Frances McDormand won the award for best actress at the 90th Academy Awards for her character as a grieving mother in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
It is the second time that McDormand has bagged the award for best actress out of a five-time Academy Award nomination. The 60-year-old actor made her way to the award through the three-time Academy Award winner Meryl Streep, Lady Bird star Saoirse Ronan and British actress Sally Hawkins.
McDormand took to the stage to receive her award; hyperventilating at the honour she received, thanked her family and then asked all the other female nominees to stand up. She said, "Meryl if you can, everyone can.”
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"Look around... because we all have stories to tell and projects we need financed. Don't talk to us about it at the parties. Invite us into your office, or you can come to ours,” Frances added.
At the end of the speech, she urged producers to back their projects, and then wound up saying: “I have two words to leave with you tonight, ‘inclusion’ and ‘writer’.”
Directed by Martin McDonagh, Three Billboards is a darkly comic drama set in a fictional – and highly dysfunctional town. McDormand stars as Mildred Hayes, a mother whose anger at the local police force’s failure to catch her daughter’s killer prompts her to mount an unusual publicity stunt.
