For decades, horror has been the genre everyone loves to watch but no one in the awards world wants to acknowledge. It’s a space where groundbreaking performances get dismissed as “too genre,” “too weird,” or “not serious enough,” even when the artistry is undeniable. Yet 2025 might be the year something finally shifts. And leading that shift are two actresses whose recent wins are quietly — but powerfully — rewriting the rules. Let’s discuss the recent award wins of actors Wunmi Mosaku and Amy Madigan in their critically acclaimed horror roles.
At this year’s Gotham Awards, Wunmi Mosaku earned the prize for Outstanding Supporting Performance for her haunting, layered work in Sinners. Over at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards, Amy Madigan walked away with Best Supporting Actress for her role in Weapons. Both wins came from horror films and that alone is historic. These victories aren’t just wins for Mosaku and Madigan individually. They’re wins for the entire genre and for every actor who has poured their soul into a horror performance only to watch voters look the other way.
We’ve been here before. Toni Collette’s devastating, career-defining work in Hereditary remains one of the most infamous recent snubs, the kind that horror fans still talk about in frustration. It’s a reminder of how often awards bodies fail to recognize brilliance unless it’s wrapped in prestige-drama packaging. Horror has always been the artistic underdog, the genre is bold, emotional, provocative, and overlooked.
But something feels different now.
Mosaku’s win represents the future of horror: films that aren’t afraid to confront trauma, identity, or the messy parts of humanity through supernatural lenses. Her performance was raw, grounded, transformative and proves that horror can deliver emotional truths more fearlessly than almost any other genre.
Madigan’s win does something equally important: it affirms that veteran performers can find some of their most resonant work in horror, a genre that has never been afraid to give complex roles to women over 40, even when mainstream Hollywood has. Her recognition signals that critics are paying attention to the depth happening in spaces they previously overlooked.
And they’re not alone. Demi Moore’s Golden Globe and SAG Award wins for The Substance signaled another breakthrough. Horror didn’t need to be disguised as “psychological drama” to be taken seriously. It could be body horror too. Uncanny, original and still earn top-tier recognition. Moore’s win proved that, when voters step outside their biases, they find some of the strongest performances of the year staring back at them from the shadows.
These victories matter because horror has always been a genre of innovation. It’s where women, actors of color, queer creators, and outsiders have historically found room to tell stories Hollywood wasn’t ready for. When awards bodies ignore horror, they ignore those voices. When they embrace it, even sparingly, they open the door to a more inclusive definition of “prestige.”
Of course, a few wins don’t erase decades of bias. The Toni Collette effect still lingers, and plenty of incredible performances continue to fly under the radar simply because they happen in haunted houses or monster-infested forests. But this year offers a glimmer of what the future could look like if voters broaden their understanding of what artistry can be and where it can come from.
Mosaku, Madigan, and Moore didn’t just win awards. They cracked open a door that has been locked for far too long. And for horror fans, for creators, for actors who dream of sinking their teeth into a genre role without sacrificing awards potential, that crack of light is everything.
Horror has always deserved a seat at the table. Now, finally, it looks like the table is being rearranged.
