Brittany Howard. Photo: Drew de F Fawkes, via Wikimedia Commons
The 98th Academy Awards proved to be a night of selective but significant visibility for the LGBTQ+ community.
While the ceremony faced criticism for a lack of queer winners in the high-profile “Big Five” categories, three specific creators broke through to secure gold, according to reporting from The Advocate and Out Magazine.
The three statues taken home by queer nominees represented a diverse range of storytelling, from animated blockbusters to poignant documentaries:
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Mark Sonnenblick (Best Original Song): The Out100 honoree won for co-writing the hit track “Golden”from the film Kpop Demon Hunters. The win was historic, marking the first time a K-pop-style song has won an Academy Award.
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Natalie Musteata (Best Live Action Short Film): In a rare Oscar tie, Musteata won for her film “Two People Exchanging Saliva.”During her acceptance speech, she thanked the Academy for supporting a film she described as “weird,” “queer,” and “made by a majority of women.”
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David Borenstein (Best Documentary Feature): Borenstein took home the award for “Mr. Nobody Against Putin.” The film’s primary subject, Pavel “Pasha” Talankin, is an openly gay Russian videographer whose perspective on secrecy and survival in Russia provided the emotional backbone of the documentary.
The evening’s most talked-about musical moment came from Brittany Howard. The queer powerhouse joined artists Shaboozey and Raphael Saadiq for a high-energy performance of “I Lied to You”from the film Sinners.
Recreating the film’s “Club Juke” scene, Howard’s presence – alongside legendary dancer Misty Copeland – was hailed by critics as a necessary infusion of queer and Black excellence into a ceremony that otherwise felt “too safe” for many advocates.
