The 2026 Oscars race is pretty cishet, but here are three queer films to keep an eye on
Keep an eye on these three queer films at the 2026 Oscars. (Apple/Sony Pictures Classics/ Filthy Gorgeous Productions)
Sinners or One Battle After The Other? Jessie Buckley or Rose Byrne? Teyana Taylor or Amy Madigan? These are the questions to which answers will be given during Sunday’s Oscars ceremony.
Whatever the outcome of this year’s fairly difficult to call Oscars race, one thing looks pretty certain: it will be straight, and it will be cis. While recent Academy Awards have lauded queer talent (Colman Domingo; Ariana DeBose) and queer films (The Whale; Everything Everywhere All At Once; controversially, Emilia Pérez), the 2026 Oscars race is almost entirely cishet. Given the Oscars’ mediocre history with LGBTQ+ representation, the dearth of it this year is discernible.
But among the Hamnets, Marty Supremes and Frankensteins, there’s a few queer nominees this year who, while not driving the story at this year’s awards season, have had their own seismic impact outside of it. Here are three queer Oscar nominees to watch out for during Sunday’s ceremony.
A Friend of Dorothy
Directed by Lee Knight, short film A Friend of Dorothy stars Miriam Margolyes as the titular Dorothy, a lonely widow who encounters teen JJ (Alistair Nwachukwu) when he accidentally kicks his football into her garden. As she fetches it, they spark up a conversation due to the plays Dorothy has on her bookshelf; JJ is interested in becoming an actor, and Dorothy spent her life loving the art of theatre.
An intergenerational friendship blossoms, as JJ helps Dorothy through her ill health, and Dorothy aids JJ in navigating his identity as a closeted queer man and an aspiring thespian. It’s heartwarming and heartbreaking in equal measure, and is now being turned into a full-length feature film. Stephen Fry also stars.
Speaking to PinkNews last year about becoming award-nominated, Knight said the experience has been “wild”.
“It is all a bit mad,” he said. “The whole discussion about Oscars, BAFTAs, I thought was hilarious early on, but then I saw people’s reactions… That has overwhelmed me, where I started to realise the power of the story.”
A Friend of Dorothy is nominated in the Best Live Action Short Film category.
Come See Me In The Good Light
In this profoundly moving documentary, poet and LGBTQ+ activist Andrea Gibson reflects on their upbringing, identity and formidable artistry. It’s also a paean to love and its potency, particularly when confronted by the reality that life is short and unpredictable. In 2021, Gibson, who identified as genderqueer and used they/them pronouns, was diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer. They died in July 2025, months after Come See Me In The Good Light premiered at Sundance Film Festival to a rapturous response.
Directed by Ryan White, the film traces how Gibson used poetry as an outlet to process their personal struggles with identity and oppression to empower the LGBTQ+ community at a time of severe political turbulence. Beyond their work, it warmly covers Gibson’s relationship with their wife, fellow poet Megan Falley.
“It has changed the way I think about everything,” White told The Hollywood Reporter of making the film. Megan and Andrea, he explained, saw the film as lighting a candle for those who would see it. “Andrea would constantly say to me, ‘Ryan, don’t let what happened to me happen to you. It took knowing I was about to die for me to see the beauty in this world and in my relationships.’ That’s why they did this. And the way Meg said it is, ‘Maybe the world can be a little bit more illuminated after all those candles are lit.’”
Come See Me In The Good Light is nominated in the Best Documentary Feature category.
Blue Moon
Possibly the highest-profile film at this year’s Academy Awards to feature queer themes is Ethan Hawke and Andrew Scott’s Blue Moon. The chamber drama, directed by Hawke’s long time collaborator Richard Linklater, follows Hawke as bisexual lyricist Lorenz Hart.
Set over one evening in March 1943, it follows the garrulous showman Hart as he sinks deeper into a pit of despair on the opening night of Oklahoma!, the new Broadway smash penned by his former songwriter partner Richard Rodgers (Scott). He attempts to hide his contempt for Rodgers’ new musical, meanwhile trying to win the affection of theatre production designer Elizabeth Weiland (Margaret Qualley) who is half his age.
Both efforts fail, and he slowly unravels emotionally.
While Hawke has been widely praised for his campy, physically transformative performance as Hart, Blue Moon has been largely sidelined in this year’s Oscars conversation. That said, it’s the only movie on this list up for not one, but two accolades, and in the headline categories too.
Ethan Hawke is nominated in the Best Actor category, while the film’s writer Robert Kaplow is nominated for Best Original Screenplay.
The 98th Academy Awards take place in Los Angeles on 15 March.
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