'Transparent' among GLAAD media awards nominations
Amazon's march to mainstream entertainment power got another lift Wednesday when its smash hit Transparent was nominated for yet another award, this time from GLAAD.
The Amazon Instant Video's series about a family's comic efforts to cope with a father transitioning to a woman was nominated for outstanding comedy series in the GLAAD Media Awards.
It's already won two Golden Globes, for best TV series and best actor in a TV series, comedy, for star Jeffrey Tambor, and has been nominated for several other entertainment awards. Its Golden Globe win was a first for a Web-only production.
On Tuesday, the Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association announced its Dorian Awards winners: Transparent took home a half dozen, including creator Jill Soloway and Tambor. It was also named show of the year.
The awards news comes a few days after Amazon announced its Amazon Studios was getting into the movie business and taking on Netflix: It will produce and purchase original movies for theatrical release, and then put them a month or two later on its Amazon Prime Instant Video subscription service.
GLAAD,the leading media advocacy group for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, had announced 144 nominees for its 26th annual awards.They honor entertainment that deals with LGBT characters and themes with fairness, originality, impact and quality.
This year, there are more nominees than ever: GLAAD expanded two categories — outstanding comedy and drama series — from five nominees to 10 nominees each because there are so many LGBT characters on TV.
In 2005, the pool of shows considered included eight comedy series and 17 drama series.Ten years later, the pool includes 52 comedy series and 83 drama series, GLAAD said in a press statement.
GLAAD chief Sarah Kate Ellis said the GLAAD awards had helped make LGBT inclusion in entertainment more acceptable over the decades.
"It's been a remarkable year for equality, and nowhere is that more evident than in the visibility LGBT people have gained across media," she said in a statement. "This year's nominees ... reflect the widening diversity of LGBT images and storylines that are closing the gap to full acceptance."
In another sign of mainstream acclaim, several GLAAD nominees have received other nominations this season from the Academy Awards (The Imitation Game) and the Golden Globes (The Imitation Game, Pride, Orange Is the New Black, Game of Thrones and The Normal Heart), among others.
GLAAD presented data suggesting that LGBT themes are not a detriment to a film's commercial success.
The cumulative domestic box office of the five films in the outstanding film, wide release category (The Imitation Game, Love Is Strange,Pride,The Skeleton Twins and Tammy) is $134,555,414 to date, GLAAD said. The worldwide intake for the five films is $180,020,429 to date.
The GLAAD Media Awards ceremonies will be held in Los Angeles on March 21 at The Beverly Hilton and in New York on May 9 at the Waldorf Astoria in New York.