2017: Frances McDormand for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

In her second Oscar-winning performance, Frances McDormand plays Mildred Hayes, a grieving mother whose daughter was brutally raped and murdered. After months of no apparent progress in the case, Mildred rents three billboards to express her displeasure toward the chief of police. Unfortunately, this police chief is both beloved by the town and dying of cancer, so the billboards make most people more angry at Mildred than at the murderer.

My only complaint about McDormand's previous win, for 1996's Fargo, was that I wasn't convinced she was in enough of the movie for hers to be considered a leading role. That is not the case this time. She is indisputably the protagonist of this movie. And she absolutely slays. Seriously, the way she delivers her lines is spot on, she has some priceless facial expressions, and she just completely embodies her character in every possible way; what more could one ask for?

Mildred presents herself as righteously enraged at the lack of justice for her daughter, but much of her anger is a mask for her pain and feelings of partial responsibility and guilt for what happened. McDormand manages to convey this to the audience so that we sympathize with her even when we can clearly see that many of her actions are rather counterproductive. She exudes such confidence that I kept expecting things to go her way, so even when she did things that I knew were a bad idea, I couldn't help feeling surprised when they didn't turn out well. Based on the trailers, I had expected her to be one of those larger-than-life, no-one-messes-with-me-because-I'm-awesome sort of characters, but she isn't. She's flawed and very human, and with all due credit to the writing, McDormand makes her that way, and I don't think anyone could have played her better.

I wish I had more to say about this performance, but that pretty much sums it up. This certainly isn't my favorite movie ever, but it's very well done, and definitely worth watching for Frances McDormand's performance alone; thus, it was a very well-deserved win.

I have to say I'm loving this trend of more middle-aged women winning Best Actress. Half of the last 10 winners have been over the age of 40, compared to just over a quarter of the first 81 winners (and three of those were Katharine Hepburn). This feels like progress to me. I hope the next step is awarding more women of color.