Tag Archives: Nicole Kidman

When It Pays To Be A Lesbian At The Oscars

Crazy as it seems, but historically a heterosexual, cisgender, actress playing a lesbian or bi women in compelling biopic had the potential to get her into the field of Oscar nominees. That’s not us devaluing the films or acting though, just merely an observation. So, seeing the Oscars are now done and dusted, we took a chance to look back at Oscar’s historic lesbian / bi movies.

Monster – Charlize Theron

Charlize-Theron-in-Monster

Monster is an epic drama about serial killer Aileen Wuornos, a former prostitute who was executed in 2002 for killing six men. Wuornos was played by Charlize Theron, and her lesbian lover, Selby Wall, was played by Christina Ricci.

Theron won many awards for her portrayal, including the Academy Award for Best Actress.

The Hours – Nicole Kidman

The-Hours-Nicole-Kidman

The film is about how the book Mrs. Dalloway affects three generations of women, all of whom, in one way or another, have had to deal with suicide in their lives. The film starred Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, and Julianne Moore, with Kidman playing Virginia Woolf, who although married, had a sexual relationship with acclaimed writer Vita Sackville-West.

The Hours received nine Academy Award nominations including best picture, and Nicole Kidman won an Oscar for Best Actress.

Boys Don’t Cry – Hilary Swank

Boys-Dont-Cry-Hilary-Swank

Boys Don’t Cry is the dramatization Brandon Teena life, a transgender man played by Hilary Swank, who pursues a relationship with a young woman, played by Chloë Sevigny. Directed by Kimberly Peirce and co-written by Andy Bienen, the picture explored the themes of freedom, courage, identity and empowerment. Both Hilary Swank and Chloë Sevigny went on to be nominated for Oscars, with Hilary winning her first Best Actress Oscar for the role.

Vicky Christina Barcelona – Penélope Cruz

Vicky-Christina-Barcelona-Penélope-Cruz

Penélope Cruz gained a Best Supporting Actress award for her turn in Woody Allen’s Vicky Christina Barcelona in 2008. In the movie, Cruz’s character enters a polyamorous relationship with Scarlett Johansson and Javier Bardem.

Mulholland Drive – David Lynch

Mulholland-Drive

Mulholland Drive is a psychological thriller written and directed by David Lynch, and stars Naomi Watts and Laura Elena Harring. The surrealist film was highly acclaimed by many critics and earned Lynch the Prix de la mise en scène (Best Director Award) at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival as well as an Oscar nomination for Best Director.

Why we mention this movie, well Mulholland Drive launched the careers of Watts (who went on to be nominated twice for oscars) and Harring.

See it pays to play gay…

Women Filmmakers Set To Shine At The Berlin International Film Festival

Berlin International Film Festival is Europe’s first major film festival of the year, and starts on Thursday.

Founded in 1951, The Berlin International Film Festival is one of the world’s leading film festivals and most reputable media events. Every year, the festival showcases up to more than 400 films across several genres, representing a comprehensive sampling of the cinematic world. Around 20 films compete for the top awards, called the Golden and Silver Bears. It’s also one of Europe’s three major film festivals, which also include the Venice International Film Festival and the Cannes International Film Festival.

Now in its 65th year, the festival will be showcasing a number of new movies, which will put women in the spotlight. A number of leading female actress, directors and producer are expected to be in attendance, premiering their latest films.

Dieter Kosslick, who has run the festival since 2001, told reporters that many of the more than 400 films that will screen focused on “strong women in extreme situations”.

Who to look out for…

The festival will begin with Oscar winner Juliette Binoche playing Josephine Peary, a woman who accompanied her explorer husband, Robert, on treacherous Arctic expeditions, in Nobody Wants the Night. The film is directed by Spain’s Isabel Coixet, only the second woman in the history of the Berlinale, as the event is known, to hold the coveted opening-night slot.

Nicole Kidman plays British adventurer and spy Gertrude Bell opposite former Twilight heartthrob Robert Pattinson as TE Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia, in German veteran Werner Herzog’s Queen of the Desert.

Two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett has two Berlin entries. She closes the festival as the wicked stepmother in Disney’s live action Cinderella and is featured alongside Christian Bale and Natalie Portman in Terence Malick’s long-awaited Knight of Cups.

Portman, now Paris-based with her choreographer husband Benjamin Millepied heading the Paris Opera Ballet, will visit Berlin for Knight and as executive producer of The Seventh Fire documentary about Native American gangs.

Lea Seydoux, the latest Bond girl in the British spy franchise, returns to Berlin with French director Benoit Jacquot in Diary of a Chambermaid, based on a novel already adapted by cinema greats Jean Renoir and Luis Bunuel.

British actress Helen Mirren stars in Woman in Gold, the true story of Holocaust survivor Maria Altmann who fought the Austrian government for nearly a decade for restitution of valuable Klimt paintings that the Nazis stole from her family.

Although the proportion of female directors has not yet taken a 50-percent stake, women are heavily featured in the 2015 festival, and the red carpet appearances of these female stars have been long anticipated by the public.