16the Dorian Film Awards Winners (GALECA): ‘The Substance’ and Star Demi Moore Score Big with LGBTQ Critics

GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, counting more than 500 entertainment critics, journalists and media icons, has announced the winners of its Dorian Film Awards. Writer-director Coralie Fargeat’s shocking Hollywood satire The Substance was crowned Film of the Year, with the MUBI release taking five Dorians in all, including star Demi Moore for Film Performance of the Year and Fargeat for Film Director of the Year. 

Moore’s morph from former Brat Pack Era fixture to raw, unflinching indie movie firebrand impressed GALECA voters enough to also bestow her with the group’s Timeless Star career achievement award. Previous winners in the category, which tributes “an exemplary career marked by character, wisdom and wit,” include the likes of Jodie Foster, Jane Fonda, Nathan Lane, John Waters, Rita Moreno, Jane Fonda, George Takei and Sir Ian McKellen. 

Writer-director Jane Schoenbrun’s thought-provoking horror taleI Saw the TV Glow, which had lead the Dorians with 9 nominations, took LGBTQ Film of the Year as well as LGBTQ screenplay honors.Will & Harper, the irresistible road-trip documentary charting actor Will Ferrell’s enduring friendship with trans comedy writer Harper Steele, won both Documentary of the Year and LGBTQ Documentary. Challengers writer Justin Kuritzkes earned Screenplay of the Year, while rock legends Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross won for their tension-building techno score. 

Wicked scored big with Ariana Grande-Butera winning for Supporting Film Performance of the Year, Jonathan Bailey was named Rising Star, and Cynthia Erivo won LGBTQIA+ Film Trailblazer. Past recipients of the latter honor—which is meant for an artist who “inspires empathy, truth and equity”—include Janelle Monáe, Pedro Almodóvar, Isabel Sandoval and Colman Domingo. 

Domingo, Dorian-nominated this year for Sing Sing, proved victorious over Fargeat, Schoenbrun, Guadagnino and Tilda Swinton in the race for Wilde Artist, a special accolade named in homage to Oscar Wilde reserved for ‘a truly groundbreaking force in entertainment.’ “In our 16th year, GALECA’s members still have wicked fun toasting their favorites in film both mainstream and LGBTQ-themed,” said group president Walt Hickey. Added vice president Diane Anderson-Minshall, “I’m certain even some ultra-conservatives who are out to erase all sorts of ‘woke’ words and letters—not to mention history—are secretly taking note of our winners. Everyone appreciates the expert Q+ eye on entertainment.”

Other GALECA Dorian winners this year: The trans-empowering Batman spoof The People’s Jokerand writer-director-star Julio Torres’ comedy Problemista were both dubbed Unsung Film gems; director RaMell Ross’ somewhat experimental Nickel Boys was named Visually Striking Film, and the Oscar-nomated animal adventure Flow took Animated Film of the Year. Best Non-English language film honors went to Brazil’s fact-based protest drama I’m Still Here.

GALECA recently launched its latest $3000 Crimson Honors scholarship contest for aspiring film, TV and New York theater critics in public colleges (applications, due March 20, can be submitted viagaleca.org/crimson-honors). The group has also donated $1000 to The Los Angeles Press Club’s emergency relief fund for journalists affected by the city’s devastating January fires. And the membership recently announced its choices for America’s 10 best on-air TV news journalists, among them Christiane Amanpour, David Muir, Lester Holt, Kaitlan Collins and Jacob Soboroff. 

GALECA: THE SOCIETY OF LGBTQ ENTERTAINMENT CRITICS 16TH DORIAN FILM AWARDS

FILM OF THE YEAR

Anora (Neon)
Challengers  (Amazon MGM Studios)
I Saw the TV Glow (A24)
Nickel Boys (Orion Pictures/Amazon MGM Studios)
The Substance (Mubi)

LGBTQ FILM OF THE YEAR

Challengers (Amazon MGM Studios)
Emilia Pérez (Netflix)
I Saw the TV Glow (A24)
Love Lies Bleeding (A24)
Queer (A24)

DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR

Brady Corbet, The Brutalist (A24)
Coralie Fargeat, The Substance (Mubi)
Luca Guadagnino, Challengers (Amazon MGM Studios)
RaMell Ross, Nickel Boys (Orion Pictures/Amazon MGM Studios)
Jane Schoenbrun, I Saw the TV Glow (A24)

SCREENPLAY OF THE YEAR — Original or adapted

Sean Baker,  Anora (Neon)
Coralie Fargeat, The Substance (Mubi) 
Justin Kuritzkes, Challengers (Amazon MGM Studios)

Jane Schoenbrun, I Saw the TV Glow (A24) 
Peter Straughan, Conclave (Focus Features) 

LGBTQ SCREENPLAY OF THE YEAR

Rose Glass and Weronika Tofilska, Love Lies Bleeding (A24)
Justin Kuritzkes, Challengers (Amazon MGM Studios)
Justin Kuritzkes, Queer (A24)
Jane Schoenbrun, I Saw the TV Glow (A24)

Julio Torres, Problemista (A24)

NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGE FILM OF THE YEAR

All We Imagine as Light (Sideshow / Janus Films)
Emilia Pérez (Netflix)
Flow (Sideshow / Janus Films)
I’m Still Here (Sony Pictures Classics)
The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Neon)

LGBTQ NON-ENGLISH FILM OF THE YEAR

Crossing (Mubi)
Emilia Pérez (Netflix)
Queendom (Greenwich Entertainment)
Vermiglio (Sideshow / Janus Films)
All Shall Be Well (Strand Releasing) 

UNSUNG FILM OF THE YEAR —To an exceptional movie worthy of greater attention

Didi (Focus Features)
Hundreds of Beavers (Cineverse, Vinegar Syndrome)
My Old Ass (Amazon MGM Studios)
Problemista (A24)
Thelma (Magnolia)

UNSUNG LGBTQ FILM OF THE YEAR

Femme (Utopia)
My Old Ass (Amazon MGM Studios)
National Anthem (Variance, LD Entertainment)
The People’s Joker (Altered Innocence)
Problemista (A24)

FILM PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR

Adrien Brody, The Brutalist (A24)
Daniel Craig, Queer (A24)
Colman Domingo, Sing Sing (A24)
Karla Sofía Gascón, Emilia Pérez (Netflix) 
Cynthia Erivo, Wicked (Universal)
Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Hard Truths (Bleecker Street)
Nicole Kidman, Babygirl (A24)
Mikey Madison, Anora (Neon)
Demi Moore, The Substance (Mubi)
Justice Smith, I Saw the TV Glow (A24)

SUPPORTING FILM PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR

Michele Austin, Hard Truths (Bleecker Street)
Yura Borisov, Anora (Neon)
Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain (Searchlight Pictures)
Ariana Grande, Wicked (Universal)
Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Nickel Boys (Orion Pictures/Amazon MGM Studios)
Jack Haven, I Saw the TV Glow (A24)
Clarence Maclin, Sing Sing (A24)
Guy Pearce, The Brutalist (A24)
Margaret Qualley, The Substance (Mubi)
Zoe Saldaña, Emilia Pérez (Netflix)

DOCUMENTARY OF THE YEAR

Dahomey (Mubi)
Daughters (Netflix)
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin (Netflix)
Sugarcane (National Geographic)
Will & Harper (Netflix)

LGBTQ DOCUMENTARY OF THE YEAR

Chasing Chasing Amy (Level 33)
Frida (Amazon MGM Studios)
Merchant Ivory (Cohen Media Group)
Queendom (Greenwich Entertainment)
Will & Harper (Netflix)

ANIMATED FILM OF THE YEAR

Flow (Sideshow / Janus Films)
Inside Out 2 (Disney)
Memoir of a Snail (IFC Films)
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (Netflix)
The Wild Robot (Universal, DreamWorks)

GENRE FILM OF THE YEAR

For excellence in science fiction, fantasy and horror

Dune: Part Two (Warner Bros.)
I Saw the TV Glow (A24)
Nosferatu (Focus Features)
The Substance (Mubi)
Wicked (Universal)

FILM MUSIC OF THE YEAR

The Brutalist (A24) – Daniel Blumberg
Challengers (Amazon MGM Studios) – Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Emilia Pérez (Netflix) – Clément Ducol and Camille
I Saw the TV Glow (A24) – Alex G
Wicked (Universal) – John Powell and Stephen Schwartz, et al.

VISUALLY STRIKING FILM OF THE YEAR

The Brutalist (A24)
Dune: Part Two (Warner Bros.)
Nosferatu (Focus Features)
Nickel Boys (Orion Pictures/Amazon MGM Studios)
The Substance (Mubi)

CAMPIEST FLICK 

Hundreds of Beavers (Cineverse, Vinegar Syndrome)
Madame Web (Sony)
Megalopolis (Lionsgate)
The Substance (Mubi)
Trap (Warner Bros.)

“WE’RE WILDE ABOUT YOU!” RISING STAR AWARD

Jonathan Bailey
Vera Drew
Karla Sofía Gascón 
Jack Haven
Mikey Madison
Katy O’Brian
Drew Starkey

WILDE ARTIST AWARD

To a truly groundbreaking force in entertainment

Colman Domingo
Luca Guadagnino
Coralie Fargeat
Jane Schoenbrun
Tilda Swinton

GALECA LGBTQIA+ FILM TRAILBLAZER

For creating art that inspires empathy, truth and equity

Vera Drew
Cynthia Erivo
Luca Guadagnino
Jane Schoenbrun
Julio Torres

TIMELESS STAR (Career achievement award)

Honoring an exemplary career marked by character, wisdom and wit

Demi Moore