And the winners are….women like us, who weren’t born yesterday. Yes, we’re already winners in the Oscar race even though the actual ceremony is more than a month away. Seven of the 10 slots for acting announced this week went to women well past starlet age. And that’s without Meryl in the mix, which is amazing on its own. Ten years ago, 40 percent of the female acting nominees were over 40 and that did include Meryl.

Oscar Nominations 2019: Is Hollywood Wising Up?

Olivia Colman in “The Favourite.”

With the Golden Globes being fairly age-blind and now the Oscars following suit, it seems like Hollywood is finally recognizing all a female over 40, 50, or older can offer.

All we want to know is that the acting deck isn’t stacked against women who’ve aged out of ingenue roles.

• Olivia Colman, 44, snagged a Lead Actress nomination for her hilarious role in The Favourite. Remember her reply upon winning the Golden Globe? When asked about how she felt about roles for “older women,” her response was, “I feel very fortunate … there are more and more parts being written. The older you get, the more you have to say. The more that’s happened.” Let’s hope that continues.
• Melissa McCarthy, 48, also earned a nod for Lead Actress in Can You Ever Forgive Me? in which she plays a difficult, solitary writer who slides into the role of a forger.
• The magnificent Glenn Close, 71, is also nominated for The Wife. She won the category at the Golden Globes (and we wrote about that speech!!), so she has a lot of momentum coming into the Oscars.

Regina King was phenomenal in “If Beale Street Could Talk.”

In the Supporting Actress category, women our age took four of the five slots:

• Amy Adams, 44, was nominated for her work in Vice” (her sixth nomination, in fact; will she win this time?) in which she portrayed Lynne Cheney.
• Marina De Tavira, 44, has received huge acclaim for her role in the Mexican movie Roma, which follows the story of a live-in maid to a middle-class family. Marina plays the mother of the clan.
• Regina King, 47, earned attention for her spectacular work in If Beale Street Could Talk.
• Rachel Weisz, 48, was recognized for her feisty character in The Favourite.

Now, we’ve got nothing against the younger women who were nominated—Emma Stone, Yalitza Aparicio, and Lady Gaga, good luck! All we want to know is that the acting deck isn’t stacked against women who’ve aged out of ingenue roles—and judging by the Oscar nominations, we’ve achieved that.