Knowing that there was a culture of campaigning for these awards allowed me a peek behind the curtain that fractured any concept of “best” in the creative arts. Campaigns were built to increase popularity and win votes. I would argue that one doesn’t win these kinds of awards without tremendous talent and the work to show for it, but it was also now clear to me why some of the greatest performances of our time had not been awarded trophies. The award doesn’t always go to the “best” performance—it goes to one of the year’s most extraordinary performances backed up by an effective campaign.
