best Actress Oscar.
This is an old story. Many, many other films have gotten brief releases and then have become tangled in legal or creative purgatory and gone on to box-office and award glory. ( The rights to Hitchcock's Vertigo kept it from being seen for decades while George Gershwin's estate still refuses to let 1959's Porgy & Bess be shown because certain people don't like it much. ) But recent news of the problems with Regent Media really hits home for LGBT filmmakers and queer film fans. The company has specialized in licensing and distributing LGBT and foreign films for years—many of unparalleled quality. ( Departures, a masterpiece from Japan, was the 2009 Best Foreign Film winner, for example. ) They are accused, via a lawsuit from investment firm Merrill Lynch, of fraudulently obtaining $90 million in loans, using its film library ( which includes close to 100 titles—a majority of them LGBT-themed ) as collateral.
Whether or not Regent ( which, aside from the films, also owns the Advocate, Out, the Here cable channel,and various porn sites ) goes down in flames or successfully refutes the charges, there are many pissed-off, saddened queer filmmakers whose creative works are lodged in legal purgatory. ( Several of them talking about a class-action suit of their own. ) And who knows how many of these are future Oscar contenders? Certainly I Killed My Mother, from gay teenage French-Canadian auteur Xander Dolan, which is mired in the legal mess, is one of them. ( A full list of titles presumed to be affected by the lawsuit are listed in a Feb. 11 story by Eric Kohn; it's available at indiewire.com . )
Oscar party memorial: As for Oscar parties, the town is full of them, from high-ticket affairs to gay-bar viewing events. Last year I noted the Center on Halsted's fancy fete and the Gene Siskel Film Center's Oscar bash, Chicago's only officially sanctioned Academy Awards event ( both again taking place this year ) . I didn't mention the annual, hotly anticipated Oscar bash hosted by Hugh Mathis and Tom Hedeen, as it was by invitation only. The two friends had co-hosted their lavish viewing party for years and last year agreed, without hesitation, to add a fund aising component for the Queer Film Society ( QFS ) , the non-profit gay movie critic and academic organization that this writer heads.
I didn't meet the very gracious Hedeen until the night of the party but the gregarious Mathis had attended several QFS screenings and was fanatical and funny in e-mails and phone calls about the preparations leading up to the big night. When I arrived, indeed, the décor ( including a life-sized Oscar statuette ) , food and spirits were mighty impressive—even by gay men's standards. Mathis and Hedeen, ablaze with energy and enthusiasm, were great hosts, greeting their guests ( many of them in costume with a few in drag, natch ) and working the crowd. As I looked around the packed room and watched friend and stranger alike unite over this one's bad gown and that one's witty remark during the telecast, I experienced a real sense of community with My People.
But this year the Mathis-Hedeen party probably won't be happening as shockingly, Mathis, only 41, passed away unexpectedly while on a vacation in late January. He had had health problems throughout the year but that didn't stop Mathis from attending ( and financially supporting ) a host of other artistic events around town. So, when this year's Oscar memorial tribute is introduced and the movie actors and filmmakers who passed away last year are shown in montage, I will take a moment to think of Mathis, who co-hosted one hell of an Oscar bash. I will be thankful I got the chance to attend at least one of them.
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