There were two ties at the Critics’ Choice Awards last night: Amy Adams and Patricia Arquette for Best Actress in a Limited Series or Movie Made for Television and Glenn Close and Lady Gaga for Best Actress. The Critics also have a category for Best Actress in a Comedy – Olivia Colman won that so, technically, all three Best Actress Oscar frontrunners took home something last night. Of course it’s wonderful, as the actresses expressed on stage, that these awards were shared because too often they’re pitted against each other. Do we say this about men though? Do we say that the actors are “pitted against each other”? No, not as much. The reason that women feel they’re “pitted against each other” is because of lack of opportunity. When there aren’t that many seats at the table for women, they’ve been led to believe that the only option is to fight other women for those few seats instead of demanding a bigger table, which is what has started to happen – slowly.
That’s maybe why I have mixed feelings about these ties. Of course, as we’ve been taught since childhood, sharing is good. But sharing is especially encouraged in women and girls often because there’s less of it to go around. If there was enough to go around for everyone, would we have to share? These ties were both in actress categories and, yes, it’s lovely to win with someone and it’s lovely to spread the sentiment that women aren’t always trying to tear each other down. I worry though that it also undermines the fact that women are capable of competing, fairly, without trying to tear each other down and especially so when there’s equal opportunity. Perhaps I’m overthinking it. Ties have happened before at the Oscars and, given that this is one of the most unpredictable and closest races we’ve seen in several categories in years, a tie might be more possible than ever this year. If this tie business continues and it continues in the female categories though, is this more of a conversation?
This is Glenn Close’s second win for the second weekend in a row and once again her speech was solid, giving the Academy every confidence in voting for her. Two weeks ago her campaign had almost no momentum. Now she may have a slight lead although Gaga just gained back some ground and Olivia Colman, well, I doubt she’ll be a no-show again (none of The Favourite nominees showed up) at the SAG Awards in two weeks. The SAGs are happening just a few days after the Oscar nominations are announced. Every year they tell us a lot. This year they’re more important than ever because nobody seems to know how this is going to swing.
As for Gaga’s speech – my favourite part of it was when they tried to play her off and she was like, you think I can’t talk over a piano? I’ll take more of that over “I want to thank … life”.
