Academy Award for Best Actress

Oscars Academy Award for Best Actress
1928–1950 Janet Gaynor (1928) – Mary Pickford (1929) – Norma Shearer (1930) – Marie Dressler (1931) – Helen Hayes (1932) – Katharine Hepburn (1933) – Claudette Colbert (1934) – Bette Davis (1935) – Luise Rainer (1936) – Luise Rainer (1937) – Bette Davis (1938) – Vivien Leigh (1939) – Ginger Rogers (1940) – Joan Fontaine (1941) – Greer Garson (1942) – Jennifer Jones (1943) – Ingrid Bergman (1944) – Joan Crawford (1945) – Olivia de Havilland (1946) – Loretta Young (1947) – Jane Wyman (1948) – Olivia de Havilland (1949) – Judy Holliday (1950)
1951–1975 Vivien Leigh (1951) – Shirley Booth (1952) – Audrey Hepburn (1953) – Grace Kelly (1954) – Anna Magnani (1955) – Ingrid Bergman (1956) – Joanne Woodward (1957) – Susan Hayward (1958) – Simone Signoret (1959) – Elizabeth Taylor (1960) – Sophia Loren (1961) – Anne Bancroft (1962) – Patricia Neal (1963) – Julie Andrews (1964) – Julie Christie (1965) – Elizabeth Taylor (1966) – Katharine Hepburn (1967) – Katharine Hepburn / Barbra Streisand (1968) – Maggie Smith (1969) – Glenda Jackson (1970) – Jane Fonda (1971) – Liza Minnelli (1972) – Glenda Jackson (1973) – Ellen Burstyn (1974) – Louise Fletcher (1975)
1976–2000 Faye Dunaway (1976) – Diane Keaton (1977) – Jane Fonda (1978) – Sally Field (1979) – Sissy Spacek (1980) – Katharine Hepburn (1981) – Meryl Streep (1982) – Shirley MacLaine (1983) – Sally Field (1984) – Geraldine Page (1985) – Marlee Matlin (1986) – Cher (1987) – Jodie Foster (1988) – Jessica Tandy (1989) – Kathy Bates (1990) – Jodie Foster (1991) – Emma Thompson (1992) – Holly Hunter (1993) – Jessica Lange (1994) – Susan Sarandon (1995) – Frances McDormand (1996) – Helen Hunt (1997) – Gwyneth Paltrow (1998) – Hilary Swank (1999) – Julia Roberts (2000)
2001–Present Halle Berry (2001) – Nicole Kidman (2002) – Charlize Theron (2003) – Hilary Swank (2004) – Reese Witherspoon (2005) – Helen Mirren (2006) – Marion Cotillard (2007) – Kate Winslet (2008) – Sandra Bullock (2009) – Natalie Portman (2010) – Meryl Streep (2011) – Jennifer Lawrence (2012) – Cate Blanchett (2013) – Julianne Moore (2014) – Brie Larson (2015) – Emma Stone (2016) – Frances McDormand (2017) – Olivia Colman (2018) – Renée Zellweger (2019) – Frances McDormand (2020) – Jessica Chastain (2021)
The Academy Award for Best Actress is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role in a film released that year. The award is traditionally presented by the previous year’s Best Actor winner.The 1st Academy Awards ceremony was held in 1929 with Janet Gaynor receiving the award for her roles in 7th Heaven, Street Angel, and Sunrise. Currently, nominees are determined by single transferable vote within the actors branch of AMPAS; winners are selected by a plurality vote from the entire eligible voting members of the Academy. In the first three years of the awards, actresses were nominated as the best in their categories. At that time, all of their work during the qualifying period (as many as three films, in some cases) was listed after the award. However, during the 3rd ceremony held in 1930, only one of those films was cited in each winner’s final award, even though each of the acting winners had two films following their names on the ballots.The following year, the current system was introduced in which an actress is nominated for a specific performance in a single film. Starting with the 9th ceremony held in 1937, the category was officially limited to five nominations per year. Jeanne Eagels is the first and only actress to be posthumously nominated in the category for The Letter (1929). Since its inception, the award has been given to 78 actresses. Katharine Hepburn has won the most awards in this category, with four Oscars. With 17 nominations, Meryl Streep is the most nominated in this category, resulting in two wins. Luise Rainer became the first actress to win the award twice and in consecutive years for The Great Ziegfeld (1936) and The Good Earth (1937). Italian actress Sophia Loren was the first winner for a non-English language performance for Two Women (1961). At age 21, Marlee Matlin became the youngest actress to win this award for Children of a Lesser God (1986), and at age 80, Jessica Tandy became the oldest winner in this category for Driving Miss Daisy (1989). Halle Berry is the only woman of color to win in this category, for Monster’s Ball (2001). Jodie Foster is the only openly LGBT woman to win in this category, for The Accused (1988), and The Silence of the Lambs (1991), although she was not publicly out until after both wins. As of the 2022 ceremony, Jessica Chastain is the most recent winner in this category for her portrayal of Tammy Faye in The Eyes of Tammy Faye.