#sbiff

2026 Red Carpet Best Dressed 040/365

Amy Madigan was awarded the Virtual Virtuoso Award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Here's a selection of Amy's highlights, along with a critical review of how Virtuosos Day was organised.

Amy Madigan on the red carpet

Amy Madigan recently posed on the red carpet with her loved ones, flashing her brightest smile. Among them were her friends, Jason Collins and Leo Satkovich, as well as her family, Ed and Lilly. Amy posed, smiled, giggled and laughed.

However, at the Golden Globes, you could see her giving angry looks to photographers who kept yelling in her direction – people who hadn't managed to take a good picture. She turned their way and said, "You still haven't got it," in annoyance and disbelief, before smiling again.

The red carpet event in Santa Barbara was interesting and took things to a whole new level.

Amy wore a Willy Chavarria outfit, styled by Andrew Gelwicks, and had her makeup done by Nick Barose. Amy once again challenged society's expectations of what women should wear.

This time, she also challenged the usual red carpet chaos and refused to accept the usual disrespect from photographers.

Amy's response to someone repeatedly calling her name: “Yes, yes. That’s my name!”

Or when she asked if the paparazzi were enjoying themselves. When someone confirmed this, she said, “That’s bullshit”.

Or when someone asks her to smile, she says she doesn't smile and pulls a face.

See for yourself:

Her Interview with Dave Karger

Amy entered the stage doing the Weapons run again – iconic. She started the interview giggling and joking, being her charming self. She emphasised again that the children Gladys kept in the basement were fed soup.

The interview provided hardly any new information about Gladys or Amy. Interviewers simply don’t come up with new questions, nor do they watch other interviews or look at the Weapons material in preparation for their own interviews.

 Interviewers also seem to like reopening that not-so-old wound of Amy losing both her houses, one of which was her home for 40+ years. Amy has been very emotional about this before, and it always comes across in her answers that it was hard for her. So why keep bringing it up? What purpose does it serve?

At least the interview was wrapped up with her being hyped about the next video and the next virtuoso coming on stage – she's just that supportive of her fellow actors and actresses!

Discussion with the other virtuosos led by Dave Karger

Here are the highlights of the discussion:

“Whats a sport you think you could do convincingly on screen” Amy: “Geriatric basketball player.”

“Whats another language that you would be intrigues to perform in to act in” Amy: “Pig Latin”

A real highlight was Teyana's response to the question of which actor the virtuosos would like to play their on-screen relative. Teyana answered: “I want miss Amy to be my aunt… We need that together … I want to come with the small bangs. I should be her niece in part two of Weapons”

Amy had a good laugh at that.

Dave Karger spoke aloud what all of us are probably thinking right now: “We are all hoping for the Gladys prequel, we need the Gladys prequel. You’re going to make it happen I can feel it.”

The big f-ups of the festival

Inviting Sidney Sweeny to the festival was a mistake. Let's put aside the fact that Sweeny's performance is not nearly as highly regarded or awarded as those of other virtuosos. Remember her white supremacist moment with the jeans ad, her feeling honoured about being complimented by Trump, her MAGA-sponsored lingerie line,  her claim that she’s not political while playing into MAGA’s hands and fishing for their sympathy: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUL1C1gCfL6/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

In the face of the current political situation, people like Sidney should not be given a platform, as it will only serve to further divide and misinform the public. MAGA and its supporters need to be opposed. And yet, not only was she invited, she was also awarded. On top of it all, SBIFF's Instagram is flooded with videos of her. By contrast, Amy Madigan, who won over 20 awards for her portrayal of Gladys and received an Oscar nomination, didn’t receive a single post to herself. If there are pictures of her, other people are in them too.  

This leads to another problem: The festival’s social media team based their social media strategy on posting white, young people – Jacob Elordi and Sidney Sweeny. Sure, Teyana for example also got loads of posts but the focus on Jacob and Sidney is evident.

The virtuosos were also positioned on stage in alphabetical order of their first names. Still, considering the social media posts of SBIFF, putting the white young people in the middle and the BIPOC plus the old woman on the side chairs, it seemed strange.

Overall, it all seemed like SBIFF was fishing for attention, hype and social media interaction by using people fitting an unhealthy beauty standard. Hollywood is stuck in medieval times and favours white young people over BIPOC and older women.

Overall the way SBIFF Sunday was organised and covered on social media was socially, politically and morally questionable on many levels.