It’s A Very Straight Oscars Season As Queer Favourites Miss Out

The 2026 Oscars were meant to be a celebration of cinema’s biggest year but for many LGBTQIA+ audiences, they’ve landed with a familiar sting.

Despite years of progress, the Academy Awards have once again been accused of being “too straight” as popular LGBTQIA+ stars and films missed out.

But it seems an all too familiar story.

Hits and misses for the 2026 Oscars

There’s always plenty on offer when it comes to awards seasons and the Oscars, despite recognising some iconic queer films and actors in the past, are no strangers to delivering a very heterosexual night of awards.

However the frustration isn’t just about one missed title or one overlooked performance.

It’s the broader pattern that queer viewers have been calling out across awards season, LGBTQIA+ films are frequently praised as bold, groundbreaking or culturally important, right up until the moment trophies are on the line.

Among this year’s most talked about omissions was Wicked: For Good, which failed to score nominations in the acting categories for Cynthia Erivo or Ariana Grande, despite both being recognised last year for Wicked Part One.

While it’s not an exclusively queer film, it has a huge resonance with our community and features openly LGBTQIA actors including Erivo, Jonathan Bailey and Bowen Yang.

Both Ervio and Grande received nominations for Wicked Part One, however despite near identical performances they were overlooked for the films second half.

Clearly Bailey’s transformation from heart throb to scarecrow did nothing for the academy either.

Daniel Craig’s continued snubs have also drawn attention, with viewers disappointed that his return as queer detective Benoit Blanc in Knives Out: Wake Up Dead Man didn’t translate into Academy recognition. Craig was also previously overlooked for his role in the film Queer, which garnered plenty of attention, it appears he has been again overlooked for another queer role.

Eva Victor’s acclaimed debut Sorry, Baby was another painful exclusion. The film, which sees Victor, who uses she/her and they/them pronouns, playing a queer, non-binary literature professor recovering from sexual assault, was widely tipped for at least a Best Original Screenplay nod. Sadly nothing eventuated for the film.

Another omission in the list was Hedda, a dark romantic drama centred on a bisexual woman torn between a suffocating marriage and the pull of a former love, played by Tessa Thompson and Nina Hoss. Fans have been vocal that both performances were awards worthy, describing the continued lack of recognition as “infuriating”.

The industry clearly wasn’t without queer stories to tell, other notable films in 2025 included Twinless, On Swift Horses, The Wedding Banquet, The History Of Sound, not to mention the countless out and proud LGBTQIA+ actors in the industry.

There are, however, a handful of nominations that LGBTQIA+ audiences can claim as wins.

Pixar’s Elio earned a nomination for the openly gay co-director Adrian Molina, while the documentary, Come See Me in the Good Light, chronicling the late poet Andrea Gibson and their wife Megan Falley and Mr Nobody Against Putin, starring and co-directed by gay creative Pasha Talankin, both secured nods.

Ethan Hawke was recognised for portraying closeted playwright Lorenz Hart in Blue Moon, while A Friend of Dorothy, which features Miriam Margolyes made it into the Best Short Film category.

Even KPop Demon Hunters picked up a music nomination for “Golden”, co-written by queer songwriter Mark Sonnenblick.

While this year may be a quiet year for the community, there are plenty of hopes for the 2027 season, with films like Pillion set to shake up the Oscars race.