The Oscars 2018 were one for the record books because they had historic gay, lesbian, and transgender nominations. The ceremony, Oscar’s 90th, also had some record breaking and memorable queer moments.
Here’s a recap of the golden evening for the Oscars 2018.
- The Chilean entry “A Fantastic Woman,” which won Best Foreign Language Film, stars trans actor Daniela Vega as Marina Vidal, a transgender singer who faces scorn and discrimination after the sudden death of her older boyfriend. Vega made history as the Oscars’ first trans presenter.
- “Call Me By Your Name,” the gay coming-of-age story set in Italy in the 1980s, won Best Adapted Screenplay, making screenwriter James Ivory, 89, who identifies as gay, the oldest Oscar winner in history. During Ivory’s acceptance speech, he thanked his deceased former partner, Ismail Merchant, who died in 2005. The two men were in a relationship 45 years. Their Merchant Ivory Productions made more than 40 films, including the gay love story “Maurice,” “A Room With a View,” and “Howard’s End.”
- “Coco,” which won Best Animated Feature, had a double moment. Producer Darla K. Anderson, who identifies as a lesbian, and co-director Adrian Molina, who identifies is gay, thanked their spouses in their acceptance speeches.
- During their performance for Best Original Song nominee “Stand Up for Something,” Common and Andra Day shared the stage with 10 activists, including transgender rights advocate Janet Mock and Patrisse Cullors, who co-founded Black Lives Matter and identifies as a “queer activist.”
- Academy Award winner Debra Chasnoff was featured in the In Memoriam segment. Chasnoff died last year at the age of 60 after a battle with breast cancer. When she won an Oscar in 1992 for her documentary “Deadly Deception: General Electric, Nuclear Weapons and Our Environment,” Chanoff became the first lesbian to thank her partner in an acceptance speech.
Daniela Vega, who stars in the transgender drama-romance “A Fantastic Woman,” which won Best Foreign Film, made Oscar history as the first transgender presenter. Photo: Sony Pictures Classics.
