If you take a peek back at stuntwoman Ellie Haigh’s pre-career upbringing, you will find a kid geeking out to Power Rangers with an overwhelming sense of possibility. Far before she was doubling actors or choreographing fights, Haigh was already building her training arc through gymnastics, parkour, martial arts, and determination. What started as a childhood appreciation for Ninja Turtles steadily evolved into a career founded on movement with intention.

Moving to Los Angeles in September 2020 (arguably the worst possible moment to set sails for the Hollywood dream), Haigh entered the stunt world with no map, no safety net. As one of – and quite possibly the only – openly trans women working in stunts, Haigh navigated an industry that is both physically exhausting and slow to change. Instead of shrinking herself to fit the mold, Haigh has instead opted for visibility and authenticity. She has quickly learned when to fight, when to teach, and when to simply take space.

In our conversation, Haigh shares on motion, mentorship, and the responsibility of this visibility. She serves on the growing pains of Hollywood and its politics, and why fantasy worlds often tell the truest stories. 

What first sparked your enthusiasm and interest in stunt work? Was there a moment when you realized it could be a real career?

I remember as a kid getting into parkour, gymnastics, and martial arts. What sparked that, this is a little embarrassing, was Power Rangers. Watching it as a kid, I remember feeling such intense FOMO. I wanted to be Kimberly, the Pink Ranger, so badly. I used to do everything I could to be her. All my hobbies just ended up relating to that in some way.

I added acting into the mix as well, and it just felt like the right path. I didn’t realize stunt work could actually be a career until I was much older, probably in high school. At that point, all my hobbies were already aligned. After high school, I was coaching gymnastics full-time and realized pretty quickly, this isn’t it. That’s when I decided to move to LA.

Are there skills from coaching gymnastics that translated into stunt work?

Absolutely. I taught gymnastics and parkour for about ten years, mostly to children. There are a lot of aspects of stunts, especially when you’re doubling, where you have to teach actors what you’re doing. Or if you’re part of a stunt team creating choreography or previsualization, you need to be able to explain movement clearly. Coaching made that much easier.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Selwyn Huqueriza (@selweezyyy)

Aside from the Pink Ranger, who were some of your earliest influences?

A lot of them were fictional. Video games, superhero shows, Marvel comics, Spider-Man, Spider-Gwen. Power Rangers, Ninja Turtles. I also loved anime and still do. I remember watching characters train and thinking, “Why am I not in my training arc right now?”

More recently, I’ve been getting into swords, historical European sword work, like in The Lord of the Rings, and Japanese sword styles as well. Anything where movement is intentional and carefully thought out really inspires me.

How has the transition into Hollywood been for you professionally?

I moved to LA about five years ago, in September 2020… horrible timing. It was during COVID, and I didn’t know anyone. I’m originally from the Boston area. During the pandemic, I was furloughed from my coaching job, and it was the first time I had actually saved money. When my lease was up, I just moved.

At first, I didn’t know where to go or who to talk to. I found gyms where stunt people train, and I just showed up and trained. Over time, I made friends and built a community. Once things started opening up, I felt like momentum was building, and then the strikes happened.

Even then, I didn’t regret moving. I always planned to stick it out. Getting my foot in the door was hard, but it came down to being in the right places, building community, and being a good person. The right people eventually find you.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ellie Haigh (@ellie_haigh_)

How has your trans identity influenced your experience in Hollywood? Have you seen the industry evolve?

My trans identity has definitely affected my work. As far as I know, I’m the only trans woman working in stunts in LA right now. There’s no blueprint for how to navigate this space as a trans woman, especially because stunt is still a pretty conservative industry overall.

Early on, I tried to be someone I wasn’t to fit in. I thought I needed to tone myself down or be more “bro-y.” It made me really unhappy, and it didn’t even help professionally. At the end of the day, I was still trans, so I had to ask myself, Who am I even doing this for?

A few years ago, I decided to be fully myself and trust that the right people would find me. That’s when I met my mentor, Jess Harbeck, a trans man and stunt coordinator. He helped me navigate the industry, got me my SAG card, and gave me my first doubling job. More importantly, he showed me that there is space for me here.

How is the current political climate – anti-trans, anti-queer, anti-anything loving and accepting – affecting you personally or professionally?

It’s infuriating, honestly. I speak out a lot online and lose followers because of it, often other stunt people. At this point, I don’t care. If someone followed me for years and that’s what made them unfollow, they were here too long anyway.

I try to stay informed while also protecting my mental health. Doom-scrolling doesn’t help anyone. I think of joy as a form of protest, choosing to live fully while still speaking out and supporting my community.

How do you balance care for the community with self-care? Do you feel a responsibility to represent the trans community?

I’m a stuntwoman who happens to be trans, and I’m more than just my trans identity. But representation matters, especially right now.

When I was a gymnastics coach, I was often the first trans person my students had ever met. Years later, many of them are outspoken supporters of trans rights. I don’t know how much credit I deserve, but I know visibility matters. People might see that I’m trans first—but then they see that I’m good at what I do, and that matters.

Do you see yourself mentoring others in the future?

Absolutely. I didn’t quit coaching because I disliked it. I quit because I needed to put all my energy into stunts. Teaching still comes up constantly in my work, and I’d love to mentor younger performers someday, especially trans women. Right now, I still have a lot to learn, but I want to be able to give others what my mentor gave me.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ellie Haigh (@ellie_haigh_)

What’s been one of your most challenging or meaningful projects so far?

One of the most challenging experiences was working on Marvel’s The Punisher. It wasn’t physically difficult, but the logistics were exhausting, flying back and forth between LA and New York, dealing with delays and schedule changes. It taught me a lot about flexibility and endurance.

One of my favorite experiences was doubling Hunter Schafer on a short film/commercial project. I’d admired her for years, so getting to work with her was surreal. The set had such a great vibe, and it felt like a moment where I thought, This is exactly why I’m doing this.

If you could pitch your own action or fantasy film, what would it be?

I think it would be incredible to see a trans woman as a lead action star. I think it’s super important that trans women are shown that not only are we allowed to lead, but we can also be seen as strong and powerful. Strong is femme and I can’t wait to see that.

Where do you see yourself in five years?

I see myself still here, still creating. I want to be a stuntwoman, an actress, and a creator. I want to do action comedies, high fantasy, sword work, and projects I believe in. I don’t know exactly what it’ll look like yet, but I know I’ll be there.

When Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” debuted on American movie screens last September, it had a lot of things going for it: an acclaimed Hollywood auteur working with a cast that included three Oscar-winning actors, on an ambitious blockbuster with his biggest budget to date, and a $70 million advertising campaign to draw in the crowds. It was even released in IMAX. 

It was still a box office disappointment, failing to achieve its “break-even” threshold before making the jump from big screen to small via VOD rentals and streaming on HBO Max. Whatever the reason – an ambivalence toward its stars, a lack of clarity around what it was about, divisive pushback from both progressive and conservative camps over perceived messaging, or a general sense of fatigue over real-world events that had pushed potential moviegoers to their saturation point for politically charged material – audiences failed to show up for it. 

The story did not end there, of course; most critics, unconcerned with box office receipts, embraced Anderson’s grand-scale opus, and it’s now a top contender in this year’s awards race, already securing top prizes at the Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice Awards, nominated for a record number of SAG’s Actor Awards, and almost certain to be a front runner in multiple categories at the Academy Awards on March 15.

For cinema buffs who care about such things, that means the time has come: get over all those misgivings and hesitations, whatever reasons might be behind them, and see for yourself why it’s at the top of so many “Best Of” lists.

Adapted by Anderson from the 1990 Thomas Pynchon novel “Vineland,” “One Battle” is part action thriller, part political allegory, part jet-black satire, and – as the first feature film shot primarily in the “VistaVision” format since the early 1960s – all gloriously cinematic. It unspools a near-mythic saga of oppression, resistance, and family bonds, set in an authoritarian America of unspecified date, in which a former revolutionary (Leonardo DiCaprio) is attempting to raise his teenage daughter (Chase Infiniti) under the radar after her mother (Teyana Taylor) betrayed the movement and fled the country. Now living under a fake identity and consumed by paranoia and a weed habit, he has grown soft and unprepared when a corrupt military officer (Sean Penn) – who may be his daughter’s real biological father – tracks them down and apprehends her. Determined to rescue her, he reconnects with his old revolutionary network and enlists the aid of her karate teacher (Benicio Del Toro), embarking on a desperate rescue mission while her captor plots to erase all traces of his former “indiscretion” with her mother.

It’s a plot straight out of a mainstream action melodrama, top-heavy with opportunities for old-school action, sensationalistic violence, and epic car chases (all of which it delivers), but in the hands of Anderson – whose sensibilities always strike a provocative balance between introspection, nostalgia, and a sense of apt-but-irreverent destiny – it becomes much more intriguing than the generic tropes with which he invokes to cover his own absurdist leanings.

Indeed, it’s that absurdity which infuses “One Battle” with a bemusedly observational tone and emerges to distinguish it from the “action movie” format it uses to relay its narrative. From DiCaprio (whose performance highlights his subtle comedic gifts as much as his “serious” acting chops) as a bathrobe-clad underdog hero with shades of The Dude from the Coen Brothers’ “The Big Liebowski,” to the uncomfortably hilarious creepy secret society of financially elite white supremacists that lurks in the margins of the action, Anderson gives us plenty of satirical fodder to chuckle about, even if we cringe as we do it; like that masterpiece of too-close-to-home political comedy, Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 nuclear holocaust farce “Dr. Strangelove,” it offers us ridiculousness and buffoonery which rings so perfectly true in a terrifying reality that we can’t really laugh at it.

That, perhaps, is why Anderson’s film has had a hard time drawing viewers; though it’s based on a book from nearly four decades ago and it was conceived, written, and created well before our current political reality, the world it creates hits a little too close to home. It imagines a roughly contemporary America ruled by a draconian regime, where immigration enforcement, police, and the military all seem wrapped into one oppressive force, and where unapologetic racism dictates an entire ideology that works in the shadows to impose its twisted values on the world. When it was conceived and written, it must have felt like an exaggeration; now, watching the final product in 2026, it feels almost like an inevitability. Let’s face it, none of us wants to accept the reality of fascism imposing itself on our daily lives; a movie that forces us to confront it is, unfortunately, bound to feel like a downer. We get enough “doomscrolling” on social media; we can’t be faulted for not wanting more of it when we sit down to watch a movie.

In truth, however, “One Battle” is anything but a downer. Full of comedic flourish, it maintains a rigorous distance that makes it impossible to make snap judgments about its characters, and that makes all the difference – especially with characters like DiCaprio’s protective dad, whose behavior sometimes feels toxic from a certain point of view. And though it’s a movie which has no qualms about showing us terrifying things we would rather not see, it somehow comes off better in the end than it might have done by making everything feel safe.

“Safe” is something we are never allowed to feel in Anderson’s outlandish action adventure, even at an intellectual level; even if we can laugh at some of its over-the-top flourishes or find emotional (or ideological) satisfaction in the way things ultimately play out, we can’t walk away from it without feeling the dread that comes from recognizing the ugly truths behind its satirical absurdities. In the end, it’s all too real, too familiar, too dire for us not to be unsettled. After all, it’s only a movie, but the things it shows us are not far removed from the world outside our doors. Indeed, they’re getting closer every day.

Visually masterful, superbly performed, and flawlessly delivered by a cinematic master, it’s a movie that, like it or not, confronts us with the discomforting reality we face, and there’s nobody to save it from us but ourselves.

This year’s Oscar nominees feature very few openly queer actors or creatives, with KPop Demon Hunters, Come See Me in the Good Light, and Elio bringing some much-needed representation to the field.

KPop Demon Hunters, which quickly became a worldwide sensation after releasing on Netflix last June, was nominated for best animated feature film and best original song for Golden, the chart-topping hit co-written by openly queer songwriter Mark Sonnenblick. Come See Me in the Good Light, a film following the late Andrea Gibson and their wife, Megan Falley, was nominated in the best documentary feature category. Finally, Pixar’s Elio (co-directed by openly queer filmmaker Adrian Molina) was nominated for best animated feature film alongside Zootopia 2, Arco, and Little Amélie or the Character of Rain.

Ethan Hawke did manage to land a best actor nomination for his work in Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon, a biopic that follows a fatal night in Lorenz Hart’s life as he reckons with losing his creative partner, Richard Rodgers. Robert Kaplow was also nominated for best original screenplay for penning the script. Amy Madigan, as expected, was recognized in the best supporting actress category for her work in Weapons, bringing celebrated gay icon Aunt Gladys to the Oscar stage.

While Wicked: For Good was significantly underperforming throughout the season, with Cynthia Erivo missing key nominations and the film falling squarely out of the best picture race early on, most pundits expected the film to still receive some recognition in craft categories. But in perhaps the biggest shock of Oscar nomination morning, For Good received zero nominations — not even for costume design or production design, the two categories in which the first film won just last year. Clearly, there was Wicked fatigue across the board.

There was also reasonable hope that Eva Victor’s acclaimed directorial debut, Sorry, Baby, would land a best original screenplay nod, especially after Julia Roberts shouted out Victor during the recent Golden Globes (which aired the day before Oscar voting started). A24, the studio that distributed Sorry, Baby in the U.S., clearly prioritized campaigns for Marty Supreme (to much success) and Rose Byrne in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, leaving Sorry, Baby the indie darling that couldn’t quite crack the Oscar race.

However, with the Film Independent Spirit Awards taking place on Feb. 15, queer films like Sorry, Baby, Peter Hujar’s Day, and Twinless will finally get their time to shine. Maybe these films were just underseen, or not given a big enough PR push, but regardless, it’s unfortunate that The Academy couldn’t make room for just one of these when Emilia Pérez managed 13 nominations last year.

What does queer representation look like in 2026? It’s a complicated question, with a shockingly hopeful answer. 

Harmful LGBTQ+ stereotypes have plagued mainstream media for decades, with only recent years offering big-budget projects exploring the nuances of marginalized identity. But even with this progress, the past year has left countless of these projects cancelled or delayed, with queer creatives and their stories becoming political fodder for bigots nationwide. Despite this, LGBTQ+ storytellers have persisted, continuing to tell their stories while creating new opportunities for other artists to thrive. It’s heartening to see so many queer storytellers doing this in the modern day, and it’s why Vic Michaelis’ historic filmography is more important now than ever. 

A Canadian transplant, this non-binary performer arrived in LA one decade ago and took the city’s improv scene by storm. Eventually going from sketch comic to television host — though they still perform in improv clubs across LA — Michaelis has revolutionized talk shows and gained a massive following with their popular Dropout program, Very Important People. Not only that, but Vic’s newest role alongside Emilia Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson in the tense spy thriller, Ponies, means that the artist will be introduced to a bigger audience than they’ve encountered before. Theirs is a wonderfully chaotic career that keeps the performer very busy, but Michaelis still managed to sit down with the LA Blade to discuss these roles, what these projects mean to them, and how it feels to do all of this as an openly queer creative today.

“It’s so funny because it’s true, I am a talk show host…I am Vic Michaelis, and I am hosting a talk show, that is a true thing you are saying” Replied Michaelis, when learning that they’ve made history by becoming the first non-binary person to host a talk show. “All to say, it’s an honor!” Going into its third season, Very Important People perfectly matches its creators’ chaotic style of comedy. Each episode sees a different comedian get decked out in a random costume (ranging from gorgeous gowns to full hotdog prosthetics) and adopt a whole new persona for a sit-down interview with the star. It’s an irreverent premise that host and guest dive into wholeheartedly, with the performer stressing how this project mainly serves as a way to uplift the LA-based performers they know and love. 

“The improv scene in LA is very tight-knit,” Michaelis explained. “And we get to see versions of these performers that we don’t [ever] get to see [onstage]. The best part of the show is watching [these people], my friends, shine in the spotlight.”  

It’s this camaraderie — which has introduced audiences to numerous LGBTQ+ performers they wouldn’t have known otherwise — that has earned Very Important People widespread acclaim and garnered Michaelis thousands of fans online. And with them acting as a version of themself on the show, many watchers assumed they knew what to expect from the comedian…which is why Michaelis is so excited to shock them all with their total metamorphosis in Ponies. 

While Vic is used to turning performers into monsters and aliens, their Ponies transformation sees them go from the bombastic host fans love into Cheryl: the no-nonsense, endlessly antagonistic office manager. The main foil of Ponies’ central protagonists (Clarke and Richardson), the series follows this trio as they maneuver around an American embassy in 1970s Russia. With our main duo acting as spies trying to master lethal espionage, they’re constantly forced to put up with Michaelis’ needling Cheryl…who just always happens to know more about their covert missions than she should. 

“I personally have a lot of empathy for Cheryl,” gushed Vic, while detailing how it was to play such an intriguing character. “Especially in that time period! If she had been born a man, that would have been it. She is competent and capable, and would have risen far past the station that she’s in [when we meet her].” While initially presented as a one-dimensional nag, each Ponies episode dives deeper into this character; it teases not only the many skills she gave up for the sake of her husband, but just how far Cheryl will go to embrace the talents she’s been forced to hide away. And as a performer who’s made an entire talk show about bringing out the best in any kind of character, she offers a perfect avenue for Vic to show off their distinct acting style to a whole new audience on Peacock.

Cheryl gave Michaelis a chance to act in ways their fans have never seen before. But beyond that, Vic also recognizes a different significance to this role: the fact that it means thousands of new viewers will get to watch a queer person onscreen on a major network. 

They detailed how they weren’t always as proudly authentic as they are now. Early in their career, Michaelis was faced with a choice: be openly non-binary, or masquerade as cisgender in an industry still riddled with biased casting directors. Quickly, and with the support of their fellow LA creatives, Vic realized not only how much their identity could mean to themself, but to so many others. “Especially being in a field that’s very dominated by cisgender white men…the representation is so important,” they explained. “And if it helps one person, then it’s been worth it. If one person feels seen, then you know it’s worth it.”

It has certainly proven itself to be worth it, as with this new role, Michaelis holds the honor of being one of the few gender-expansive performers to ever appear on a major network. And while proud of the tireless work it took to get them here, as the interview wound down, Vic made sure to shout out the many other LGBTQ+ performers creating and starring in shows across LA today. “There are a lot of incredible gender queer folks doing absolutely amazing things on the scene right now – but there’s always room for more.” 

Michaelis encouraged anyone inspired by their work as an openly non-binary performer to try to find that confidence in themselves. To use their roles in Very Important People and Ponies as evidence that, no matter how much LGBTQ+ representation is attacked, remember that LGBTQ+ artists will never stop telling their stories to those who need it most. “There’s a lot of really, truly horrible, terrible anti-trans bills and anti-LGBTQ bills coming through,” said Vic. “It’s truly horrific, and it’s really scary…and I’m very proud and happy to stand with our community. [And] it really does feel like it’s not just me standing up. I get to be a part of this big chorus, standing up [for what’s right]. And it’s an honor.”

It’s an important reminder that the fight for representation is never one done in solitude. And, as Vic Michaelis is showing in their every role, it’s a fight that is only truly possible when done with and for your community…all while trying on as many costumes as possible, of course.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Vic Michaelis (@vicmmic)

Casting is everything when it comes to making a movie. There’s a certain alchemy that happens when an actor and character are perfectly matched, blurring the lines of identity so that they seem to become one and the same. In some cases, the movie itself feels to us as if it could not exist without that person, that performance.

“Marty Supreme” is just such a movie. Whatever else can be said about Josh Safdie’s wild ride of a sports comedy – now in theaters and already racking up awards – it has accomplished exactly that rare magic, because the title character might very well be the role that Timothée Chalamet was born to play.

Loosely based on real-life table tennis pro Marty Reisman, who published his memoir “The Money Player” in 1974, this Marty (whose real surname is Mauser) is a first-generation American, a son of Jewish immigrant parents in post-WWII New York who works as a shoe salesman at his uncle’s store on the Lower East Side while building his reputation as a competitive table tennis player in his time off. Cocky, charismatic, and driven by dreams of championship, everything else in his life  – including his childhood friend Rachel (Odessa A’zion), who is pregnant with his baby despite being married to someone else – takes a back seat as he attempts to make them come true, hustling every step of the way.

Inevitably, his determination to win leads him to cross a few ethical lines as he goes – such as stealing money for travel expenses, seducing a retired movie star (Gwyneth Paltrow), wooing her CEO husband (Kevin O’Leary) to sponsor him, and running afoul of the neighborhood mob boss (veteran filmmaker Abel Ferrara) – and a chain of consequences piles at his heels, threatening to undermine his success before it even has a chance to happen.

Filmed in 35mm and drenched in the visual style of the gritty-but-gorgeous “New Hollywood” cinema that Safdie – making his solo directorial debut without the collaboration of his brother Benny – so clearly seeks to evoke, “Marty Supreme” calls up unavoidable connections to the films of that era with its focus on an anti-hero protagonist trying to beat the system at its own game, as well as a kind of cynical amorality that somehow comes across more like a countercultural call-to-arms than a nihilistic social commentary. It’s a movie that feels much more challenging in the mid-2020s than it might have four or so decades ago, building its narrative around an ego-driven character who triggers all our contemporary progressive disdain; self-centered, reckless, and single-mindedly committed to attaining his own goals without regard for the collateral damage he inflicts on others in the process, he might easily – and perhaps  justifiably – be branded as a classic example of the toxic male narcissist.

Yet to see him this way feels simplistic and reductive, a snap value judgment that ignores the context of time and place while invoking the kind of ethical purity that can easily blind us to the nuances of human behavior. After all, a flawed character is always much more authentic than a perfect one, and Marty Mauser is definitely flawed.

Yet in Chalamet’s hands, those flaws become the heart of a story that emphasizes a will to transcend the boundaries imposed by the circumstantial influences of class, ethnicity, and socially mandated hierarchy. His Marty is a person forging an escape path in a world that expects him to “know his place,” who is keenly aware of the anti-semitism and cultural conventions that keep him locked into a life of limited possibilities and who is willing to do whatever it takes to break free of them; and though he might draw our disapproval for the choices he makes, particularly with regard to his relationship with Rachel, he grows as he goes, navigating a character arc that is less interested in redemption for past sins than it is in finding the integrity to do better the next time – and frankly, that’s something that very few toxic male narcissists ever do.

In truth, it’s not surprising that Chalamet nails the part, considering that it’s the culmination of a project that began in 2018, when Safdie gave him Reisman’s book and suggested collaborating on a movie based on the story of his rise to success. The actor began training in table tennis, and continued to master it over the years, even bringing the necessary equipment to location shoots for movies like “Dune” so that he could perfect his skills – but physical skill aside, he always had what he needed to embody Marty. This is a character who knows what he’s got and is not ashamed to use it, who has the drive to succeed, the will to excel, and the confidence to be unapologetically himself while finding joy in the exercise of his talents, despite how he might be judged by those who see only ego. If any actor could be said to reflect those qualities, it’s Timothée Chalamet.

Other members of the cast also score deep impressions, especially A’zion, whose Rachel avoids tropes of victimhood to achieve her own unconventional character arc. Paltrow gives a remarkably vulnerable turn as the aging starlet who willingly allows Marty into her orbit despite the worldliness that tells her exactly what she’s getting into, while O’Leary embodies the kind of smug corporate venality that instantly positions him as the avatar for everything Marty is trying to escape. Queer fan-fave icons Fran Drescher and Sandra Bernhard also make small-but-memorable appearances, and real-life deaf table tennis player Koto Kawaguchi strikes a memorable chord as the Japanese champion who becomes Marty’s de facto rival.

As for Safdie’s direction, it’s hard to find anything to criticize in his film’s visually stylish, sumptuously photographed (by Darius Khondji), and tightly paced delivery, which makes its two-and-a-half hour runtime fly by without a moment of drag.

It must be said that the screenplay – co-written by Safdie with Ronald Bronstein – leans heavily into an approach in which much of the narrative hinges on implausible coincidences, ironic twists, and a general sense of orchestrated chaos that makes things occasionally feel a little too neat; but let’s face it, life is like that sometimes, so it’s easy to overlook.

What might be more problematic, for some audiences, is Marty’s often insufferable – and occasionally downright ugly behavior. Yes, Chalamet infuses it all with humanizing authenticity, and the story is ultimately more about the character’s emotional evolution than it is about his winning at ping-pong, but it’s impossible not to read a subtext of American Exceptionalism into his winner-takes-all climb to victory – which is why “Marty Supreme,” for all its critical acclaim, is the subject of much heated debate and outrage on social media right now.

As for us, we’re not condoning anything Marty does or says as he hustles his way to the winner’s circle. All we’re saying is that Timothée Chalamet has become an even better actor since he captured our attention (and a lot of gay hearts) in “Call Me By Your Name.”

And that’s saying a lot, because he was pretty great, even then.

One Battle After Another, Sorry, Baby and Sinners are among this year’s Dorian Film Award nominees, celebrating the best in 2025 film, as chosen by GALECA, the Society of LGBTQ Critics.

One Battle After Another leads the pack with nine nominations, including for Paul Thomas Anderson as director of the year and acting nominees Leonardo DiCaprio, Benicio del Toro, Sean Penn and Teyana Taylor (who just won the Golden Globe for best supporting actress). Right behind the awards season juggernaut is Marty Supreme with eight nominations and Sinners with five nominations.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by GALECA: Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (@dorianawards)

“Across genres and borders, LGBTQ filmmakers and performers are telling stories that are bold, personal, and adventurous — often in the face of cultural resistance,” GALECA Vice President Gerrick Kennedy said in a statement. “GALECA is proud to honor a class of nominees that don’t just reflect the moment, but challenge and expand it.”

GALECA uniquely features an LGBTQ Film of the Year award, and this year’s crop of nominees includes Blue Moon, Hedda, Pillion, Sorry, Baby, and Twinless. Ryan Coogler, Cynthia Erivo and Jafar Panahi are among the names listed for the Wilde Artist Award, while the GALECA LGBTIA+ Film Trailblazer Award features Jonathan Bailey, Kristen Stewart, and Eva Victor. Every year, GALECA also honors someone with the Timeless Star career achievement award, with previous recipients including Demi Moore and Nathan Lane.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by GALECA: Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (@dorianawards)

Check out the full list of nominees below. Winners will be announcedon  Thursday, March 3, at the 2026 Dorians Film Toast, where the Timeless Star award recipient will also be unveiled.

FULL LIST

FILM OF THE YEAR 

Hamnet (Focus Features)

Marty Supreme (A24)

One Battle After Another (Warner Bros.)

Sinners (Warner Bros.)

Sorry, Baby (A24)

LGBTQ FILM OF THE YEAR

Blue Moon (Sony Pictures Classics)

Hedda (Amazon MGM Studios)

Pillion (A24)

Sorry, Baby (A24)

Twinless (Lionsgate, Roadside Attractions)

DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR

Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another (Warner Bros.)

Ryan Coogler, Sinners (Warner Bros.)

Jafar Panahi, It Was Just an Accident (Neon)

Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme (A24)

Chloé Zhao, Hamnet (Focus Features)

SCREENPLAY OF THE YEAR

Hamnet, Chloé Zhao, Maggie O’Farrell (Focus Features)

Marty Supreme, Josh Safdie, Ronald Bronstein (A24)

One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson (Warner Bros.)

Sinners, Ryan Coogler (Warner Bros.)

Sorry, Baby, Eva Victor (A24)

LGBTQ SCREENPLAY OF THE YEAR

Blue Moon, Robert Kaplow (Sony Pictures Classics)

Hedda, Nia DeCosta (Amazon MGM Studios)

Pillion, Harry Lighton (A24)

Sorry, Baby, Eva Victor (A24)

Twinless, James Sweeney (Lionsgate, Roadside Attractions)

NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGE FILM OF THE YEAR

It Was Just an Accident (Neon)

No Other Choice (Neon)

Sentimental Value (Neon)

Sirāt (Neon)

The Secret Agent (Neon)

LGBTQ NON-ENGLISH FILM OF THE YEAR

Cactus Pears (Strand Releasing)

Misericordia (Janus Films, Sideshow)

Sauna (Breaking Glass)

The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo (Altered Innocence)

Viet and Nam (Strand Releasing)

UNSUNG FILM OF THE YEAR

Black Bag (Focus Features)

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (A24)

Lurker (Mubi) 

The Testament of Ann Lee (Searchlight Pictures) 

Twinless (Lionsgate, Roadside Attractions)

UNSUNG LGBTQ FILM OF THE YEAR
A Nice Indian Boy (Blue Harbor Entertainment)

Kiss of the Spider Woman (Lionsgate, Roadside Attractions, LD Entertainment)

Peter Hujar’s Day (Janus)

Plainclothes (Magnolia)

The Wedding Banquet (Bleecker Street)

FILM PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR

Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (A24)

Timothée Chalamet, Marty Supreme (A24)

Leonardo DiCaprio, One Battle After Another (Warner Bros.)

Jessie Buckley, Hamnet (Focus Features)

Ethan Hawke, Blue Moon (Sony Pictures Classics)

Michael B. Jordan, Sinners (Warner Bros.)

Dylan O’Brien, Twinless (Lionsgate, Roadside Attractions)

Renate Reinsve, Sentimental Value (Neon)

Amanda Seyfried, The Testament of Ann Lee (Searchlight Pictures)

Tessa Thompson, Hedda (Amazon MGM Studios)

SUPPORTING FILM PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR

Benicio del Toro, One Battle After Another (Warner Bros.)

Jacob Elordi, Frankenstein (Netflix)

Ariana Grande-Butera, Wicked: For Good (Universal)

Nina Hoss, Hedda (Amazon MGM Studios)

Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Sentimental Value (Neon)

Amy Madigan, Weapons (Warner Bros.)

Wunmi Mosaku, Sinners (Warner Bros.)

Sean Penn, One Battle After Another (Warner Bros.)

Stellan Skarsgård, Sentimental Value (Neon)

Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another (Warner Bros.)

DOCUMENTARY OF THE YEAR

Come See Me in the Good Light (Apple)

Cover-Up (Netflix)

My Mom Jayne (HBO)

The Perfect Neighbor (Netflix) 

Predators (MTV Documentary Films)

LGBTQ DOCUMENTARY OF THE YEAR

Come See Me in the Good Light (Apple)

Heightened Scrutiny (Fourth Act Film)

I Was Born This Way (JungeFilms / Goodform)

The Librarians (8 Above)

Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story (Zeitgeist Films)

ANIMATED FILM OF THE YEAR

Arco (Neon)

Elio (Disney)

KPop Demon Hunters (Netflix, Sony)

Little Amélie or the Character of Rain (GKIDS)

Zootopia 2 (Disney)

GENRE FILM OF THE YEAR

28 Years Later (Sony)

Bring Her Back (A24)

Frankenstein (Netflix)

Sinners (Warner Bros.)

Weapons (Warner Bros.)

VISUALLY STRIKING FILM OF THE YEAR

Avatar: Fire and Ash (Disney)

Frankenstein (Netflix)

One Battle After Another (Warner Bros.)

Sinners (Warner Bros.)

Train Dreams (Netflix)

FILM MUSIC OF THE YEAR
KPop Demon Hunters – Marcelo Zarvos, EJAE, Mark Sonnenblick, Danny Chung, Vince, Kush, Lindgren, Daniel Rojas, et al. (Netflix, Sony)

Marty Supreme – Daniel Lopatin (A24)

One Battle After Another – Jonny Greenwood (Warner Bros.)

Sinners – Ludwig Göransson (Warner Bros.)

The Testament of Ann Lee – Daniel Blumberg (Searchlight Pictures)

CAMPIEST FLICK 

Final Destination: Bloodlines (Warner Bros.)

Kiss of the Spider Woman (Lionsgate, Roadside Attractions, LD Entertainment)

The Housemaid (Lionsgate)

Weapons (Warner Bros.)

Wicked: For Good (Universal)

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

Odessa A’zion

Miles Caton

Chase Infiniti

Tonatiuh

Eva Victor

WILDE ARTIST AWARD

Ryan Coogler

Cynthia Erivo

Jinkx Monsoon

Jafar Panahi

Pedro Pascal 

GALECA LGBTQIA+ FILM TRAILBLAZER

Gregg Araki

Jonathan Bailey

Kristen Stewart

Tessa Thompson

Eva Victor

At last night’s Golden Globes, Wanda Sykes stole the show by honoring the trans community — and doing so at Ricky Gervais’ expense.

When accepting Gervais’ award for best comedy special on his behalf (the former Globes host wasn’t in attendance), Sykes said: “[Thank] god and the trans community,” a clear nod to the controversy Gervais received after making jokes against the trans community during his 2022 Netflix stand-up special. Sykes’ scene-stealing quip wasn’t the only queer highlight of this year’s Golden Globes ceremony, though, which saw expected Oscar contenders One Battle After Another, Hamnet, and Sentimental Value all win major awards.

Erin Doherty took home her first Golden Globe for Adolescence after winning at the Critics Choice Awards, and she dedicated her speech to mental health professionals. “I didn’t want to assume, but I feel like we all know therapists,” she said. “Life can be tough. Mental health is everything. Thank you to therapists, and it was an honor to play one.”

The moment was made all the more special as Heated Rivalry actors Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie presented Doherty, an openly queer actor, the award. To set the scene, the two actors walked out to Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club before going on to charm the audience with a bit about underwear and what audiences saw during the show’s intimate sex scenes. Which awards show will the Heated Rivalry stars crash next?

While most of the TV wins were expected Emmy repeats, Rhea Seehorn changed the tides with a Golden Globe award for her performance in Pluribus, marking both her first nomination and win. Referencing a piece of paper in her hand, Seehorn said, “My speech says, ‘Get a prescription for beta blockers,’ but I did not. Sorry! I’m going to do my best. I’m sorry, I am just a little shocked!”

As for losses, while Eva Victor didn’t take home the best actress in a motion picture drama award for their work in Sorry, Baby, fellow category loser Julia Roberts (After the Hunt) shouted out the beloved indie, imploring people who haven’t watched it to “see it” and calling Victor “my hero.” For her work in Hedda, Tessa Thompson was also nominated in that category, which predictably went to Jessie Buckley for Hamnet.

Hannah Einbinder didn’t win for her supporting performance in Hacks, meaning the Emmy award-winning comedian has yet to win a Golden Globe. Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon, which was nominated for two awards, couldn’t beat out the likes of One Battle After Another and Timothée Chalamet for Marty Supreme. And perhaps not too surprising at this point, but Wicked: For Good lost all its major categories. The film has continued to lose steam in the awards conversation after missing crucial nominations at the Producers Guild Awards and The Actor Awards, but there’s still hope for Ariana Grande to land an Oscar nomination.

‘Bog Queen’
By Anna North
c.2025, Bloomsbury
$28.99/288 pages

Consider: lost and found.

The first one is miserable – whatever you need or want is gone, maybe for good. The second one can be joyful, a celebration of great relief and a reminder to look in the same spot next time you need that which you first lost. Loss hurts. But as in the new novel, “Bog Queen” by Anna North, discovery isn’t always without pain.

He’d always stuck to the story.

In 1961, or so he claimed, Isabel Navarro argued with her husband, as they had many times. At one point, she stalked out. Done. Gone, but there was always doubt – and now it seemed he’d been lying for decades: when peat cutters discovered the body of a young woman near his home in northwest England, Navarro finally admitted that he’d killed Isabel and dumped her corpse into a bog.

Officials prepared to charge him.

But again, that doubt. The body, as forensic anthropologist Agnes Lundstrom discovered rather quickly, was not that of Isabel. This bog woman had nearly healed wounds and her head showed old skull fractures. Her skin glowed yellow from decaying moss that her body had steeped in. No, the corpse in the bog was not from a half-century ago.

She was roughly 2,000 years old.

But who was the woman from the bog? Knowing more about her would’ve been a nice distraction for Agnes; she’d left America to move to England, left her father and a man she might have loved once, with the hope that her life could be different. She disliked solitude but she felt awkward around people, including the environmental activists, politicians, and others surrounding the discovery of the Iron Age corpse.

Was the woman beloved? Agnes could tell that she’d obviously been well cared-for, and relatively healthy despite the injuries she’d sustained. If there were any artifacts left in the bog, Agnes would have the answers she wanted. If only Isabel’s family, the activists, and authorities could come together and grant her more time.

Fortunately, that’s what you get inside “Bog Queen”: time, spanning from the Iron Age and the story of a young, inexperienced druid who’s hoping to forge ties with a southern kingdom; to 2018, the year in which the modern portion of this book is set.

Yes, you get both.

Yes, you’ll devour them.

Taking parts of a true story, author Anna North spins a wonderful tale of druids, vengeful warriors, scheming kings, and a scientist who’s as much of a genius as she is a nerd. The tale of the two women swings back and forth between chapters and eras, mixed with female strength and twenty-first century concerns. Even better, these perfectly mixed parts are occasionally joined by a third entity that adds a delicious note of darkness, as if whatever happens can be erased in a moment.

Nah, don’t even think about resisting.

If you’re a fan of feminist fiction, science, or novels featuring kings, druids, and Celtic history, don’t wait. “Bog Queen” is your book. Look. You’ll be glad you found it.

For every person who adores Shakespeare, there are probably a dozen more who wonder why.

We get it; his writings, composed in a past when the predominant worldview was built around beliefs and ideologies that now feel as antiquated as the blend of poetry and prose in which he wrote them, can easily feel tied to social mores that are in direct opposition to our own, often reflecting the classist, sexist, and racist patriarchal dogma that continues to plague our world today. Why, then, should we still be so enthralled with him?

The answer to that question might be more eloquently expressed by Chloe Zhao’s “Hamnet” – now in wide release and already a winner in this year’s barely begun awards season – than through any explanation we could offer.

Adapted from the novel by Maggie O’Farrell (who co-wrote the screenplay with Zhao), it focuses its narrative on the relationship between Will Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and his wife Agnes Hathaway (Jessie Buckley), who meet when the future playwright – working to pay off a debt for his abusive father – is still just a tutor helping the children of well-to-do families learn Latin. Enamored from afar at first sight, he woos his way into her life, and, convincing both of their families to approve the match (after she becomes pregnant with their first child), becomes her husband. More children follow – including Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe), a “surprise” twin boy to their second daughter – but, recognizing Will’s passion for writing and his frustration at being unable to follow it, Agnes encourages him to travel to London in order to immerse himself in his ambitions.

As the years go by, Agnes – aided by her mother-in-law (Emily Watson) and guided by the nature-centric pagan wisdom of her own deceased mother – raises the children while her husband, miles away, builds a successful career as the city’s most popular playwright. But when an outbreak of bubonic plague results in the death of 11-year-old Hamnet in Will’s absence, an emotional wedge is driven between them – especially when Agnes receives word that her husband’s latest play, titled “Hamlet,” considered an interchangeable equivalent to the name of their dead son, is about to debut on the London stage.

There is nothing, save the bare details of circumstance around the Shakespeare family, that can be called factual about the narrative told in “Hamnet.” Records of Shakespeare’s private life are sparse and short on context, largely limited to civic notations of fact – birth, marriage, and death announcements, legal documents, and other general records – that leave plenty of blank spaces in which to speculate about the personal nuance that such mundane details might imply. What is known is that the Shakespeares lost their son, probably to the plague, and that “Hamlet” – a play dominated by expressions of grief and existential musings about life and death – was written over the course of the next five years. Shakespearean scholars have filled in the blanks, and it’s hard to argue with their assumptions about the influence young Hamnet’s tragic death likely had over the creation of his father’s masterwork. What human being would not be haunted by such an event, and how could it not impact every aspect of their experience in the world forever after?

In their screenplay, O’Farrell and Zhao imagine an Agnes Shakespeare (most records refer to her as “Anne” but her father’s will uses the name “Agnes”) who stands apart from the conventions of her town, born of a “wild woman” in the woods and raised in ancient traditions of mysticism and nature magic before being adopted into her well-off family, who presents a worthy match and an intellectual equal for the brilliantly passionate creator responsible for some of Western Civilization’s most iconic tales. They imagine a courtship that would have defied the customs of the time and a relationship that feels almost modern, grounded in a love and mutual respect that’s a far cry from most popular notions of what a 16th-century marriage might look like. More than that, they imagine that the devastating loss of a child – even in a time when the mortality rate for children was high – might create a rift between two parents who can only process their grief alone. And despite the fact that almost none of what they present to us can be seen, at best, as anything other than informed speculation, it all feels devastatingly true.

That’s the quality that “Hamnet” shares with the ever-popular Will Shakespeare; though it takes us into a past that feels almost as alien to us as if it took place upon a different planet, it evokes a connection to the simple experience of being human, which cuts through the differences in context. Just as the kings, heroes, and fools of Shakespeare’s plays express and embody the same emotional experiences that shape our own mundane modern lives, the film’s portrayal of these two real-life people torn apart by personal tragedy speaks directly to our own shared sense of loss – and it does so with an eloquence that, like Shakespeare’s, emerges from the story to make it feel as palpable as if their grief was our own.

Yes, the writing and direction – each bringing a powerfully feminine “voice” to the story – are key to the emotional impact of “Hamnet,” but it’s the performances of its stars that carry it to us. Mescal, once more proving himself a master at embodying the kind of heartfelt, masculine tenderness that’s capable of melting our hearts, gives us an accessible Shakespeare, driven perhaps by a spark of genius yet deeply grounded in a tangible humanity that underscores the “everyman” sensibility that informs the man’s plays. But it’s Buckley’s movie, by a wide margin, and her bold, fierce, and deeply affecting performance gives voice to a powerful grief, a cry against the injustice and cruelty of what we fumblingly call “fate” that resonates deep within us and carries our own grief, over losses we’ve had and losses we know are yet to come, along with her on the journey to catharsis.

That’s the word – “catharsis” – that defines why Shakespeare (and by extension, “Hamnet”) still holds such power over the imagination of our human race all these centuries later. The circumstantial details of his stories, wrapped up in ancient ideologies that still haunt our cultural imagination, fall away in the face of the raw expression of humanity to which his characters give voice. When Hamlet asks “to be or not to be?,” he is not an old-world Danish Prince contemplating revenge against a traitor who murdered his father; he is Shakespeare himself, pondering the essential mystery of life and death, and he is us, too.

Likewise, the Agnes Shakespeare of “Hamnet” (masterfully enacted by Buckley) embodies all our own sorrows – past and future, real and imagined – and connects them to the well of human emotion from which we all must drink; it’s more powerful than we expect, and more cleansing than we imagine, and it makes Zhao’s exquisitely devastating movie into a touchstone for the ages.

We can’t presume to speak for Shakespeare, but we are pretty sure he would be pleased.

Are you or a friend looking to find a little love in 2026? We are looking for the most eligible LGBTQ singles in Los Angeles. Nominate you or your friends until January 23rd using the form below or by clicking HERE.

Our most eligible singles will be announced online in February.