Academy Award for Best Actress

The Academy Awards are awarded the year after the film's release; the films below are listed with their production year, so the Oscar 2000 went to the best actor in 1999.

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
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 Comrades
1939 Vivien Leigh - Gone With the Wind
- Bette Davis - Dark Victory
- Irene Dunne - Love Affair
- Greta Garbo - Ninotchka
- Greer Garson - Goodbye, Mr. Chips
1940 Ginger Rogers - Kitty Foyle
- Bette Davis - The Letter
- Joan Fontaine - Rebecca
- Katharine Hepburn - The Philadelphia Story
- Martha Scott - Our Town
1941 Joan Fontaine - Suspicion
- Bette Davis - The Little Foxes
- Olivia de Havilland - Hold Back the Dawn
- Greer Garson - Blossoms in the Dust
- Barbara Stanwyck - Ball of Fire
1942 Greer Garson- Mrs. Miniver
- Bette Davis - Now, Voyager
- Katharine Hepburn - Woman of the Year
- Rosalind Russell - My Sister Eileen
- Teresa Wright - The Pride of the Yankees
1943 Jennifer Jones - The Song of Bernadette
- Jean Arthur - The More the Merrier
- Ingrid Bergman - For Whom the Bell Tolls
- Joan Fontaine - The Constant Nymph
- Greer Garson - Madame Curie
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
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
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
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
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 Liasions[?]
- 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[?]
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 - Indochina
- 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 - Remains of the Day[?]
- Debra Winger - Shadowlands[?]
1994 Jessica Lange - Blue Sky[?]
- Jodie Foster - Nell
- Miranda Richardson - Tom and 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 and 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[?]
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[?]

See also: Academy Awards