Frances McDormand comes out on top
Frances McDormand is officially the greatest living actress as determined by Oscar wins, even beating Meryl Streep.
With three Oscar wins at Best Actress, McDormand is ahead of the pack that includes Streep’s win for a supporting role.
Two-time winners of the Best Actress award include Jane Fonda, Maggie Smith, Glenda Jackson, Jodie Foster, Sally Field, and Hilary Swank.
The only one to beat McDormand was Katharine Hepburn, who claimed four prizes.
McDormand won Best Actress in 1997 for Fargo and for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri in 2018.
The 2021 Oscars saw McDormand win the award for her role in Nomadland.
Chloe Zhao’s Nomadland also won Best Picture, and had been a strong contender for the award following wins at the Venice and Toronto film festivals more than six months ago.
Nomadland sees McDormand play a retired woman struggling to make ends meet following the 2008 crash, travelling through America’s west.
Zhao, who is Chinese-American, also took home the award for Best Director, becoming the second woman and first woman of colour to win.
Frances McDormand won two Oscars tonight, one for Best Actress (her third win in the category) and one for Best Picture as a producer on #Nomadland. More here: https://t.co/QGwDlmpx6l pic.twitter.com/POcXXH3azT
— IndieWire (@IndieWire) April 26, 2021
McDormand’s competition included actresses Viola Davis for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Carey Mulligan for Promising Young Woman.
Following on from her win, the actress will soon appear opposite Denzel Washington in a Macbeth film.
Quoting the play in her acceptance speech, she said, “I have no words. My voice is in my sword.”
“We know the sword is our work. And I like work. Thanks for knowing that, and thanks for this.”