2024 Oscars: Lily Gladstone Is First Native American Acting Nominee
Other Indigenous actors have been nominated in the past, but the ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ star is the first to come from the land now occupied by the United States. Native American characters have been depicted in the movies since the dawn of Hollywood, but in 2024 an actual Native American actor has finally been nominated for an Academy Award. Lily Gladstone (Blackfeet/Nimiipuu) has been a frontrunner all season for her performance in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon , and on Tuesday morning she officially became a best actress Oscar nominee. Her predecessors in the category include Whale Rider ’s Keisha Castle-Hughes (who is Maori) in 2004 and Roma ’s Yalitza Aparicio (who is Native Mexican) in 2019, while Graham Greene (who is First Nations) was nominated for best supporting actor in 1991 for Dances With Wolves , but Gladstone is the first acting nominee who hails from people indigenous to the land now occupied by the United States...