A journalist friend said something yesterday that’s stayed with me. We both agreed that in a perfect world Olivia Colman‘s performance in Tyrannosaur would easily place her among the very top contenders for the Best Actress Oscar. But she hasn’t got a chance, my friend said, because Strand Releasing, Tyrannosaur‘s U.S. distributor, apparently has no mad money to spend on her campaign. And without ample funds there can’t be any kind of press tour, trade ads, special industry screenings and food-and-drink events in Los Angeles and New York.

So this is the reality then. Your motion-picture performance might be devasating…it might soar higher or reach deeper than any other seen in any category in a given year, but if you can’t come up with serious cash and fly Virgin and belly up to the bar and do interviews in a plush Manhattan midtown or Beverly Hills hotel and throw parties that Academy members can attend or at least luncheons for elite New York and L.A. journos then your performance, no matter how great or staggering, might as well have been given in a closet. Because “they” won’t take notice if you don’t. And that stinks. That really stinks.

Maybe it’s wiser to urge support for Colman as a Best Supporting Actress contender. That could easily be finessed as her role as an abused wife in Tyrannosaur isn’t an absolute lead. The lesson of Another Year‘s Lesley Manville, which I presume I don’t have to explain, should be kept in mind.