The biggest night in film featured several amazing queer moments
BY YASMIN VINCE, IMAGE BY ITV
The Academy Awards, aka the Oscars, took place last night, wrapping up over two months of awards ceremonies. As they came to an end, with a minor earthquake hitting Los Angeles at the same time, only a few awards went to queer films, but that didn’t stop our community from stealing the show.
Here are the top queer moments from the 2025 Oscars…
Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande opened the Oscars, under rainbow lights
Wicked really was the film of the year, from its iconic and viral promotional tour to its blockbuster success. Its stars, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande held space for the lyrics of Defying Gravity at the Oscars, as they opened the night with a musical medley.
The pair used their powerhouse pipes to belt out a number of songs, starting with Ariana (standing under rainbow lights) singing Somewhere Over The Rainbow. Cynthia then took over to sing Home, a song from the 1978 film The Wiz, before segueing into a duet of, yes you guessed it, Defying Gravity!
Emilia Pérez becomes THE talking point of the night
At one point, the film was expected to sweep the awards. And while it definitely didn’t – it only took two awards – it seemed to still be the film on everyone’s mind.
To start, host Conan O’Brien went viral after making a joke about Karla Sofía Gascón’s fall from grace. The star was a frontrunner for Best Actress a few months ago, which would’ve made her the first trans woman to win. But after some racist and xenophobic tweets she posted resurfaced, she seemed to fall out of the race. Conan poked fun at Karla, joking that her publicist has had a hard time. Referencing the tweets, the host then said that if she wanted to post something about him on social media, his name is “Jimmy Kimmel”.
The film also went viral during the ceremony as it won Best Original Song, and one of the songwriters, Camille, began to sing during the acceptance speech. This got a lukewarm response from the audience, but left the internet tongues wagging.
Emilia Pérez and Wicked both receive two awards
As well as Original Song, Emilia Pérez won Best Supporting Actress. Zoe Saldaña used her time with the press afterwards to apologise to the Mexican people for offending them with the film’s portrayal of Mexican cartels. “I’m very, very sorry that you and so many Mexicans felt offended,” she said. “That was never our intention. We spoke from a place of love.”
Wicked also walked away with two awards, one for Costume Design, as Paul Tazewell became the first Black man to win the award, and another for Production Design.
Queen Latifah sings during a tribute to Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones was nominated for Oscars several times throughout his career. One song Quincy, who died last year, was nominated for was Ease On Down The Road from The Wiz, which Queen Latifah took to the stage to sing in tribute.
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