Will ‘Three Billboards’ be first female-driven Best Picture Oscar winner since ‘Million Dollar Baby’ 13 years ago?

The past 12 Best Picture Oscar winners all have one thing in common: None starred a woman in the leading role.

You have to go all the way back to “Million Dollar Baby” (2004) to find a Best Picture champ told from the perspective of a female character — in that case it was Hilary Swank‘s amateur boxer Maggie Fitzgerald.

Might “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” which stars Frances McDormand as bereaved mother Mildred Hayes who shames the police department for not solving her daughter’s murder, follow in “Million Dollar Baby’s” boxing gloves 13 years later by winning Best Picture?SEEpredictions from two dozen Oscar experts: What will win Best Picture?As characters, Mildred and Maggie have a lot in common.

They’re both strong-willed, determined, bad-ass women who fight for justice and rage against authority.

Since male voters still make up the majority of the academy, that could be a

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