Good morning! Senate Democrats block "born alive" abortion bill, Binance Labs will become a family office, and we're in for an interesting Oscars season. Have a restorative weekend!
- What to watch. The nominations are in—and this year's Academy Awards bring us some milestones and notable snubs.
Karla Sofia Gascón earned the most historic nomination: for her role in Emilia Pérez, she's the first openly trans person nominated for any acting Oscar. In the movie musical, she plays a trans Mexican cartel leader—and her nomination arrives amid an American political climate that has become even more hostile toward trans people. Gascón used her speech during the Golden Globes to speak out for trans rights: "You [can] put us in jail, you can beat us up [but] you never can take away our soul, our existence, our identity," she said. Her Oscar nomination arrives after President Donald Trump issued an executive order declaring the U.S. government only recognizes two biological sexes: "He is shameless," she said in an interview after her nomination yesterday. But throughout her Oscar campaign, she urged voters to vote for her based on the merits of her performance, not because of or in spite of her identity.
The Substance received five nominations, a feat for a body-horror film about the pressures on women to stay youthful forever. The film's director Coralie Fargeat is the only woman nominated in the best director category this year, the ninth woman ever nominated. And Demi Moore's ascent continues: The actress, who said her Golden Globe was the first time she ever received an acting award in her 44-year career, earned a best actress Oscar nomination.
In the documentary category, I'd recommend checking out nominee Black Box Diaries, journalist Shiori Ito's account of investigating her own sexual assault, a case that transformed Japan over the past decade.
But as much as Hollywood makes progress, it falls victim to the same tropes. Actor Marianne Jean-Baptiste didn't receive a nod for her role in Hard Truths, where she plays a deeply unhappy woman who gripes at the world around her. While Jean-Baptiste has received some other nominations this awards season, the New York Times reports that her Oscar snub may have been influenced by the unlikability of her character. "It was hard to shake the number of male voters I spoke to who simply didn’t like the character," Kyle Buchanan wrote. "When a woman suffers nobly, it’s Oscar bait. But when she makes others suffer, not so much."
The ceremony is set for March 2, where we'll also see nominees including Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande for Wicked, Mikey Madison for Anora, and Monica Barbaro for A Complete Unknown.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
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