Oscar Noms Reaction and Early Predix

Karla Sofia Gascon makes Oscar history
as the first openly trans nominee for
Emilia Perez.
Credit: Page 114/Why Not Productions/
Pathe Films/France 2 Cinema/Netflix

After two postponements due the Los Angeles wildfires, the 2025 Oscars nominations were finally announced on Jan. 23 by Bowen Yang of SNL and Wicked and actress-comedienne Rachel Sennott. Emilia Perez, the transgender-druglord musical, topped the list with 13 nominations including Best Picture, Best International Film (it's directed by a Frenchman, spoken mostly in Spanish), and Best Actress for Karla Sofia Gascon, the first openly transgender performer to receive an Oscar nod. Elliot Page was nominated as Ellen Page for Juno before he came out as transgender. Emilia Perez made Oscar history in another way by breaking the record for most nominations for a foreign language film (previously held by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Roma with 10 each) and coming in second for most nominations ever behind All About Eve, Titanic, and La La Land which tie for the record with 14 each. I suspect Emilia Perez will win Best International Picture and Gascon will make a big speech as she did at the Golden Globes, advocating for trans rights and hopefully calling out Trump's hateful anti-trans agenda which seeks to obliterate the very idea that transgenderism even exists. Zoe Saldana of Perez is the frontrunner for Best Supporting Actress, though there has been some criticism that she should be considered a Leading Actress and was placed in the Supporting category to increase her chances at an Oscar win.

The awards will be presented as planned on March 2, hosted by Conan O'Brien for the first time, and telecast on ABC. The annual nominees luncheon has been cancelled. Some including Stephen King have advocated for the award to be cancelled altogether due to the wildfires. Even the assassination of MLK and the COVID crisis did not result in an Oscar cancellation.

Pre-Oscar Thoughts and Predix

The Oscar noms are tomorrow and I've seen a lot of the potential nominees. The only nom I really care about is Marianne Jean-Baptiste for Hard Truths. I have a bad feeling she will be overlooked despite winning the triple crown of critics' award from NY, LA and the National Society of Film Critics. But she was bypassed by the Golden Globes and the SAGs. I don't understand why, maybe because she's in a small-scale British film which has had a limited release. She also plays most of the film as a nasty, unlikable character who shows little sign of growth. Perhaps the GG and SAG nominators saw her performance as one-note. I will be happy if she gets a nom, but I think the probable winner in a very crowded Best Actress field is Demi Moore for The Substance. Her comeback story and GG win are very compelling. I'm afraid Pamela Anderson and Jamie Lee Curtis of The Last Showgirl will not make the final cut though they deserve recognition. I also would love it if Danielle Deadwyler got a Supporting Actress nod for The Piano Lesson, but I don't have much hope for that. She was robbed of a nom for Till and will be probably not get one now either. Anyway, here are my predictions:

B'way/Film Reviews: Cult of Love; Hard Truths

The cast of Cult of Love.
Credit: Joan Marcus

Here we go again. It’s time for yet another dysfunctional family reunion. Cult of Love, presented by Second Stage at the Hayes Theater after a production at Berkeley Repertory Theater, is the third play this season (following The Hills of California and The Blood Quilt) to dissect the familial ties that bind. Once again estranged siblings gather and squabble over past hurts and present estrangements. The difference between Cult and the previous two is the parents are still living and providing an additional source of conflict. Despite the familiarity of the territory, Leslye Headland’s solid script avoids melodramatic cliches, Trip Cullman’s direction admirably juggles several storylines simultaneously while building suspense, and the cast couldn’t be better.

It’s Christmas Eve at the Dahl house. The family name is not insignificant given that John Lee Beatty’s comfy-cozy-Christmas-crazy set resembles a domicile for domestic playthings or dolls. One of the adult children’s spouses even sarcastically refers to the family manse as “Santa’s workshop.” Like Nora in Ibsen’s similarly named A Doll’s House, the Dahl house kids are struggling to grow up. As Bill the near-senile father (David Rasche skillfully navigating the cognition waters) relates, he and his wife Ginny (Mare Winningham beautifully balancing affection and manipulation) both came from abusive backgrounds and have vowed to be different. But as a result, they have created a “cult of love” (hence the title) where their offspring are suffocated and unable to completely stand on their own. Religion, a topic rarely addressed in modern American drama, is also on the table with the senior Dahls’ unquestioning embrace of rigid Christianity causing problems for the second generation.

Shailene Woodley, Christopher Sears, 
Rebecca Henderson, and Zachary Quinto
in Cult of Love.
Credit: Joan Marcus

The eldest child Mark (Zachary Quinto, expert at suppressing inner turmoil) is conflicted about his faith, legal career, and marriage to sharp-tongued Rachel (spiky, funny Molly Bernard) who happens to be Jewish. Lesbian daughter Evie (equally edgy Rebecca Henderson) still bristles at her deeply religious family’s qualified acceptance of her marriage to Pippa (Roberta Colindrez, strongly supportive). Johnny (a buoyant Christopher Sears) uses jolly energy to deal with his drug addiction and has brought his sponsor, the hip Loren (Barbie Ferreira, making the most of a small role) along for the holidays. Youngest child Diana (Shailene Woodley in a shattering portrayal of mental short-circuiting) is pregnant with her second child and together with her husband James, an Episcopal priest (Christopher Lowell, a keenly observed liming of confused weakness) is trying to start a new church. But Diana appears to be suffering from delusions of divine visitations.