Benedict Cumberbatch nominated for Golden Globe for ‘The Imitation Game’

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Benedict Cumberbatch has been nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Actor, for his performance as Alan Turing in ‘The Imitation Game’. 

The gay World War II codebreaker – often hailed as the grandfather of modern computing – was convicted of ‘gross indecency’ in 1952 after having sex with a man, and was chemically castrated, barred from working for GCHQ, and eventually driven to suicide.

Cumberbatch’s co-star Keira Knightley is also nominated for her role in the film in the Supporting Actress category. The film has five nominations in total.

The film has proven controversial, as some have suggested it attempted to erase the fact that Turing was gay.

Cumberbatch attracted criticism after he defended the absence of gay sex in the film, saying: “If you need to see that to understand that he’s gay, then all is lost for any kind of subtle storytelling. It’s not something that needed to be made obvious.”

However, The Sunday Times reported that there was indeed a sex scene involving Turing and another man present in early drafts – but it was mysteriously left out of the final version.

Despite the controversy, and only having a limited release in the US, the film made the second highest per-screen profit of 2014.