Cyrsti's Condo

As you have probably heard by now, Daniela Vega  made history this weekend at the Oscars: The star of Oscar-nominated film  Una Mujer Fantástica  (A Fantastic Woman), Daniela Vega, made Academy Award history Sunday night, when she became the frist transgender actress to take to the stage as a presenter at the ceremony. The Chilean introduced Sufjan Steven’s performance of “Mystery of Love,” which features on the soundtrack of  Call Me by Your Name . “I want to invite you to open your hearts and your feelings to feel the reality,” she told the audience. “To feel love. Can you feel it?” From El Pais : The triumphant moment could not have been further from how things were when, as a 14-year-old, her life split in two, and she began her transition from a man to a woman. Once in her  new female body , Vega did not know what path to follow – acting or singing – nor whether the artistic world would accept her. " You learn and grow from pain,” she told EL PAÍS in February, hours be

From Remezcla comes a good news - bad news story: The upcoming Oscar presenters list included familiar faces like last year’s winners, Viola Davis, Mahersala Ali and Emma Stone,  Marvel’s newest heroes Chadwick Boseman  (Black Panther)  and Tom Holland ( The Amazing  Spider-Man ), and awards season staples like Laura Dern, Jennifer Garner and Margot Robbie. But one name had us giddy with excitement:  Daniela Vega . The star of  Chile’s Oscar-nominated film  A Fantastic Woman , unfortunately did not make history by becoming the first trans performer to earn a Best Actress nod as many predicted, but she’ll get to grace the Oscar stage regardless. In a year when  Sebastian Lelio ‘s film celebrates the strength and stamina of a trans woman and trans director Yance Ford earned a Best Documentary nomination for  Strong Island,  Vega’s presence on the Dolby Theater will feel all the more historic — a sign, one hopes, that Hollywood is ready to embrace and tell more authentic stories about the

Here is another look from Cyrsti's Condo at the Chilean film "A Fantastic Woman" starring Daniela Vega from the " Los Angeles Blade" :  "For the first few minutes of Chilean director Sebastián Lelio’s “A Fantastic Woman” (Una mujer fantástica), life seems to be pretty sweet for its transgender heroine, Marina. An aspiring singer who earns her living working as a waitress, she is involved with Orlando, a successful older businessman. They adore each other and are deeply committed to building a future together. This blissful existence is turned upside down in an instant when Orlando dies from a sudden aneurysm. Instead of being treated with compassion, Marina is mistrusted by hospital staff, suspected of wrongdoing by legal authorities investigating the death, and viewed as an embarrassment and an interloper by Orlando’s family – who consider her an “aberration” and immediately begin pressuring her to move out of the apartment she shared with him.

More on the Oscar nominated movie we posted about here in Cyrsti's Condo from  Laurel: "I agree - it is great film and Daniela Vega is impressive in the role. The character she plays shows great forebearance in the face of monumental intolerance. I went to see it twice with different friends from the cisgender community. They say that they came away with a better understanding of the problems faced by the transgender person. The large general audience sat in silence through the film and cheered just once when Marina finally reacts to the bigotry. Daniela Vega does her own singing and the final scene is hauntingly beautiful. Do go and see it and take some friends!" Will do!!! Thanks Laurel :)

Daniela Vega, 28, stars in Sebastian Lelio's  A Fantastic Woman . She plays Marina, a transgender woman whose partner (Francisco Reyes) dies, after which Marina is subjected to harsh treatment by the family of her deceased lover and by police investing the death. Chile has selected the film as its Academy Awards submission this year and  Variety  called her performance "a multi-layered, emotionally polymorphous feat of acting," that deserves "so much more than political praise." While several transgender musicians have been nominated for awards, Vega is the first trans actress to be nominated. But the bigger spotlight may be on whether Vega's breakout performance — one of stirring strength and compassion — could make Oscar history.