Oscars 2016: Caitlyn Jenner to lend support in first-ever campaign for trans actress

She's hoping to see Tangerine's Mya Taylor nominated for best supporting actress at the Academy Awards

Caitlyn Jenner lends support to Mya Taylor's bid for a best supporting actress nomination for Tangerine

Caitlyn Jenner will officially be lending her support in the first-ever Oscar campaign for a trans actress, hoping to land Tangerine's Mya Taylor with a nomination for best supporting actress.

On 4 January, Jenner will host an LA screening for Academy members of Sean Baker's riotous indie comedy-drama, shot entirely on an iPhone, which follows two trans sex workers (Taylor and Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) on an epic, Christmas eve hunt for a cheating boyfriend. 

With a level of fame which has, whether willingly or not, placed her in the position of becoming a trans role model; Jenner's endorsement of Taylor's performance does show the potential force for good her influence provides. Tangerine is the kind of uniquely vibrant, uncompromising film which so rarely is offered any kind of weight during awards season; even though its Sundance Film Festival premiere returned favourable reviews and a healthy dose of industry buzz.

That said, Taylor has already scooped up best supporting actress prizes from both the Gotham Awards and the San Francisco Film Critics Circle; plus she's nominated at the Independent Spirit Awards, where she'll have a far more decent chance of picking up the award.

But will such high-profile support from Jenner be the final push Taylor needs to enter the Oscar race? Or will the Academy's notoriously conservative taste fail to recognise yet another illuminating performance in favour of the same tired, old prestige pieces? Considering one of the acting prizes is currently being scouted by a controversially cast cisgendered man in a trans role, Eddie Redmayne in The Danish Girl, prospects look tiresomely poor.