These queer films were snubbed by the Academy Awards
Will & Harper, Oscar statue, Daniel Craig in Queer
Netflix; shutterstock creative; A24The 97th Academy Award nominations are here!
The 2025 Oscar nods have been announced, and one queer film – Emilia Pérez – is making history! The film not only broke the record for most nominations by a foreign film in history (with 13), but with Karla Sofía Gascón earning a nomination for Best Actress, she became the first out trans actor ever nominated for an acting Oscar.
While some of our queer favorites, like Colman Domingo, Emilia Pérez, and Wicked, earned nominations, many of our favorites did not. Here are our picks for the biggest LGBTQ+ snubs of the 2025 Oscars.
'Will & Harper'
Heartwarming and much-needed documentary Will & Harper is perhaps the biggest queer snub of 2025. Following a road trip that longtime friends Will Ferrell and Harper Steele went on after Steele came out as trans decades into their friendship, this film was a bright spot in a very difficult year for trans Americans. Will & Harper is a powerful documentary about the strength of friendship, the resiliency of the self, and the true heart of America.
Read our review of Will & Harper.
'Challengers'
Out named Luca Guadagnino's Challengers the best queer movie of 2024, and it's at the top of many other critics' lists, but it somehow failed to get a single nomination. The film could've gotten noms for any of its three stars, or its writing and directing, but we're most surprised the film's blistering score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, as well as individual songs from the film, were completely shut out.
Read our review of Challengers.
Daniel Craig
Daniel Craig's psychedelic tour de force performance in Luca Guadagnino's second Oscar-worthy film is the best of his storied career, and earned him a Golden Globe nomination, but he was still snubbed by the Academy.
Read our review of Queer.
'I Saw the TV Glow'
Years from now, we'll look back at I Saw the TV Glow and recognize it as one of the greatest films of the 2020s, but unfortunately, the Oscars didn't give it any attention. With its haunting lead performances from Justice Smith and Jack Haven, and one of the most brutally honest screenplays about the depression and oppression of being closeted, this film should have earned several nominations.
Read Out's review of I Saw the TV Glow.
'Love Lies Bleeding'
Rose Glass's incendiary second film provided the perfect breakout role for Katy O'Brian as a troubled and rage-filled bodybuilder looking for acceptance and love and finding it in all the wrong places. It's an in-your-face explosive performance that shows off O'Brian's unique set of skills and is unlike any other performance this year.
Read our review of Love Lies Bleeding.
'Kiss the Sky' - Maren Morris
Country singer Maren Morris recorded this beautiful and empowering ballad from the Oscar-nominated animated film The Wild Robot. Diane Warren earned her record 16th Oscar nomination for Best Song, but we think this Morris track was a more worthy pick.
Read the "Kiss the Sky" profile in the Out Oscars feature.
