There’s been talk in the gay meeja about this year’s Oscars being a good one for gay movies and talent, with noms for Tom Ford’s A Single Man and for gay director, Lee Daniels. But is the giant, bronzed man really smiling down on gay cinema and how does this year compare to previous ones?

I’ve been doing some digging and with the aid of what I like to call my queeroscometer we can see which Academy Award shows in the last ten years have had the most gay flavour.

I’ve focused on the big six categories and awarded one point to any gay movie, actor or director to get nominated, along with any actor playing gay.

As it stands, 2010 is pretty average when it comes to gay movies at the Oscars. I suspect two gay films would stick in most people’s mind if they were to think back over the last decade: Brokeback Mountain and last year’s garland-wearing Milk. This mostly accounts for the good scores in 2006 and 2009.

2005 and 2008 both get a big zero, while a low-scoring awards ceremony in 2007 scraped a bonus point for getting Ellen to host.

I don’t know what was in the water back in 2003, but Hollywood was having a very gay old time indeed! This was the year of LGBT box-ticking movie, The Hours, and Nicole Kidman’s prosthetic nose.