Cate Blanchett Blasts ‘Patriarchal Pyramid’ As She Accepts Critics Choice Award: ‘Change This Whole F**king Structure’

Hollywood award season is underway, giving actors plenty of opportunities to pontificate behind podiums while holding glitzy golden statues.

At Sunday’s Critics Choice Awards, actress Cate Blanchett did not get specifically political, but she made her feelings on awards season and the apparent patriarchal influence on it clear. The actress was accepting a Critics Choice Award for her performance in the film Tár.

“I can’t believe I’m up here. This is ridiculous,” Blanchett said at one point while accepting her award.

She called the “best” actress term “arbitrary” and highlighted the performances of her competitors up for the same award. She also called for a whole reboot of how awards are treated in Hollywood, taking issue with the supposed patriarchal structure of the current system that identifies one winner out of a group of nominees.

“I would love it if we would just change this whole fucking structure,” she said. “It’s like, what is this patriarchal pyramid where someone stands up here? Why don’t we just say there was a whole raft of female performances that are in concert and in dialogue with one another?”

Blanchett ended her speech by calling for an end to the “televised horse race of it all” and said she was sharing her award her fellow actresses.

The Critics Choice Awards were broadcast on the CW. The network took some hits during the night, with actor Seth Rogen seemingly equally unimpressed with the award show.

The actor mocked the network airing the Critics Choice Awards for being one of the select networks to not have any work nominated.

“We’re on your least favorite network,” Rogen told the critics in the room. “How did that happen?”

Watch above via the CW