Behold the Least Lesbian Oscar Nominations Ever

The least lesbian Oscar nominations ever were announced this morning (caveat-‘least lesbian’ may be an exaggeration, but not by much). There was a dearth of lesbian and bisexual characters on the big screen in 2012, the likes of which have not been seen since Wings won the first Academy Award ever in 1927. Just last year Glenn Close and Janet McTeer were nominated for gender bending roles while Rooney Mara landed a nod for her incarnation of bisexual super hacker Lisbeth Salander in David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

The least lesbian Oscar nominations ever were announced this morning (caveat-‘least lesbian’ may be an exaggeration, but not by much). There was a dearth of lesbian and bisexual characters on the big screen in 2012, the likes of which have not been seen since Wings won the first Academy Award ever in 1927. Just last year Glenn Close and Janet McTeer were nominated for gender bending roles while Rooney Mara landed a nod for her incarnation of bisexual super hacker Lisbeth Salander in David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. 2011 saw a nomination for Annette Bening for her annoying lesbian character in The Kids are All Right (but at least it was something). And in 2009 Penelope Cruz won Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of a fiery bisexual artist in Vicki Cristina Barcelona.

Since there’s nothing overtly lesbian or bisexual about this year’s Oscars--a larger problem that is indicative of mainstream cinema's apparent disitnerest in the lives of queer women, which is a whole bigger rant --we’ll get to some very minor adjacencies, but first, the award for the most ridiculous snub of the season goes to Academy voters for failing to nominate Zero Dark Thirty director Kathryn Bigelow, who made history as the first woman ever to win a directing Oscar for The Hurt Locker. But this year the Academy failed to nominate Bigelow, even though she’s landed on virtually all of the end-of-the-year critics’ lists. Rather, the Academy saw fit to reward Stephen Spielberg for his bland hyper-American dreck with Lincoln. 

While a lesbian make-up artist or director of documentary short feature may reveal herself to be gay during a speech when she thanks a female partner, for now, we can’t find any lesbian or bisexual nominees or nominees for queer characters, save for a hilarious reveal by Jennifer Lawrence’s character in Silver Linings Playbook (one that we won’t spoil).

Without further ado, since the Oscars is so damned straight this year, here are some nominees who’ve played gay or made out with other women on screen.

In the Best Actress category Naomi Watts is nominated for her turn as a mother struggling to survive in the wake of the 2004 tsunami. Watts famously played lesbian in David Lynch’s trippy 2001 thriller Mulholland Drive.

We’re pretty sure it doesn’t count as queer if Best Supporting Actress nominee for The Master, Amy Adams, lip locked with a chick for the sole purpose of turning on a dude in the masterpiece that was Cruel Intentions 2, but since it's all so sad and paltry, we decided to include it. 

Other nominees include two in the Best Supporting Actress category who have gay family members. Sally Field, nominated for playing Mary Todd Lincoln, has been very out and proud about her gay son this year. Nominee for her visceral portrayal of Fantine in Les Miserable, Anne Hathaway, has a gay brother.

And that’s about it for this year’s nominees. Check out the full list below. We IMDBd until we got nerve damage in our fingertips trying to recall if Helen Hunt, Jessica Chastain or even Sally Field had played gay, but we can’t find anything. On that note though, at this point in Sally’s career she should have at least one lesbian role under her belt.

Read the complete list of nominees on the following page. Also, check out our running list of actresses nominated for Oscars in queer roles. 

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