Almost all the shortlisted movies this year can be seen as a critique of the incoming president. Accident or design?. When reacting to Oscar nominations, actors traditionally err on the side of hyperbole. This year was no exception. “I don’t know if I’m quite in my body,” said Demi Moore, on learning she was shortlisted for The Substance. “I looked at my phone and fell on the floor,” said Monica Barbaro, who plays Joan Baez in A Complete Unknown. “I actually haven’t stopped sobbing,” offered Ariana (Wicked) Grande.
![[Catherine Shoard]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2017/10/06/Catherine-Shoard,-L.png?width=75&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Karla Sofía Gascón, however, bucked the trend. The first out trans actor ever nominated for an Oscar took the opportunity to address the executive order signed by Donald Trump earlier this week, restricting US government recognition to only biological sex.
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“He is shameless,” she said. “I hope that whatever needs to happen happens to shut everyone up, on both sides.”. Gascón continued: “Now it is time to focus on my performance and put aside my ethnicity, sexuality or hair colour, to move forward in ‘integration’. Today it is proven that art does not understand hate. No one can question my work, even less the fact that I am an actress. An actress who deserves to be recognised solely and exclusively for her sublime performance in Emilia Pérez.”.
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Such focus in the debate until the ceremony on 2 March seems unlikely. This year’s Oscar contenders amount to a collective broadside against a president campaigned against by almost everyone in the industry. His re-election – and the collapse in celebrity leverage that it revealed – remains a sore point. As the Golden Globes host Nikki Glaser reminded her A-list audience earlier this month: “You’re all so famous, so talented, so powerful, you could really do anything. Well, except tell the country who to vote for.”.
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