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

The second queer title cleaning up with Oscar nods is "Wicked," the hugely successful adaptation of the first-half of the long-running Broadway hit, which saw nods for Best Picture, Best Actress (Cynthia Erivo), Best Supporting Actress (Ariana Grande), Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Original Score, Best Film Editing, Best Sound, and Best Visual Effects. It was expected to do well with the Academy, and could win Best Picture, though the consensus is that would be jumping the gun since it is only one-half of a story that concludes when the second half, "Wicked: For Good," premieres next November. And missing from the nominees is Jonathan Bailey, whose turn as the boy-bandish prince who is the love interest for Erivo and Grande was on many short-lists for a nominee for Supporting Actor. He also may have to wait until next year.

The third film with queer presence to receive multiple noms is the trending indie "Sing Sing," which saw another Best Actor nod to Colmon Domingo, who plays an incarcerated man who gains his confidence to seek justice by becoming a stage performer as part of a prison program. This marks the second consecutive year Domingo is nominated in this category (last year he was up for playing Bayard Rustin in the biopic "Rustin." The film was also nominated for Best Original Song – "Like a Bird," and Best Adapted Screenplay. But missing was the hoped for nomination for Domingo's co-star, Clarence Maclin, who is a graduate of the prison program depicted in the film and plays a fictionalized version of himself. He has received nominations for  Best Supporting Actor at the BAFTA Awards, Critics' Choice Movie Awards, Gotham Awards, and Independent Spirit Awards. But he did receive a nomination as part of the film's screenwriting team.