‘Minari,’ ‘Nomadland’ lead LGBTQ Critics’ Dorian Awards nominations; ‘The Prom,’ ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ vie for Campiest Flick

Erik Anderson February 11, 2021

GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, founded in 2009 and now comprised of over 280 professional journalists covering film and television, has announced nominations for its first separate Dorian Film Awards since splitting the two mediums and Minari and Nomadland lead the way.

The Dorian Awards honor both mainstream and queer titles, but the pandemic necessitated special allowances: Movies given a theatrical or digital theatrical release from January 1, 2020 to February 28, 2021 were considered. Winners will be revealed in the group’s Dorians Film Toast 2021 special set to air on the queer platform Revry on April 18.

Across 16 categories showing a pleasing range of diversity, Lee Isaac Chung’s heartfelt Korean immigrant drama Minari leads with six nominations, including Best Film and Best Foreign Language Film. Following with five nominations is Nomadland, with nods for lead Frances McDormand, two for director and screenwriter Chloé Zhao, and a shot at Most Visually Striking Film.

Zhao is also up for the group’s Wilde Artist Award alongside actress and acclaimed first-time film director Regina King (One Night in Miami), Dolly Parton, Elliot Page and the late Chadwick Boseman, also honored with a posthumous Best Actor nomination for his dynamic turn in the period drama Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. The Artist accolade, named in honor of GALECA’s patron saint Oscar Wilde, goes to “a truly groundbreaking force in entertainment.”

Emerald Fennell, writer-director of fellow Best Film contender Promising Young Woman (4 nominations), is a double-nominee herself. Woman’s star Carey Mulligan joins McDormand in the best actress race, alongside Miss Juneteenth’s pageant-mom Nicole Beharie, Never Rarely Sometimes Always’ pregnant teen Sidney Flanigan (also competing for the group’s Rising Star honor), and Viola Davis for her turn as a certain famed blues singer in Ma Rainey’s. McDormand is a past two-time GALECA nominee, while Davis earned a Dorian for her work in 2016’s Fences.

Along with Boseman in the Best Actor category are Anthony Hopkins for The Father, Delroy Lindo for director Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods, Riz Ahmed for the addiction drama Sound of Metal and Steven Yeun of Minari.

Rounding out the Best Film hopefuls are the indie fable First Cow (3 nominations total) and Metal (3).

In the past, GALECA has named movies such as Moonlight and Carol both best film and best LGBTQ film, but this year the lists for those two categories are completely different. Aiming for best queer film are the Kate Winslet-Saoirse Ronan period romance Ammonite, the fact-based love story I Carry You with Me, the Stanley Tucci-Colin Firth tearjerker Supernova, writer-director Alan Ball’s dry comedy Uncle Frank and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.

In the group’s signature Campiest Flick race: Bad Hair, Birds of Prey, Eurovision Song Contest, The Prom and Wonder Woman 1984.

GALECA’s previous awards special, Dorians TV Toast 2020 on Revry, hosted by queer broadcasting firebrand Karel, featured tributes to such luminaries as Hugh Jackman, Regina King, Janelle Monáe, Billy Porter, John Oliver, Dan Levy and Damon Lindelof. Presenters included Alex Newell, Margaret Cho, Dave Koz, Josh Thomas and Shangela. The program, and its behind-the-scenes companion half-hour Dorians Dish, can be viewed on Revry.TV.

GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics’ Dorian Awards go to all of film and TV, from mainstream to queer, helping remind bullies, bigots and at-risk youth that the world looks to “the Q eye” for tips on what’s great in movies and shows. After all, how would the world fare without knowing what’s campy?

Editor’s note: The Boys in the Band was inadvertently left off of the nominees list in information previously provided.

Complete list of Dorian Film Awards nominees:

Best Film

FIRST COW
MINARI
NOMADLAND
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
SOUND OF METAL

Best LGBTQ Film

AMMONITE
THE BOYS IN THE BAND
I CARRY YOU WITH ME
MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM
SUPERNOVA
UNCLE FRANK

Best Foreign Language Film

ANOTHER ROUND
BACURAU
I CARRY YOU WITH ME
LA LLORONA
MINARI
TWO OF US

Best Director

Chloé Zhao, NOMADLAND
Emerald Fennell, PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
Kelly Reichardt, FIRST COW
Lee Isaac Chung, MINARI
Regina King, ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI

Best Screenplay (original or adapted)

Chloé Zhao, NOMADLAND
Eliza Hittman, NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS
Emerald Fennell, PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
Lee Isaac Chung, MINARI
Radha Blank, THE FORTY-YEAR-OLD VERSION

Best Unsung Film

DRIVEWAYS
FIRST COW
MISS JUNETEENTH
NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS
SHIRLEY
THE ASSISTANT

Best Documentary

COLLECTIVE
CRIP CAMP
DICK JOHNSON IS DEAD
DISCLOSURE
TIME
WELCOME TO CHECHNYA

Best LGBTQ Documentary

A SECRET LOVE
BORN TO BE
DISCLOSURE: TRANS LIVES ON SCREEN
MUCHO MUCHO AMOR: THE LEGEND OF WALTER MERCADO
WELCOME TO CHECHNYA

Best Film Performance — Actress

Carey Mulligan, PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
Frances McDormand, NOMADLAND
Nicole Beharie, MISS JUNETEENTH
Sidney Flanigan, NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS
Viola Davis, MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM

Best Film Performance — Actor

Anthony Hopkins, THE FATHER
Chadwick Boseman, MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM
Delroy Lindo, DA 5 BLOODS
Riz Ahmed, SOUND OF METAL
Steven Yeun, MINARI

Best Film Performance — SUPPORTING Actress

Amanda Seyfried, MANK
Candice Bergen, LET THEM ALL TALK
Maria Bakalova, BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM
Olivia Colman, THE FATHER
Youn Yuh-jung, MINARI

Best Film Performance — SUPPORTING Actor

Chadwick Boseman, DA 5 BLOODS
Daniel Kaluuya, JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH
Leslie Odom Jr., ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI
Paul Raci, SOUND OF METAL
Sacha Baron Cohen, THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7

Most Visually Striking Film

BIRDS OF PREY: AND THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN
MANK
NOMADLAND
SOUL
WOLFWALKERS

Campiest Flick

BAD HAIR
BIRDS OF PREY: AND THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN
EUROVISION SONG CONTEST: THE STORY OF FIRE SAGA
THE PROM
WONDER WOMAN 1984

“We’re Wilde About You!” Rising Star Award

Alan S. Kim
Kingsley Ben-Adir
Maria Bakalova
Radha Blank
Sidney Flanigan

Wilde Artist Award (to a truly groundbreaking force in entertainment)

Chadwick Boseman
Chloé Zhao
Dolly Parton
Elliot Page
Regina King

A nonprofit professional organization, GALECA consists of over 280 critics and journalists who write for legitimate media outlets in the United States, Canada, Australia and the U.K. For more info, visit GALECA.org. Support us if you will on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @DorianAwards. And tap your toes to our two theme songs: The cozy “Raise a Glass!” and the spirited “Toast,” performed by The Black Donnellys, at DoriansToast.com.

Author
Recent Posts

Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.