The Toronto, Ontario-born Canadian director received the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar on Sunday night for her film, Women Talking.
She jokingly expressed her appreciation to the Academy for not taking offense to the use of the terms “women” and “talking” together as she accepted her award.
“First of all, I just want to thank The Academy for not taking deadly exception to the terms “women” and “talking” being placed so closely together. Thank you,” she said.
She also mentioned fellow Canadian author Miriam Toews, whose 2018 novel of the same name served as the basis for the movie.
“Miriam Toews wrote an essential novel about a radical democracy in which people who don’t agree on every single issue managed to sit together in a room and carve out a way forward together free of violence. They do so not just by talking but also by listening,” she added.
“There’s something essential that we feel is a conversation that should be part of our world, and we want to be part of it with every part of our being.”
In the male-dominated film industry, Polley said she was grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with so many talented women, but noted that people of all genders helped bring the film’s conversation to the big screen.
“Everyone on the cast and crew came to this in such a generous spirit,” she said. “It wasn’t just the women on set who wanted to bring those experiences of abuse and of feeling powerless, and of moving through it and a building a better life and hopefully a better world.”
Polley, who got her start as a child actor and rose to become an acclaimed writer and director, was competing against films Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Living, Top Gun: Maverick and All Quiet on the Western Front.
Polley was also up for the Oscar for Best Picture for the same film.
