Cate Blanchett calls for end to ‘televised horse race’ of awards ceremonies

Cate Blanchett has called for a change in the “structure” of awards ceremonies.

The 53-year-old actress blasted the “patriarchal pyramid” and thinks the “televised horse race” should come to an end in favour of celebrating the “amazing work” of women everywhere.

Collecting the Best Actress award for her performance in ‘Tar’ at the Critics Choice Awards on Sunday (15.01.23), she said “best actress” is an “arbitrary” term “considering how many extraordinary performances” women had displayed on screen this year.

Cate – who was nominated alongside Viola Davis (‘The Woman King’), Danielle Deadwyler (‘Till’), Margot Robbie (‘Babylon’), Michelle Williams (‘The Fabelmans’) and Michelle Yeoh (‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’) – added: “I would love it if we would just change this whole f****** structure.

“It’s like what is this patriarchal pyramid where someone stands up here. Why don’t we just say there was a whole raft of female performances that are in concert and in dialogue with one another?”

“And stop the televised horse race of it all.

“Because, can I tell you, every single woman with a television, film, advertising, tampon commercials — whatever — you’re all out there doing amazing work that is inspiring me continually.”

“So thank you. I share this with you all.”

The Australian actress – who has won two Academy Awards, three BAFTAs, four Golden Globes, and three SAG awards amongst other honours in her glittering career – recently responded to criticism of ‘Tar’, in which she plays a world-renowned composer whose career plummets when she is accused of sexual misconduct.

Acknowledging it is a “very provocative” film, she said: “There’s no right or wrong responses to works of art. It’s not a film about conducting, and I think that the circumstances of the character are entirely fictitious.

“I looked at so many different conductors, but I also looked at novelists and visual artists, and musicians of all stripes. It’s a very non-literal film.

“I don’t think you could have talked about the corrupting nature of power in as nuanced a way as [writer/director] Todd Field has done as a filmmaker if there was a male at the center of it because we understand so absolutely what that looks like.

“I think that power is a corrupting force, no matter what one’s gender is. I think it affects all of us.”