romanceHer,Nebraska (this year’s most overrated contender, in my opinion),12 Years a Slave and The Wolf of Wall Street. As of press time, there is a three-way race between Hustle, Gravity and 12 Years—all of which are very deserving of the main prize. Apart from the higher-profile Dallas Buyers Club and Philomena, the most
significant LGBT entry in this year’s Oscar race may be found among the Best Documentary Short nominees. Jason Cohen’s Facing Fear relates the powerful story of a gay man, Matthew Boger, who found himself unexpectedly reunited with a former neo-Nazi skinhead, Tim Zaal, who savagely beat Boger 25 years earlier. After a challenging process of reconciliation and forgiveness between the two, Boger and Zaal today consider each other friends and regularly give presentations together about their journey. Cohen does a terrific job and it would be great ifFacing Fear won. Gay favorites in other categories include Disney’s Frozen, up for both Best
Animated Feature and Best Original Song (“Let It Go”); Baz Luhrmann’s ravish- ing adaptation of The Great Gatsby, nominated for Art Direction and Costume Design; and Best Documentary Feature candidate 20 Feet from Stardom, which focuses on the backup singers behind several legendary performers. Curiously absent among this year’s Best Foreign Language Film nominees is
Blue is the Warmest Color, the scintillating lesbian drama that won the Cannes Film Festival’s grand prize and has swept critics’ group foreign film awards. It turned out to be not eligible this year due to a quirk in the Academy’s submission rules, even though it received a U.S. theatrical release. The movie will reportedly be eligible for next year’s Oscars. Hopefully, it will still be remembered. Meron and Zadan, who are producing the show for the second year in a row,
promise “no shortage of comedy with Ellen DeGeneres as our host.” DeGeneres emceed the ceremony once before, in 2007 and was well-received as the first openly lesbian or gay person to host the event. The producers also announced a special celebration of movie heroes that will anchor this year’s show. “People around the world go to the movies to be inspired by the characters they see on the screen,” Zadan and Meron said in a statement. “By celebrating the gamut of heroes who have enriched our movie-going experience, we hope to create an evening of fun and joy.” And finally, The Oscars will honor the 75th anniversary of The Wizard of Oz,
which received six nominations, including best picture, winning two for Original Score and Song 1939. “We are delighted to celebrate the birthday of one of the most beloved movies of all time at this year’s Oscars,” said Zadan and Meron Prior to this year’sAcademy Awards, but on a related note, will be the broadcast
of a new documentary,And the Oscar Goes To…, by gay filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (The Celluloid Closet, Paragraph 175, Howl). It will premiere Saturday, February 1 on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) and will be repeated on CNN during the month. The duo, who are themselves Oscar winners for 1988’s Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt, will chronicle the nine-decade history of the world’s most popular awards show. It all sounds like must-see TV to me!
The 86th annual star-studded extravaganza will be broadcast liveSunday, March 2 on ABC. FEBRUARY 2014 | RAGE monthly FEBRUARY 2014 | RAGE monthly 27
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