Entertainment
Seriously erotic movies that won Oscars as Nicole Kidman’s Babygirl wins early predictions-Emily Bashforth-Entertainment – Metro
Cast your minds back to these steamy flicks…
Nicole Kidman’s Babygirl has already created Oscars buzz (Picture: A24)
It’s safe to say Nicole Kidman’s latest movie has got people rather hot under the collar, as steamy erotic thriller Babygirl sees a high-powered CEO embark on a sizzling affair with a much younger intern.
With Kidman taking the lead as Romy and getting steamy with Harris Dickinson’s Samuel, there’s already plenty of buzz surrounding the flick, which hits screens in January 2025.
So much so, in fact, that film fanatics are already lining it up for an Oscars sweep, which could earn five-time nominee Kidman her second Academy Award after her best actress win for The Hours 22 years ago.
If she were to take home a golden statue, it certainly wouldn’t be the first time the Academy has recognised a more risqué project.
In the past, the likes of Brokeback Mountain and Black Beauty have won big at the prestigious ceremony, while Halle Berry scooped a gong for her performance in Monster’s Ball.
As Babygirl wins early predictions for next year’s ceremony, we revisit some of the more racy productions that won Oscars…
Monster’s Ball (2001)
Monster’s Ball created quite a stir in 2001 (Picture: Jeanne Louise Bulliard/Lions Gate/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock)
Monster’s Ball sees Billy Bob Thornton take on the role of Hank, a prison guard who plays a part in the execution of a convicted murderer.
When he meets – and falls for – Leticia, though, he is unaware that she is the criminal’s widow.
A key element of the romance thriller is how the racist prison guard is forced to re-examine his own prejudices after becoming smitten with the African American wife of his last executed prisoner.
Along the way, however, there was plenty of explicit action, even prompting speculation that Berry and Thornton were actually having sex for real.
The film’s steamiest moment comes when the two leads get intimate for the first time. It’s a scene that’s been remembered by viewers for how Berry’s Leticia takes a reasonable length of time to reach orgasm, in stark contrast with the speedy, unrealistic sex scenes we often see on the silver screen.
Halle Berry took home an Oscar for best performance by an actress in a leading role (Picture: Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images)
Speaking previously about her own sensual performance, Berry told The Guardian: ‘There was no real direction in the screenplay, it just had to be animalistic, and they had to be having sex not just for the act itself but for all the other reasons that they were coming together.
‘It was four days before the end of shooting, so we knew who these people were, and we just went for it.
‘We both agreed to be uninhibited with our bodies, so it wasn’t just the woman who was being exposed, and we just said, “Let’s service these characters”.’
That raunchy scene – and all her others – won Berry best actress in 2002, marking her first and only nomination and win at the Academy Awards.
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Brokeback Mountain remains one of the most cherished queer romance movies (Picture: Focus/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock)
Brokeback Mountain has become a real cult classic, as film fans have long held a special place in their hearts for Ennis (Heath Ledger) and Jack (Jake Gyllenhaal).
The neo-Western romantic drama, also starring Michelle Williams and Anne Hathaway, tells the story of two shepherds who develop a sexual and emotional relationship.
However, their relationship becomes complicated when both of them get married to their respective girlfriends.
Given that the film was released in 2005, at that point there had been very few explicitly queer films released by major studios in the US.
The cowboy flick took home best director (Picture: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Therefore, the tender cowboy love story became somewhat of a trailblazing piece of cinema, with its success proving there was certainly an appetite for gay romances on-screen.
What’s more, late star Ledger, who died in 2008, was known for shutting down homophobic ‘jokes’ relating to Brokeback Mountain, with co-star Gyllenhaal saying previously: ‘I see people who have joked with me or criticised me about lines I say in that movie — and that’s the thing I loved about Heath.
‘He would never joke. Someone wanted to make a joke about the story or whatever, he was like, “No. This is about love. Like, that’s it, man. Like, no”.’
Brokeback Mountain earned both Gyllenhaal and Ledger Oscar nominations for their performances, with the film going on to win best director (Ang Lee), best adapted screenplay, and original score.
Shakespeare in Love (1998)
Shakespeare in Love hasn’t exactly aged well (Picture: Laurie Sparham/Miramax/Universal/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock)
It wouldn’t be an erotic movie list without a bit of Shakespeare, right?
Shakespeare in Love stars Joseph Fiennes as William Shakespeare himself and Gwyneth Paltrow as Viola De Lesseps, with the famous playwright looking for a muse to inspire his work.
He meets Viola, a theatre lover who fits into the role perfectly. However, she is promised to Lord Wessex in marriage.
The film contains numerous racy moments, including graphic sexual scenes and nudity.
However, the film later came under fire when allegations against its director, Harvey Weinstein, were made, given that the disgraced film mogul has been accused of sexual assault and harassment by dozens of women, for which he is now behind bars.
Harvey Weinstein was its director (Picture: Getty Images)
Shakespeare in Love was a controversial best picture winner in 1999, with Paltrow already having won best actress and Dame Judi Dench awarded best supporting actress.
Up against Steven Spielberg’s epic, Saving Private Ryan, audiences seemed convinced they could write the result, given how he’d already scooped best director.
Shockingly, though, the trophy went to Weinstein’s Shakespearean romance flick, the outcome of a lengthy bloodbath of a campaign, to which Weinstein applied a political approach, resulting in seven wins.
Watching the ceremony back certainly makes for uncomfortable viewing today, though, especially as Paltrow herself became a vital source in helping to expose Weinstein, having accused him of sexually harassing her when she was 22.
American Beauty (1999)
American Beauty didn’t scrimp on explicit content (Picture: Dreamworks/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock)
American Beauty is a psychological black comedy-drama film about Lester (Kevin Spacey), a man who seems to have it all.
But as he begins struggling with life and slips into depression, he develops an infatuation with his 16-year-old daughter’s friend, Angela, played by Mena Suvari.
The film’s NSFW content ranges from sex scenes to drugs, and it received high praise upon release with a respectable Rotten Tomatoes rating.
American Beauty was nominated for a whopping eight awards at the 72nd Oscars, and took home five.
Kevin Spacey took home best actor (Picture: Scott Nelson/AFP via Getty Images)
These gongs included best actor for Spacey and best director for Sam Mendes.
However, the film has also been criticised as, in 2017, allegations of sexual assault surfaced against actor Spacey at the height of the #MeToo movement, including by men who were underage at the time of the allegations.
This led many critics and one of Spacey’s accusers to draw uncomfortable comparisons between Spacey and his character Lester.
The Reader (2008)
The Reader has been criticised in years since for its age-gap relationship (Picture: Weinstein Co/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock)
Starring Kate Winslet, The Reader tells the story of Michael (David Kross), a teenager who falls in love with an older woman named Hanna (Winslet).
However, their liaison comes to an abrupt end when she mysteriously vanishes without explanation.
A decade later, they meet again when she goes on trial for being a Nazi guard during WWII.
The film has been praised for its portrayal of ‘an erotic affair that turns to love’, as well as for its realistic references to representations of the Holocaust.
Kate Winsley won big for her leading role (Picture: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Containing full-frontal male nudity and extensive sex scenes, the film is far from PG.
The Reader has also received backlash for its portrayal of Michael and Hanna’s relationship, with The Huffington Post previously branding it ‘abusive’ and calling the explicit scenes ‘child pornography’, given that Michael was a teenager.
Despite this, The Reader appeared on several critics’ top ten lists of the best films of 2008.
It also won Winslet a best actress Oscar.
The Shape of Water (2017)
The Shape of Water stormed the Oscars in 2018 (Picture: Fox Searchlight/Everett/REX/Shutterstock)
The Shape of Water’s Oscars success was one for the history books.
In 2017, the film made waves (pardon the pun) as it followed Elisa (Sally Hawkins), a mute, lonely janitor, who stumbles upon an amphibious creature that is held captive in a secret research facility.
To say they developed a unique relationship might be downplaying it…
As that suggests, romance follows, as Hawkins’ character forms an unconventional bond with the fish monster.
It earned a mega 13 noms (Picture: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
Elisa is shown masturbating in the bath, and both she and ‘Amphibian Man’ go full frontal nude to have sex, inevitably causing viewers to scratch their heads over how the anatomy of it all worked, given that the creature had, well, nothing down there.
Nevertheless, the film used its characters as a metaphor to represent those often shunned by society due to being different.
Speaking about the film’s ‘primal’ sex scene, co-creator Vanessa Taylor, who wrote on the screenplay, told SheKnows about its tricky nature.
‘When I first talked to Guillermo [del Toro, the director] about the idea of a sex scene, I said, either we believe she wants to have sex with this fish-guy or we don’t. If we don’t believe it, we’ve got a huge problem.
‘I didn’t have a way of knowing if it was going to work, but I thought, wow, if it doesn’t, we’re all in big trouble!’
She added: ‘The fact that Elisa was so attracted to a creature that seemed so foreign — for reasons she was eventually able to explain, but initially, it was just instinct — that’s very primal. The idea that you could get past the species barrier in a story that’s not presented as a straight-up fairy tale — that’s primal.’
Well, it all paid off, as The Shape of Water earned a whopping 13 nominations at the 90th Oscars, more than any other film.
It won in four categories: best production design, best original score, best director, and best picture. It was also the second fantasy film to win best picture after The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003).
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