Dorian Awards

The Dorian Awards are film and television accolades given by GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, founded in 2009 as the Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association. GALECA is an association of professional journalists and critics who regularly report on movies and/or TV for print, online, and broadcast outlets in the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. As of November 2022, GALECA listed approximately 410 members. The awards recognize the best in film, television, and performance for the prior calendar year, with categories ranging from general to LGBTQ-centric.

The Dorian Award is named in honor of the writer Oscar Wilde, in reference to his novel ''The Picture of Dorian Gray'', and the original award was a simple certificate with an image of the noted author and playwright, along with a graphic of hands holding a black bow tie.

In 2019, the award was redesigned to mimic a cue card. Since the group's first televised awards special, ''Dorians TV Toast 2020'', first shown on the streaming platform Revry on September 12, 2020, winners have received a small illustrated portrait of themselves or a memorable scene from their project. During GALECA's ''Dorians Film Toast 2021'' special (airing April 18, 2021), actress Carey Mulligan, in accepting the group's Best Film Performance—Actress award for her work in ''Promising Young Woman'', said her Dorian "might be the coolest prize I've ever seen."

Format

The Dorian Awards are given to the group's choices for the finest in film and television, across a variety of categories, from mainstream to LGBTQ-themed. In addition to more traditional categories such as Film of the Year and TV Comedy of the Year (updated more recently to Best Film and Best TV Comedy), the Dorians include more novel categories, including Unsung TV Show, Visually Striking Film, Wilde Wit and Campy Flick, an honor that has generated amusement from The New York Times.

Rather than present an official awards ceremony, GALECA hosts its annual "Dorian Awards Winners Toast," an informal day party in Los Angeles for members, winners, nominees, and associates. For the 2020 Toast, Antonio Banderas, the group's choice for 2019 Film Performance of the Year—Actor, and actress-director Olivia Wilde, named "Wilde" Artist of the Year, were among the honored guests.

In 2018, the Society's Executive Director, John Griffiths, announced that the group was planning to separate the Dorian film and TV awards' timelines, with movie award winners revealed each January and TV honors in June.

In September 2019, GALECA presented its first televised awards, ''Dorians TV Toast 2020'', a pre-recorded two hour special with appearances by performers and producers such as Hugh Jackman, Janelle Monáe, Billy Porter, Margaret Cho, Josh Thomas, Regina King, Dan Levy, Laverne Cox, John Oliver, Chad Michaels, Thomas Roberts, Fiona Shaw, Annie Murphy, Alex Newell and Damon Lindelof. The program, shown on LGBTQ+ streaming platform Revry, was hosted by broadcasting veteran and LGBTQ rights activist Charles Karel Bouley and included segments where he and other GALECA members discussed the merits of the contenders in various categories.

Bouley, known simply as Karel, also hosted the group's ''Dorians Film Toast 2021'', this time a three-hour special on Revry featuring Carey Mulligan, Daniel Kaluuya, Chloé Zhao, George C. Wolfe, Radha Blank, Lee Isaac Chung, Cynthia Nixon, Gabourey Sidibe, Rachel McAdams, Isabel Sandoval, Colman Domingo, Rafael Silva, Harry Hamlin, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Deven Green, Leslie Jordan, Emerald Fennell, California governor Gavin Newsom, Cox and Michaels. "Wilde Artist" recipient Dolly Parton did not appear in the show to accept that special award ("to a truly groundbreaking force in film, theater, and/or television"), but said in a statement: "I’m not sure I’m as edgy as past winners (in the Wilde Artist category) like Todd Haynes, Kate McKinnon, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jordan Peele — but I am honored and humbled. I appreciate all of you entertainment journalists who are so passionate and are working so hard. Keep up the good work!”

Membership

Honorary GALECA members and advisors include esteemed former film critics David Ansen and Kevin Thomas, groundbreaking lesbian journalist Judy Wieder (former editor-in-chief of '' The Advocate''), broadcasting veteran Jane Velez-Mitchell, columnist Michael Musto, former Jezebel editor-in-chief and Teen Vogue online executive editor Koa Beck, Princeton University Dean of the College and feminist writer Jill Dolan, noted film critic and talk show host Bobby Rivers, and professor of literature Joseph Bristow, one of the world's leading authorities on Oscar Wilde.

"Ten Best" lists

To commemorate the 2015 film and TV awards season, GALECA revealed its first "Ten Best" list, The Ten Best Movies About the Academy Awards. Included were such films as ''The Oscar'', ''California Suite'', '' For Your Consideration'', and '' The Bodyguard''. More recently, the group's lists include the Ten Best LGBTQ Movies Every Straight Person Should See, Ten Best Actresses of All Time, and Ten Best Films You Didn't Know Were LGBTQ.

Dorians Toast theme songs

Three original songs have been written for GALECA's Dorian Awards ''Toast'' TV specials: ''Look Into the Light'', a pop ballad about the power of movies, and ''A Toast!'', both sung by Morgan Mallory and written and composed by Mallory and Charles Karel Bouley; and an expanded, faster-paced variation on the latter performed by Dave Rooney of The Black Donnellys with additional lyrics by Bouley and Rooney.

History

GALECA and its annual Dorian Awards were created in 2008 in Hollywood, California, by Griffiths, former long-time television critic for ''Us Weekly'' magazine and contributor to ''Emmy Magazine'' of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

The first Dorian Awards, for 2009 productions, were announced in January 2010 (nominees were revealed the previous month). GALECA's Dorian Award nominees and winners for 2010 productions were announced in January 2011. Following suit, 2011's Dorian Award nominees and ultimate honorees were revealed in January 2012. The Dorian nominees and winners for 2012 productions were announced in January 2013, and so on.

In 2019, GALECA joined forces with the African-American Film Critics Association, Latino Entertainment Journalists Association (LEJA), the entertainment and features arm of the Asian American Journalists Association, the Online Association of Female Film Critics, and Time's Up Entertainment's CRITICAL initiative to form Critics Groups for Equality in Media (CGEM), to promote diversity in journalism.

2021-22 (Television)

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2022 (Film)

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2020-21 (Television)

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2020 (Film)

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2019-2020 (Television)

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2019

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2018

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2017

2016

2015

2014

George Takei, LGBTQ rights activist and co-star of ''Star Trek'', thanked GALECA in a YouTube video for naming him their 2014 choice for Timeless Star.

2013

In 2013, Sir Ian McKellen expressed gratitude to members for honoring him with their 2012 Timeless Star career achievement honor, writing in a note to the group, "I shall try to live up to Galeca's approval." James Franco, recipient of GALECA's special Wilde Artist of the Year award in 2013, thanked the group by posting a mini art piece noting his honor on Instagram.

2012

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2011

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2010

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2009

Sources - ''TheWrap'', January 20, 2010, by Lisa Horowitz
/ "Single Man, Glee, Grey Gardens Top Dorian Awards"
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References

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External links

galeca.org

American film awards
American television awards
LGBT portrayals in mass media
LGBT film awards