THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

As is frequently the case with the Oscars, however, what wasn't mentioned was just as noteworthy as what wasn't. For example, Taron Egerton was widely anticipated to be nominated for his performance as openly gay musician Elton John in Rocketman; such a nod would have seemingly put the actor on a similar career path as Rami Malek, who last year won playing Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody. Egerton had supposedly widely campaigned for the nomination and won a Golden Globe statue Jan. 5 for his work on Rocketman. Egerton was not mentioned Jan. 13, however; however, Rocketman—specifically, John himself and his frequent writing partner—was nominated in the Best Original Song category only.

Other 2019 Golden Globe winners proverbially snubbed by the Academy included Eddie Murphy in Dolemite Is My Name, and Awkwafina in The Farewell.

Another omission that will surely raise eyebrows will be Greta Gerwig's direction for Little Women, which otherwise received six nominations. Gerwig was nominated for the film's adapted screenplay, but her exclusion from the Best Director category undoubtedly will raise discussion about the academy's historical ambivalence to female directors.

Among the major nominations, personnel from and themes related to the LGBT community were pretty sparsely represented this year. Gay director Pedro Almodovar's Pain and Glory was nominated in the newly-renamed International Feature category, as was Antonio Banderas for his lead role in that film. Margot Robbie received one of the three nominations for the drama Bombshell, in which she played a sexually fluid ( and fictional ) Fox News employee. As was widely expected, Renee Zellweger was nominated for her role as iconic performer Judy Garland in Judy. Zellweger took home a Golden Globe statue for the part on Jan. 5.

The complete list of nominees is at Oscars.org .