Contentious 'Emilia Pérez' Leads Queer Titles at This Year's Oscar Nominations

The major queer snubs come from the two films directed by out Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino for two films he released this year: the enormously successful "Challengers" and the still-to-be-determined (and harder sell) "Queer." The biggest snub for "Challengers" is for Best Score. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' propulsive soundtrack has been a big hit with audiences (and gyms everywhere), but apparently not with the academy. And the film itself has the kind of popularity that should have propelled it onto the Best Film list. Many were expecting at least one nomination for "Queer" – for Daniel Craig for his meticulous and very funny take on novelist William Burroughs, but it didn't happen. Nor did Guadagnino get it for Best Director or his talented screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes, who wrote both films.

Certainly to be pointed out as a major snub is the exclusion of "Will and Harper" from the Documentary category. The Netflix doc follows actor Will Ferrell on a road trip across America with his friend and former Saturday Night Live writer Harper Steele after Steele has transitioned. The film had been shortlisted in the category, but did not make the grade.

And the great queer director Pedro Almdodovar, an Oscar favorite, received no love for his first English language film, "The Room Next Door," despite acclaimed performances from Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore in a wrenching drama about end-of-life issues. Also not getting much love are such gay-adajacent actors as Angelina Jolie in a memorable turn as Maria Callas in "Maria;" Nicole Kidman as a sexy cougar in "Babylove;" Selena Gomez as the spoiled wife of the cartel leader in "Emilia Pérez," and both Pamela Anderson and Jamie Lee Curtis, who had some late momentum for "The Last Showgirl." Queer adjacent "Conclave" did reasonably well, receiving eight nominations including Best Picture, Best Actor (Ralph Fiennes), Best Supporting Actress (Isabella Rossellini), and best adapted screenplay; but director Edward Berger was snubbed, along with such potential supporting actors as John Lithgow and Stanley Tucci. And while "The Substance" did surprisingly well, its co-star Margaret Qualley was not nominated. But who was nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category is Jeremy Strong, the British actor and "Succession" alum, whose turn as Donald Trump's legal henchman, lawyer Roy Cohn, in "The Apprentice" again shows that real-life evil gay can be the fodder for a great performance.