It was a big LGBTQ victory at the recent 90th Academy Awards when the Oscar win of the Chilean entry for Best Foreign Language Film, A Fantastic Woman, underlined the stellar performance of its transgender actress Daniela Vega.
Vega, who headlines “Una Mujer Fantástica”, was also on Lesbian News’ November cover last year.
Oscar film win also for Daniela Vega
A Fantastic Woman, directed by Sebastián Lelio, beat out Ruben Östlund’s The Square and Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Loveless in the Oscars race.
This is Lelio’s first Academy Award and the second time a Chilean movie was nominated for this category since Pablo Larrain’s No in 2012.
This film was also the first to win an Oscar that featured a transgender storyline with a transgender actor in the lead.
“I want to thank the cast of the film. Especially the brilliant actor Francisco Reyes and the inspiration for this movie, Daniela Vega,” Lelio said.
In A Fantastic Woman, Vega plays Marina, a transgender woman in a relationship with Orlando (Reyes), who is 30 years older than her.
When Orlando dies, Marina becomes the suspect in the eyes of his family, and has to deal with them while also dealing with her grief.
Prior to this movie, Vega had only appeared in just one film.
A number of Oscar firsts for Daniela Vega
Vega also took to the stage when she presented at the Academy Awards ceremony, the first openly transgender individual to do so in its history.
She was the presenter for the musical act of Sufjan Stevens, who performed his Oscar-nominated original song, “Mystery of Love,” for the film, Call Me By Your Name.
In her presentation, Vega acknowledged the moment when she said: “I want to invite you to open your hearts and your feelings to feel the reality, to feel love. Can you feel it?”
There have only been two transgender people who have been nominated for the Oscars.
The first was composer Angela Morley, who was nominated for the movies The Little Prince in 1974 and The Slipper and The Rose in 1976.
Likewise, singer Anohni who was nominated for her song “Manta Ray” in the documentary Racing Extinction in 2015.
However, Anohni’s song wasn’t selected to be performed during the ceremony and she boycotted the event as a result.
Check out our November issue featuring the stellar actress here.