Last night was very good for women of experience. Out of the seven best actress categories, women over 45 won four of them. We’re not surprised; we’ve been writing about the fabulous actors in this group for years and other media outlets are recognizing their growing presence as well. Last year the Golden Globes and Oscars recognized a slew of women our age. But still, we are truly jazzed.

The big winner was Renee Zellweger, 50, for her devastatingly brilliant portrayal of Judy Garland in her final year. Judy, the movie, was flawed, but not a thing about Zellweger’s performance was. “She got so many nuanced gestures of Judy’s, little movements of her lips when she sings, the way her eyes seem to dart and glare at the same time,” NextTriber Isha Haddigan wrote in our Film & TV Facebook group, where we are always discussing the best and worst Hollywood is offering.

“Celebrating one of the great icons of our time with you has been one of my great life blessings,” Zellweger said in her acceptance speech. This is her fourth Golden Globe, but the first one since she took an extended break from Hollywood and was crucified in the tabloids for what looked like extreme cosmetic surgery. “Hollywood does love those comeback stories,” said film and TV critic Diane Clehane in our Facebook group.

We’ll cross our fingers for an Oscar nod for Zellweger when they are announced next week.

Golden Globes 2020: More Big Love

Laura Dern and Scarlett Johansson in Marriage Story.

Another favorite, Olivia Coleman, 45, won for Best Actress in a Drama TV Series. We didn’t know we could love Coleman any more than we did when she won the Oscar last year for her role as Queen Anne in The Favourite. But then she took on the more modern role of the current British monarch in The Crown, and we couldn’t help but swoon. Long may Olivia reign!

Laura Dern, 52, has been involved in so many big projects this year that the joke going into the Globes last night was she could have sat at any table in the room. (Cast and producers of nominated projects usually sit together for the show.) Though we loved her as Renata in Big Little Lies and in her diametrically opposed role as Marmee in Little Women, her award for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture was for her performance as the fierce divorce attorney Nora Fanshaw in the movie The Marriage Story.  With remarkable dead pan, she said this in her acceptance speech: “We long to be of service to give voice to the voiceless. And thanks to the brilliant [director] Noah Baumbach, I got to do just that — give voice, pay tribute, to the divorce lawyer.”

Also winning last night was Patricia Arquette, 51, Best Supporting Actress in a Series for her unsettling role in The Act as a mother who fakes her daughter’s serious illness. Ellen DeGeneres, 60, was given the Carol Burnett Award for outstanding contributions to television, on or off the screen; two aging boldly icons wrapped up in one award.

We were also thrilled to see Phoebe Waller-Bridge win the award for Actress in Musical or Comedy TV Series for her ground (and fourth-wall) breaking show Fleabag, which she also created and wrote. Yes, she’s only 34, but anyone who can write a scene like this is definitely an honorary NextTriber!