LGBTQ critics name “Power of the Dog” best film; “Flee,” “Passing” and “Drove My Car” also win big

GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics has just announced the winners of its 13th Dorian Film Awards honoring movie content from mainstream to LGBTQIA+.

Netlix’s noirish western The Power of the Dog lassoed three major prizes including Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay, the latter two Dorians going to auteur Jane Campion. Flee, the documentary utilizing graphic novel-style visuals to tell the harrowing story of a gay Afghan refugee, had four wins: Best LGBTQ Film, two documentary awards and GALECA’s first-ever Best Animated Film honor.

Passing, director Rebecca Hall’s adaptation of the Nella Larsen novel about two female friends confronting racial and sexual identity issues in 1920s Harlem, was named Best Unsung Film. The poignant Japanese relationship drama Drive My Car drove off with Best Non-English Language Film, while first-time director Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tick, Tick… Boom!, starring Andrew Garfield as Rent’s creator Jonathan Larson, took Best Film Music. Director Denis Villeneuve’s eye-filling sci-fi adventure Dune, from Warner Brothers, took Most Visually Striking Film.

In individual categories, GALECA chose Kristen Stewart for Best Film Performance over nine other contenders for her moody turn as Princess Diana in Spencer. Broadway’s Ariana DeBose, one of several breakouts in Steven Spielberg’s reimagining of West Side Story, grabbed both Best Supporting Performance and Rising Star honors.

Parallel Mothers director Pedro Almodóvar scored GALECA’s special Wilde Artist accolade—meant for “a truly groundbreaking force in film, theatre and/or television”—over Campion, Miranda, Lil Nas X and Jennifer Coolidge. In addition, Almodóvar was named GALECA’s latest LGBTQIA+ Trailblazer, a relatively new award reserved for those “creating art that inspires empathy, truth and equity.” Previous recipients are Pose favorite Mj Rodriguez and actress-filmmaker Isabel Sandoval.

Rita Moreno, the ever-vibrant film, stage, music and TV great—and West Side Story icon times two—became the group’s first Latino Timeless Star winner. Past winners of GALECA’s career achievement award include Jane Fonda, Sir Ian McKellen, John Waters, George Takei, Dame Angela Lansbury, Meryl Streep, Harvey Fierstein, Betty White and Meryl Streep.

Moreno, also stellar in such acclaimed films as the Tennessee Williams drama Summer and Smoke, the hit ‘80s comedy The Four Seasons and the unsung ‘90s treat I Like It Like That, more recently starred in the Dorian-nominated sitcom One Day at a Time. This is a special time for the Timeless Star: The 90-year-old charmer is the subject of the recent (Dorian Award-nominated) documentary Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It.

As for GALECA’s signature Campiest Flick contest, that honor went to . . . House of Gucci.

First presented in 2010, GALECA’s Dorian Awards go to the best in film and TV, mainstream to queer+, at separate times of the year. GALECA consists of over 350 critics, journalists and broadcasters who work for some of the most prominent and influential media outlets in the United States, Canada, Australia and the U.K.