Renée Zellweger has won the best actress Oscar at the 92nd Academy Awards for her role as Judy Garland in the biopic of the singer and movie star. Zellweger was the favourite for the award, but faced competition from Saoirse Ronan in Little Women, Cynthia Erivo in Harriet, Charlize Theron in Bombshell and Scarlett Johansson in Marriage Story.
Judy is set mostly in the last year of Garland’s life, as she tries to rebuild her career with a series of concerts in London. The film also stars Finn Wittrock and Rufus Sewell (playing two of Garland’s husbands, Mickey Deans and Sidney Luft) and Michael Gambon as promoter Bernard Delfont.
In her speech, Zellweger gave a list of people she admired, including Garland, Scorsese, Harriet Tubman and “our first responders” and said “our heroes unite us and inspire us to find the best in ourselves”.
Zellweger made an almost clean sweep of the major awards this season, winning best actress at the Baftas, Critics’ Choice and Screen Actors Guild awards, and the Golden Globe for best actress in a drama. Zellweger was previously nominated for the best actress Oscar for Bridget Jones’s Diary and Chicago, and won a best supporting actress Oscar in 2004 for Cold Mountain.
