And so, with a lack of good roles, Best Actress winners usually fall into two categories: (A) the Actually-A-Supporting-Role win; and (B) the Big Obvious Frontrunner.

Recipients of the first include Reese Witherspoon, who gave a wonderful performance in a movie that, let’s face it, was more about Johnny Cash, and Nicole Kidman, who was in four or five scenes of The Hours and had a funny prosthetic nose.

Recipients of the second: Helen Mirren for The Queen. Charlize Theron for Monster. Julia Roberts for Erin Brockovich. The Big Obvious Frontrunner, let it be clear, is usually a great female role that is exquisitely acted. But the reason it got so much attention in the first place is that it was really the only role of its kind that year.

The lack of great female roles can be blamed on...well, just about everyone. There are more male writers in Hollywood than female writers, and it stands to reason that most male writers have male protagonists. That’s the obvious reason, but there’s also a hesitancy by studios to bankroll female-driven movies because the conventional wisdom is that guys won’t go see them – flops such as The Invasion, Georgia Rule, and The Brave One being recent examples. Warner Bros. president Jeff Robinov allegedly said recently that "We are no longer doing movies with women in the lead," citing the failure of those films