Awards season can get pretty dull. The same big films and the same big actors usually get the same big awards. The best part is when the red carpet recaps have died down and you get to scroll through the winners and see just how much brilliance has managed to slip past your super discerning radar this year.

So which were the films and performances that took on an unsuspecting mainstream and won? We dig some digging…

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A SERIES, LIMITED SERIES, OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION: 

MAURA TIERNEY, THE AFFAIR

The Affair is a Showtime series which first aired back in October 2014. The second season premiered in October 2015 and there is a third on the way. It scored Golden Globe nods last year for Best Actress (Ruth Wilson) and Best Television series and this year Maura Tierney pipped Uzo Aduba (Orange Is The New Black), Joanna Froggatt (Downton Abbey) and Judith Light (Transparent) for the Best Supporting Actress Award.

The series explores in depth, the emotional effects of an extramarital relationship between two primary characters, one of which was expertly portrayed by Ruth Wilson in Season 1. Maura Tierney let her stirring performance rip in season two when the narrative expanded to include the perspectives of their original spouses and the brutal fallout that occurs when relationships break down.

The Affair is not for the faint-hearted. It packs brutal emotional punch and despite essentially having a love story at the crux of it, there isn’t a lot of scope for happy endings. Making the drama more potent is a murderous sub-plot centered around Joshua Jackson’s character, Cole. That enough for you?

The Affair is currently available in Australia via Foxtel.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION SERIES, MUSICAL, OR COMEDY:

RACHEL BLOOM, CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND

This horribly-titled television series premiered in October last year on The CW Network. It’s premise is pretty simple as is follows a single woman who follows her summer camp ex boyfriend across the country ten years after their teen romance ends. Sound okay? You should perhaps know that it’s also a musical. Remember how annoyed you were when your favourite series left their plotlines behind and dedicate an entire episode to mostly singing through their script? This show does that on every episode.

Bloom has talent, for sure. She created the series, wrote several episodes and serves as the series’ lead character. She can also hit a high note like nobody’s business. And somehow she’s also beaten Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Veep) for this award. Vice also threw it’s weight behind the series not too long ago so maybe it’s a Glee-like grower. Hit the trailer and have a peep.

BEST TV SERIES, MUSICAL OR COMEDY

MOZART IN THE JUNGLE

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES, MUSICAL, OR COMEDY

GAEL GARCIA BERNAL, MOZART IN THE JUNGLE

Heard of it? Well it beat Orange Is The New Black, Veep, Transparent and Silicon Valley to this award so it must be good, right? This one was written by the formidable team of Roman Copolla, Jason Schwartzmann and Alex Timbers. It was inspired by oboist Blair Tindall’s 2005 memoir which boasts the slightly more enticing sub title ‘Sex, Drugs and Classical Music’. The series revolves around musicians in the New York symphony orchestra but is mostly about the complexities of the characters than classical concertos.

It’s main character, portrayed by Gael Garcia Bernal beat Aziz Ansari (Master Of None) and Jeffrey Tambor (Transparent) to the best performance in a television musical or comedy. Impressive form for a little known Mexican actor.

This show has enjoyed two seasons on Amazon so far, most of which are available online at the moment. In Australia, it is available in it’s entirety to stream now on Stan.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE, DRAMA:

BRIE LARSON, ROOM

Even since United States of Tara we’ve been watching Brie Larson closely as she twirls from role to role, nailing just about everything she touches. We were even a bit miffed at how little screen time she got in Schumer’s Trainwreck last year.

Room is officially a Canadian/Irish production and was released late last year to a barrage of award nominations and critical praise. In it, Larson plays a woman held captive in an enclosed space (details unfold throughout) who finally – along with her five year old son- gains her freedom and allows the boy to experience the outside world for the first time.

It’s been described several times as a game changing film, and Larson described the process of filming it as ‘transformative’. She beat Cate Blanchett for this particular award, and Blanchett must surely be using Globes as paperweights for her hundred dollar bills given her ridiculous talent, so we can’t see what Larson has dished up in this film.

Take a look at the Room’s trailer and try not to mist up. Then get thee to a local theatre at the end of the month (January 28) to see it in full.