Glenn Close won the Golden Globe, the SAG award, last night’s Indie Spirit Award and nearly all of the precursor prizes, but tonight at the 91st Academy Awards, it was Olivia Colman who took home the Best Actress prize for “The Favourite,” in what many will describe as the upset of the evening (though our Awards Editor, Gregory Ellwood, predicted Colman, too).
We’ll never know how close a race it was, but one must assume it was tight; Close has been nominated for an Oscar six times previously and many presumed she was “due”—a phenomenon that has waned from the Oscar lexicon in recent years, with less de facto “honorary Oscar” wins and the preferred winner simply taking the deserved prize. Colman is certainly proof that the “they’re due” aspect of Oscar voting is in decline.
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Directed by Yogos Lanthimos, “The Favourite” was Colman’s first Oscar nomination and first win. She had previously won the BAFTA award and the Golden Globe for Best Actress in the Comedy or Musical category. She had previously won a Golden Globe for “The Night Manager” and a BAFTA for “Broadchurch” in 2014. She also won two BAFTA awards in the same year (2013): Best Actress in a Comedy Performance (“Twenty Twelve”) and Best Supporting Actress (“Accused”) which perhaps illustrates how much she is loved by her British acting community.
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Colman’s win also underlines how one shouldn’t underestimate the BAFTA voting bloc at the Oscars, as they are big, devoted and legion. Colman played Queen Anne in “The Favourite.” The movie is set in early 18th century England, where a frail Queen Anne occupies the throne and her close friend, Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz), governs the country in her stead. When a new servant, Abigail, arrives, her charm endears her to Sarah (Emma Stone).
“The Favourite” is a three-hander and arguably Stone’s Sarah character is the lead as she kicks the events of the plot in motion for the movie, but the decision to run Colman as the Best Actress, and the other two as supporting and not cannibalize everyone’s chances, obviously paid off for the Queen.
Up next for Colman is roles in BBC’s “Les Misérables” TV mini-series and Netflix‘s “The Crown” and surely he’s going to be gunning for Emmys later in the year.
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