We love seeing women on screen and we love seeing real, relatable women on screen. That’s why we loved so many actresses playing real-life women on screen being celebrated and awarded at the Golden Globes.
There’s such a huge way to go in the world of filmmaking – 75% of blockbusters' crew are men and too many women's roles are 'wife' or 'daughter' or 'victim' – but with an awards ceremony brimming with women with such positive messages, there’s hope. You just know this visibility means hundreds of thousands of young women across the world feel inspired to get involved with the film industry, and not just on-screen.
So here are those inspirational speeches from the night
Patricia Arquette – Best Supporting Actress – Boyhood
Hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler joked that Patricia Arquette proved that ‘there are still great roles for women over 40, as long as you get hired when you're under 40’. See, Boyhood was filmed over 13 years. But in sincerity, when Patricia accepted her award she said to its director Richard Linklater: ‘Thankyou for shining a light on this woman and the millions of women like her and allowing me to honour my own mother with this beautiful character’
Amy Adams – Best Actress, Musical Or Comedy – Big Eyes
Amy Adams is no stranger to the award circuit yet her acceptance speeches still seem fresh and exciting. She used this speech to talk about her daughter and how important it would be for her to see: ‘I’m so lucky I have so many wonderful female role models here tonight looking out in the audience. I’m really ill-prepared. But it’s just so wonderful that women today have such a strong voice.'
'And I have a four and a half year old and I’m so grateful to have all the women in this room, you speak to her so loudly. She watches everything and she sees everything and I’m just so grateful for all of you women in this room who’ve such a lovely, beautiful voice, for speaking to my daughter, thank you so much.’
Gina Rodriguez – Best Actress In A TV Comedy – Jane, The Virgin
At an award show where more ginger women won than women of colour, TV actress Gina (from Jane, The Virgin, which is going to be screened in the UK very soon) spoke of how important it is for women of colour to be visible: 'This award is so much more than myself. It represents a culture that wants to see themselves as heroes.'
Julianne Moore – Best Actress, Drama – Still Alice
Julianne simply put it like this: 'When Lisa Genova wrote this book [Still Alice, the one that the film was taken from] she told me no one wanted to make it into a movie because no one wanted to see a movie about a middle-aged woman,’ before shrugging with her award and laughing.
Maggie Gyllenhaal – Best Actress in a Miniseries or TV Film – The Honourable Woman
Maggie turned up with her brother Jake as her date and thanked basically everyone and anyone in the film industry who helped facilitate roles for real women on-screen.
‘I’ve noticed a lot of people talking about the wealth of roles for powerful women in television lately.’
‘And when I look around the room at the women who are in here and I think about the performances that I’ve watched this year. What I see acutally are women who are sometimes powerful and sometimes not, sometimes sexy and sometimes not, sometimes honourable, sometimes not. And what I think is new is the wealth of roles for actual women in television and in film. That’s what I think is revolutionary and evolutionary and that’s what’s turning me on.'
Jill Soloway – Best TV Series – Transparent
The producer of the Amazon Prime series about a trans woman took the opportunity to speak about a trans girl, aged just 17, who committed suicide last month: ‘This award is dedicated to the memory of Leelah Alcorn and too many trans people who die too young.’
She also dedicated the award to ‘my trans parent, my moppa.’
What else?
Plus, just about everyone else nominated in a female category was incredible, not to mention Quvenzhané Wallis, who is just 11 years old yet has already been nominated for best actress at the Oscars and the Golden Globes! Hopefully she’s going to feel inspired by all the above powerful women and many more at the Golden Globes last night. That’s if she hasn’t been inspired already…
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.