In a night dominated by The Artist, which won five of the 10 Academy Awards that it was nominated for, there were a few wins for LGBT cinema fans. Christopher Plummer won his first Oscar for best supporting actor for his role in Beginners, by director Mike Mills. Based on the director's own father's experience, Beginners starred Plummer as a widowed man who comes out gay when he's 75. Plummer's win makes him the oldest Oscar winner; he's 82 years old. When asked about possibly winning an Oscar before the ceremony began, Plummer told red carpet hosts, "I have a very large mantle that has been empty far too long." (Coincidentally, Beginners director Mike Mills is married to bisexual director Miranda July, a talented director in her own right.)
Other LGBT-adjacent works got some honors at the 84th Annual Academy Awards. Meryl Streep took home best actress Oscar for a lesbian-helmed film, The Iron Lady, directed by Phyllida Lloyd. Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland also garnered Oscars for best makeup for the film. Streep thanked her makeup artist who has been with her for 30 years.
The award for editing award went to Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall for the bisexual hacker film, Girl With a Dragon Tattoo, while Hugo, a movie based on a book by gay author Brian Selznick, won for visiual effects, sound editing, sound mixing, art direction (Dante Ferretti and set decorator Francesca Lo Schiavo), and cinematography award (Robert Richardnson).
One of the night's most emotional moments came with Octavia Spencer won her first Oscar, a best actress award for The Help, a film by gay director Tate Taylor.
Best original screenplay went to Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris, a movie about 1920s France, in which Kathy Bates plays lesbian Gertrude Stein, while best adapted screenplay went to Alexander Payne, Jim Rash, and Nat Faxon for The Descendants. Payne and Faxon are straight and married, but on screen at least Rash has played a number of gay or bisexual roles, including the very queer college principal on NBC's Community.
For the full list of winners, visit Oscar.com.
