Academy Award for Best Actress - Definition and Overview

The Academy Award for Best Actress is one of the awards given to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; nominations are made by Academy members who are actors and actresses. The winners are chosen by the Academy membership as a whole. Following the Academy's practice, the films below are listed by release year: for example, the Oscar for "Best Actress in 1999" was announced during the award ceremony held in 2000. Winners are listed first, followed by the other nominees.

1920s

• 1928 Janet Gaynor - Seventh Heaven Street Angel and Sunrise
  • Louise Dresser - A Ship Comes In
  • Gloria Swanson - Sadie Thompson

• 1929 Mary Pickford - Coquette
  • Ruth Chatterton - Madame X
  • Betty Compson - The Barker
  • Jeanne Eagels - The Letter
  • Corinne Griffith - The Divine Lady
  • Bessie Love - The Broadway Melody

1930s

• 1930 Norma Shearer - The Divorcee
  • Nancy Carroll - The Devil's Holiday
  • Ruth Chatterton - Sarah and Son
  • Greta Garbo - Anna Christie and Romance
  • Norma Shearer - Their Own Desire
  • Gloria Swanson - The Trespasser

• 1931 Marie Dressler - Min and Bill
  • Marlene Dietrich - Morocco
  • Irene Dunne - Cimarron
  • Ann Harding - Holiday
  • Norma Shearer - A Free Soul

• 1932 Helen Hayes - The Sin of Madelon Claudet
  • Marie Dressler - Emma
  • Lynn Fontanne - The Guardsman

• 1933 Katharine Hepburn - Morning Glory
  • May Robson - Lady for a Day
  • Diana Wynyard - Cavalcade

• 1934 Claudette Colbert - It Happened One Night
  • Grace Moore - One Night of Love
  • Norma Shearer - The Barretts of Wimpole Street

• 1935 Bette Davis - Dangerous
  • Elisabeth Bergner - Escape Me Never
  • Claudette Colbert - Private Worlds
  • Katharine Hepburn - Alice Adams
  • Miriam Hopkins - Becky Sharp
  • Merle Oberon - The Dark Angel

• 1936 Luise Rainer - The Great Ziegfeld
  • Irene Dunne - Theodora Goes Wild
  • Gladys George - Valiant Is the Word for Carrie
  • Carole Lombard - My Man Godfrey
  • Norma Shearer - Romeo and Juliet

• 1937 Luise Rainer - The Good Earth
  • Irene Dunne - The Awful Truth
  • Greta Garbo - Camille
  • Janet Gaynor - A Star Is Born
  • Barbara Stanwyck - Stella Dallas

• 1938 Bette Davis - Jezebel
  • Fay Bainter - White Banners
  • Wendy Hiller - Pygmalion
  • Norma Shearer - Marie Antoinette
  • Margaret Sullavan - Three Comrade

• 1939 Vivien Leigh - Gone With the Wind
  • Bette Davis - Dark Victory
  • Irene Dunne - Love Affair
  • Greta Garbo - Ninotchka
  • Greer Garson - Goodbye, Mr. Chips

1940s

• 1944 Ingrid Bergman - Gaslight
  • Claudette Colbert - Since You Went Away
  • Bette Davis - Mr. Skeffington
  • Greer Garson - Mrs. Parkington
  • Barbara Stanwyck - Double Indemnity

• 1945 Joan Crawford - Mildred Pierce
  • Ingrid Bergman - The Bells of St. Mary's
  • Greer Garson - The Valley of Decision
  • Jennifer Jones - Love Letters
  • Gene Tierney - Leave Her to Heaven

• 1946 Olivia de Havilland - To Each His Own
  • Celia Johnson - Brief Encounter
  • Jennifer Jones - Duel in the Sun
  • Rosalind Russell - Sister Kenny
  • Jane Wyman - The Yearling

• 1947 Loretta Young - The Farmer's Daughter
  • Joan Crawford - Possessed
  • Susan Hayward - Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman
  • Dorothy McGuire - Gentleman's Agreement
  • Rosalind Russell - Mourning Becomes Electra

• 1948 Jane Wyman - Johnny Belinda
  • Ingrid Bergman - Joan of Arc
  • Olivia de Havilland - The Snake Pit
  • Irene Dunne - I Remember Mama
  • Barbara Stanwyck - Sorry, Wrong Number

• 1949 Olivia de Havilland - The Heiress
  • Jeanne Crain - Pinky
  • Susan Hayward - My Foolish Heart
  • Deborah Kerr - Edward, My Son
  • Loretta Young - Come to the Stable

1950s

• 1950 Judy Holliday - Born Yesterday
  • Anne Baxter - All About Eve
  • Bette Davis - All About Eve
  • Eleanor Parker - Caged
  • Gloria Swanson - Sunset Boulevard

• 1951 Vivien Leigh - A Streetcar Named Desire
  • Katharine Hepburn - The African Queen
  • Eleanor Parker - Detective Story
  • Shelley Winters - A Place in the Sun
  • Jane Wyman - The Blue Veil

• 1952 Shirley Booth - Come Back, Little Sheba
  • Joan Crawford - Sudden Fear
  • Bette Davis - The Star
  • Julie Harris - The Member of the Wedding
  • Susan Hayward - With a Song in My Heart

• 1953 Audrey Hepburn - Roman Holiday
  • Leslie Caron - Lili
  • Ava Gardner - Mogambo
  • Deborah Kerr - From Here to Eternity
  • Maggie McNamara - The Moon Is Blue

• 1954 Grace Kelly - The Country Girl
  • Dorothy Dandridge - Carmen Jones
  • Judy Garland - A Star Is Born
  • Audrey Hepburn - Sabrina
  • Jane Wyman - Magnificent Obsession

• 1955 Anna Magnani - The Rose Tattoo
  • Susan Hayward - I'll Cry Tomorrow
  • Katharine Hepburn - Summertime
  • Jennifer Jones - Love is a Many-Splendored Thing
  • Eleanor Parker - Interrupted Melody

• 1956 Ingrid Bergman - Anastasia
  • Carroll Baker - Baby Doll
  • Katharine Hepburn - The Rainmaker
  • Nancy Kelly - The Bad Seed
  • Deborah Kerr - The King and I

• 1957 Joanne Woodward - The Three Faces of Eve
  • Deborah Kerr - Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison
  • Anna Magnani - Wild Is the Wind
  • Elizabeth Taylor - Raintree County
  • Lana Turner - Peyton Place

• 1958 Susan Hayward - I Want to Live!
  • Deborah Kerr - Separate Tables
  • Shirley MacLaine - Some Came Running
  • Rosalind Russell - Auntie Mame
  • Elizabeth Taylor - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

• 1959 Simone Signoret - Room at the Top
  • Doris Day - Pillow Talk
  • Audrey Hepburn - The Nun's Story
  • Katharine Hepburn - Suddenly, Last Summer
  • Elizabeth Taylor - Suddenly, Last Summer

1960s

• 1960 Elizabeth Taylor - BUtterfield 8
  • Greer Garson - Sunrise at Campobello
  • Deborah Kerr - The Sundowners
  • Shirley MacLaine - The Apartment
  • Melina Mercouri - Never on Sunday

• 1961 Sophia Loren - Two Women
  • Audrey Hepburn - Breakfast at Tiffany's
  • Piper Laurie - The Hustler
  • Geraldine Page - Summer and Smoke
  • Natalie Wood - Splendor in the Grass

• 1962 Anne Bancroft - The Miracle Worker
  • Bette Davis - What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
  • Katharine Hepburn - Long Day's Journey Into Night
  • Geraldine Page - Sweet Bird of Youth
  • Lee Remick - Days of Wine and Roses

• 1963 Patricia Neal - Hud
  • Leslie Caron - The L-Shaped Room
  • Shirley MacLaine - Irma la Douce
  • Rachel Roberts - This Sporting Life
  • Natalie Wood - Love with the Proper Stranger

• 1964 Julie Andrews - Mary Poppins
  • Anne Bancroft - The Pumpkin Eater
  • Sophia Loren - Marriage Italian Style
  • Debbie Reynolds - The Unsinkable Molly Brown
  • Kim Stanley - Seance on a Wet Afternoon

• 1965 Julie Christie - Darling
  • Julie Andrews - The Sound of Music
  • Samantha Eggar - The Collector
  • Elizabeth Hartman - A Patch of Blue
  • Simone Signoret - Ship of Fools

• 1966 Elizabeth Taylor - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
  • Anouk Aimée - A Man and a Woman
  • Ida Kaminska - The Shop on Main Street
  • Lynn Redgrave - Georgy Girl
  • Vanessa Redgrave - Morgan!

• 1967 Katharine Hepburn - Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
  • Anne Bancroft - The Graduate
  • Faye Dunaway - Bonnie and Clyde
  • Edith Evans - The Whisperers
  • Audrey Hepburn - Wait Until Dark

• 1968 Katharine Hepburn - The Lion in Winter and Barbra Streisand - Funny Girl
  • Patricia Neal - The Subject Was Roses
  • Vanessa Redgrave - Isadora
  • Joanne Woodward - Rachel, Rachel

• 1969 Maggie Smith - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
  • Geneviève Bujold - Anne of the Thousand Days
  • Jane Fonda - They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
  • Liza Minnelli - The Sterile Cuckoo
  • Jean Simmons - The Happy Ending

1970s

• 1970 Glenda Jackson - Women in Love
  • Jane Alexander - The Great White Hope
  • Ali MacGraw - Love Story
  • Sarah Miles - Ryan's Daughter
  • Carrie Snodgress - Diary of a Mad Housewife

• 1971 Jane Fonda - Klute
  • Julie Christie - McCabe & Mrs. Miller
  • Glenda Jackson - Sunday Bloody Sunday
  • Vanessa Redgrave - Mary, Queen of Scots
  • Janet Suzman - Nicholas and Alexandra

• 1972 Liza Minnelli - Cabaret
  • Diana Ross - Lady Sings the Blues
  • Maggie Smith - Travels with My Aunt
  • Cicely Tyson - Sounder
  • Liv Ullmann - The Emigrants

• 1973 Glenda Jackson - A Touch of Class
  • Ellen Burstyn - The Exorcist
  • Marsha Mason - Cinderella Liberty
  • Barbra Streisand - The Way We Were
  • Joanne Woodward - Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams

• 1974 Ellen Burstyn - Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
  • Diahann Carroll - Claudine
  • Faye Dunaway - Chinatown
  • Valerie Perrine - Lenny
  • Gena Rowlands - A Woman Under the Influence

• 1975 Louise Fletcher - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
  • Ann-Margret - Tommy
  • Isabelle Adjani - The Story of Adele H.
  • Glenda Jackson - Hedda
  • Carol Kane - Hester Street

• 1976 Faye Dunaway - Network
  • Marie-Christine Barrault - Cousin, cousine
  • Talia Shire - Rocky
  • Sissy Spacek - Carrie
  • Liv Ullmann - Face to Face

• 1977 Diane Keaton - Annie Hall
  • Anne Bancroft - The Turning Point
  • Jane Fonda - Julia
  • Shirley MacLaine - The Turning Point
  • Marsha Mason - The Goodbye Girl

• 1978 Jane Fonda - Coming Home
  • Ingrid Bergman - Autumn Sonata
  • Ellen Burstyn - Same Time, Next Year
  • Jill Clayburgh - An Unmarried Woman
  • Geraldine Page - Interiors

• 1979 Sally Field - Norma Rae
  • Jill Clayburgh - Starting Over
  • Jane Fonda - The China Syndrome
  • Marsha Mason - Chapter Two
  • Bette Midler - The Rose

1980s

• 1980 Sissy Spacek - Coal Miner's Daughter
  • Ellen Burstyn - Resurrection
  • Goldie Hawn - Private Benjamin
  • Mary Tyler Moore - Ordinary People
  • Gena Rowlands - Gloria

• 1981 Katharine Hepburn - On Golden Pond
  • Diane Keaton - Reds
  • Marsha Mason - Only When I Laugh
  • Susan Sarandon - Atlantic City
  • Meryl Streep - The French Lieutenant's Woman

• 1982 Meryl Streep - Sophie's Choice
  • Julie Andrews - Victor/Victoria
  • Jessica Lange - Frances
  • Sissy Spacek - Missing
  • Debra Winger - An Officer and a Gentleman

• 1983 Shirley MacLaine - Terms of Endearment
  • Jane Alexander - Testament
  • Meryl Streep - Silkwood
  • Julie Walters - Educating Rita
  • Debra Winger - Terms of Endearment

• 1984 Sally Field - Places in the Heart
  • Judy Davis - A Passage to India
  • Jessica Lange - Country
  • Vanessa Redgrave - A Passage to India
  • Sissy Spacek - The River

• 1985 Geraldine Page - The Trip to Bountiful
  • Anne Bancroft - Agnes of God
  • Whoopi Goldberg - The Color Purple
  • Jessica Lange - Sweet Dreams
  • Meryl Streep - Out of Africa

• 1986 Marlee Matlin - Children of a Lesser God
  • Jane Fonda - The Morning After
  • Sissy Spacek - Crimes of the Heart
  • Kathleen Turner - Peggy Sue Got Married
  • Sigourney Weaver - Aliens

• 1987 Cher - Moonstruck
  • Glenn Close - Fatal Attraction
  • Holly Hunter - Broadcast News
  • Sally Kirkland - Anna
  • Meryl Streep - Ironweed

• 1988 Jodie Foster - The Accused
  • Glenn Close - Dangerous Liaisons
  • Melanie Griffith - Working Girl
  • Meryl Streep - A Cry in the Dark
  • Sigourney Weaver - Gorillas in the Mist

• 1989 Jessica Tandy - Driving Miss Daisy
  • Isabelle Adjani - Camille Claudel
  • Pauline Collins - Shirley Valentine
  • Jessica Lange - Music Box
  • Michelle Pfeiffer - The Fabulous Baker Boys

1990s

• 1990 Kathy Bates - Misery
  • Anjelica Huston - The Grifters
  • Julia Roberts - Pretty Woman
  • Meryl Streep - Postcards from the Edge
  • Joanne Woodward - Mr. and Mrs. Bridge

• 1991 Jodie Foster - The Silence of the Lambs
  • Geena Davis - Thelma and Louise
  • Laura Dern - Rambling Rose
  • Bette Midler - For the Boys
  • Susan Sarandon - Thelma and Louise

• 1992 Emma Thompson - Howards End
  • Catherine Deneuve - Indochine
  • Mary McDonnell - Passion Fish
  • Michelle Pfeiffer - Love Field
  • Susan Sarandon - Lorenzo's Oil

• 1993 Holly Hunter - The Piano
  • Angela Bassett - What's Love Got to Do with It
  • Stockard Channing - Six Degrees of Separation
  • Emma Thompson - The Remains of the Day
  • Debra Winger - Shadowlands

• 1994 Jessica Lange - Blue Sky
  • Jodie Foster - Nell
  • Miranda Richardson - Tom & Viv
  • Winona Ryder - Little Women
  • Susan Sarandon - The Client

• 1995 Susan Sarandon - Dead Man Walking
  • Elisabeth Shue - Leaving Las Vegas
  • Sharon Stone - Casino
  • Meryl Streep - The Bridges of Madison County
  • Emma Thompson - Sense and Sensibility

• 1996 Frances McDormand - Fargo
  • Brenda Blethyn - Secrets & Lies
  • Diane Keaton - Marvin's Room
  • Kristin Scott Thomas - The English Patient
  • Emily Watson - Breaking the Waves

• 1997 Helen Hunt - As Good As It Gets
  • Helena Bonham Carter - The Wings of the Dove
  • Julie Christie - Afterglow
  • Judi Dench - Mrs. Brown
  • Kate Winslet - Titanic

• 1998 Gwyneth Paltrow - Shakespeare in Love
  • Cate Blanchett - Elizabeth
  • Fernanda Montenegro - Central do Brasil
  • Meryl Streep - One True Thing
  • Emily Watson - Hilary and Jackie

• 1999 Hilary Swank - Boys Don't Cry
  • Annette Bening - American Beauty
  • Julianne Moore - The End of the Affair
  • Meryl Streep - Music of the Heart
  • Janet McTeer - Tumbleweeds

2000s

• 2000 Julia Roberts - Erin Brockovich
  • Juliette Binoche - Chocolat
  • Joan Allen - The Contender
  • Ellen Burstyn - Requiem for a Dream
  • Laura Linney - You Can Count on Me

• 2001 Halle Berry - Monster's Ball
  • Renée Zellweger - Bridget Jones's Diary
  • Sissy Spacek - In the Bedroom
  • Judi Dench - Iris
  • Nicole Kidman - Moulin Rouge!

• 2002 Nicole Kidman -The Hours
  • Renée Zellweger - Chicago
  • Julianne Moore - Far from Heaven
  • Salma Hayek - Frida
  • Diane Lane - Unfaithful

• 2003 Charlize Theron - Monster
  • Keisha Castle-Hughes - The Whale Rider
  • Diane Keaton - Something's Gotta Give
  • Samantha Morton - In America
  • Naomi Watts - 21 Grams

• 2004 Nominations (this line will be replaced with the winner after the awards program)
  • Annette Bening, Being Julia
  • Catalina Sandino Moreno, Maria Full of Grace
  • Imelda Staunton, Vera Drake
  • Hilary Swank, Million Dollar Baby
  • Kate Winslet, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

See also: Best Picture - Best Actor - Best Actress - Best Supporting Actor - Best Supporting Actress - Best Director

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