Cate Blanchett has delivered an Oscar encore.
The actress has won her second Academy Award, taking home the statuette for Best Actress Sunday night for her bravura performance as a boozy, fallen socialite in Blue Jasmine.
While accepting her award, the 44-year-old actress celebrated a year that saw a wealth of roles for women in film.
“As random and as subjective as this award is, it means a great deal in a year of, yet again, great performances by women, ” said Blanchett, who made sure to call out her fellow nominees one by one before ending with Judi Dench, who was not in attendance.
“She’s not here tonight because at the age of 79, her film was so successful that she’s in India doing a sequel, ” Blanchett said, referring to Dench’s current project, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel 2. “I mean, what a career that is.”
Blanchett also chastised “those of us in the industry who are still foolishly clinging to the idea that female films with women at the center are niche experiences. They are not. Audiences wanna see them, and, in fact, they make money.”
She then quipped: “The world is round, people!”
A five-time nominee, Blanchett won the Best Supporting Actress award in 2005 for playing Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator.
On Saturday, she also snagged the Independent Spirit Award for best actress for her performance in Blue Jasmine, which was directed by Woody Allen.
This year’s Oscar field for Best Actress featured a pedigreed lineup of contenders, pitting Blanchett against three past winners and a five-time nominee: Dench in Philomena, Sandra Bullock in Gravity, Meryl Streep in August: Osage County and Amy Adams in American Hustle.
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