11:00AM Clem Bastow | If there’s one Australian media tendency (aside from Angela Bishop continuing to be employed) that really gets to us time and time again, it’s this odd obsession our press has with Australians being nominated for awards, and – inevitably – not winning them, and the accompanying moaning and wailing.
The latest installment in this curiously jingoistic journalistic trend is today’s mopey piece from News Ltd on the topic of Cate Blanchett
not winning in either of her BAFTA categories.
Blanchett was up for two gongs at the British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs) – leading actress for her starring role as Queen Elizabeth 1 in Elizabeth: The Golden Age and best supporting actress for her portrayal of music legend Bob Dylan in the acclaimed biopic I’m Not There.
The Academy Award winning actress had been a hot favourite to take out the supporting actress prize, but lost out to Tilda Swinton for her role as a workaholic lawyer in the thriller Michael Clayton.
The 38-year Australian, who is pregnant with her third child, also missed out on the best actress award which went to Marion Cotillard for her portrayal of the revered but troubled French singer Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose.
That froggy bitch, she made Our Cate cry!
Every year at awards season – whether it’s the Oscars, Globes, BAFTAs, Tonys or the frigging Nobel Peace Prize – our press wets itself over our “special” arty people, revving themselves up so that in all but the most exceptional circumstances they are headed for a fall.
The darker side of this is the implication that in not winning, our nominated expats have in some way ‘failed’ us. Plenty of Australian athletes (for example) fail dismally all over the world, but that is apparently a worthy struggle against the odds; actors, musicians and other creative exports were lucky to be allowed to join the international party, but should probably look into a real job, etc etc.
Now, we love Our Cate as much as the best of them, and her I’m Not There performance was memorable (not so sure about The Golden Age…), but as inconceivable as it may be to True Blue™ papers like the News Ltd stable, we actually care who does win these awards, because – as shocking as it may seem – we actually watch films that don’t feature Australian actors, actresses and artisans, too!
To continue to lead into stories in this fashion is to grossly underestimate the Australian public’s cultural IQ.
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