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The win is notable for a few reasons, not least that it gives Madigan a very first Oscar win, 40 years after her first nomination (for Twice in a Lifetime). That’s the longest gap between first nomination and first win for an actress, beating the previous record of 32 years held by Geraldine Page (who won Best Actress for The Trip to Bountiful, having first been nominated for Hondo in 1954). Funnily enough, that record was set at the 1986 Oscars, the same year Madigan picked up her first (and before Weapons, only) nomination.
Amy Madigan Deserved The Oscar For Weapons
Weapons was one of the best horror movies of 2025, and Madigan is at the very center of that. She gives a delightfully creepy, sinister performance. The Zach Cregger movie finds a balance between being scary and silly, and that’s exactly what she does: there’s something quite terrifying about Aunt Gladys, especially as she conveys an ancient, rather unknowable sort of power, and yet it’s also over-the-top and comedic at the same time.
It’s the kind of performance the Oscars doesn’t recognize too often, because Weapons is the kind of movie that the Oscars doesn’t recognize too often. Only a handful of actors have won for horror movies, most recently Natalie Portman for Black Swan in 2011, making this feel long overdue.
