Photo Credit: Sony Pictures Classics

Tonight, at the 90^th Annual Academy Awards, history was once again made. From the historic win of A Fantastic Woman to out directors and producers winning for their work, LGBTQ people shone during the Oscars.

One of the most exciting wins of the night was A Fantastic Woman for Best Foreign Language Film. Starring out trans actress Daniela Vega, the film tells the story of a transgender woman who loses a loved one, and speaks to her strength in the face of grief and discrimination. A film starring a transgender woman portrayed by a transgender actress getting these accolades is a much needed step toward more accurate representation in Hollywood. This is the first Oscar win for a Chilean film.

We got to ask @slelio about authentically casting trans roles: “I think the presence of @danivega brought something, a quality to the story that adds a layer of complexity and beauty, that I think in this case, a cisgender actor would have not been capable of bringing.” #Oscars

— GLAAD (@glaad) March 5, 2018

The coveted Best Picture Award was given to The Shape of Water, a magical romance which featured Richard Jenkins as Giles, a gay man who is the best friend of the protagonist and helps her at every turn. The film also took home Best Director for Guillermo del Toro, as well as Best Score and Production Design.

The award for Best Animated Feature went to Pixar’s Coco. Accepting the award were out producer Darla K. Anderson, and out co-director Adrian Molina, who thanked “my family, my Latino community, to my husband Ryan.” Anderson’s speech sent an inspiring message: “Coco is proof that art can change and connect the world and this can only be done when we have a place for everyone and anyone who feels like an ‘other’ to be heard. This is dedicated with enormous love to my gigantic, interwoven family and most especially, my wife, my rock Kori Rae.” Director Lee Unkrich spoke on the important of representation, saying, “With Coco we tried to take a step forward toward a world where all children can grow up seeing characters in movies that look and talk and live like they do. Marginalized people deserve to feel like they belong. Representation matters.”

The #Coco team backstage on how they would love to see LGBTQ representation in Pixar films: “That’s a dream […] all of us would be very excited to have characters like that represented as a protagonist role…” We’d love to see it too, call us! #RepresentationMatters #Oscars

— GLAAD (@glaad) March 5, 2018

James Ivory’s screenplay for Call Me by Your Name won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay tonight. The film is a moving coming-of-age romance between two men in Italy during the 80s. In his speech, the out writer and director spoke of the universality of first loves, “whether gay, straight, or somewhere in between.” Ivory is the oldest Oscars winner at 89. In another beautiful moment for Call Me by Your Name, Daniela Vega introduced Sufjan Steven’s moving performance of the original song “Mystery of Love,” written and nominated for the film. Vega is the first out trans actress to present at the Oscars.

Other notable moments in the ceremony included a montage showing some of the progress that film has made towards more diversity of all levels on screen, which includes clips from A Fantastic Women, as well as out trans director Yance Ford talking about his experience with making history as the first out transgender director to be nominated in his category. A performance of “Stand Up For Something” by Common and Audra day includes a number of activists on stage, which included activist and author Janet Mock. The “In Memoriam” section featured Academy Award-winning documentarian Debra Chasnoff whose work broke new ground for LGBTQ acceptance.

Thank you to @TheAcademy for including Debra Chasnoff, an out filmmaker who did so much to accelerate acceptance for LGBTQ families, in the In Memoriam tribute at the #Oscars. t.co/bjEdfB3gVH

— Sarah Kate Ellis (@sarahkateellis) March 5, 2018