Townflex takes you back in memory lane as we bring you the complete list of every Best Actress Oscar Winner since the first Academy Awards in 1929.
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.
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About The Oscars
The Oscars, also known as the Academy Awards, is an annual awards ceremony that honors outstanding achievements in the film industry. The awards are presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and were first awarded in 1929.
The Oscars recognize achievements in various categories, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Original Screenplay, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, Best Sound, Best Visual Effects, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Original Score, Best Original Song, Best Documentary Feature, Best Animated Feature, and Best International Feature Film.
The nominations and winners are selected by the Academy’s voting membership, which is composed of more than 9,000 members from various branches of the film industry. The ceremony is typically held in late February or early March and is broadcast live on television in over 200 countries and territories.
Oscars Best Actress Winners
2023: Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All at Once
2022: Jessica Chastain, The Eyes of Tammy Faye
2021: Frances McDormand, Nomadland
2020: Renée Zellweger, Judy
2019: Olivia Colman, The Favourite
2018: Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
2017: Emma Stone, La La Land
2016: Brie Larson, Room
2015: Julianne Moore, Still Alice
2014: Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
2013: Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
2012: Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
2011: Natalie Portman, Black Swan
2010: Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
2009: Kate Winslet, The Reader
2008: Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose
2007: Helen Mirren, The Queen
2006: Reese Witherspoon, Walk the Line
2005: Hilary Swank, Million Dollar Baby
2004: Charlize Theron, Monster
2003: Nicole Kidman, The Hours
2002: Halle Berry, Monster’s Ball
2001: Julia Roberts, Erin Brockovich
2000: Hilary Swank, Boys Don’t Cry
1999: Gwyneth Paltrow, Shakespeare in Love
1998: Helen Hunt, As Good as It Gets
1997: Frances McDormand, Fargo
1996: Susan Sarandon, Dead Man Walking
1995: Jessica Lange, Blue Sky
1994: Holly Hunter, The Piano
1993: Emma Thompson, Howards End
1992: Jodie Foster, The Silence of the Lambs
1991: Kathy Bates, Misery
1990: Jessica Tandy, Driving Miss Daisy
1989: Jodie Foster, The Accused
1988: Cher, Moonstruck
1987: Marlee Matlin, Children of a Lesser God
1986: Geraldine Page, A Trip to Bountiful
1985: Sally Field, Places in the Heart
1984: Shirley MacLaine, Terms of Endearment
1983: Meryl Streep, Sophie’s Choice
1982: Katharine Hepburn, On Golden Pond
1981: Sissy Spacek, Coal Miner’s Daughter
1980: Sally Field, Norma Rae
1979: Jane Fonda, Coming Home
1978: Diane Keaton, Annie Hall
1977: Faye Dunaway, Network
1976: Louise Fletcher, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
1975: Ellen Burstyn, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
1974: Glenda Jackson, A Touch of Class
1973: Liza Minnelli, Cabaret
1972: Jane Fonda, Klute
1971: Glenda Jackson, Women in Love
1970: Maggie Smith, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
1969: Katharine Hepburn, The Lion in Winter & Barbra Streisand, Funny Girl
1968: Katharine Hepburn, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
1967: Elizabeth Taylor, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
1966: Julie Christie, Darling
1965: Julie Andrews, Mary Poppins
1964: Patricia Neal, Hud
1963: Anne Bancroft, The Miracle Worker
1962: Sophia Loren, Two Women
1961: Elizabeth Taylor, Butterfield 8
1960: Simone Signoret, Room at the Top
1959: Susan Hayward, I Want to Live!
1958: Joanne Woodward, The Three Faces of Eve
1957: Ingrid Bergman, Anastasia
1956: Anna Magnani, The Rose Tattoo
1955: Grace Kelly, The Country Girl
1954: Audrey Hepburn, Roman Holiday
1953: Shirley Booth, Come Back, Little Sheba
1952: Vivien Leigh, A Streetcar Named Desire
1951: Judy Holliday, Born Yesterday
1950: Olivia de Havilland, The Heiress
1949: Jane Wyman, Johnny Belinda
1948: Loretta Young, The Farmer’s Daughter
1947: Olivia de Havilland, To Each His Own
1946: Joan Crawford, Mildred Pierce
1945: Ingrid Bergman, Gaslight
1944: Jennifer Jones, The Song of Bernadette
1943: Greer Garson, Mrs. Miniver
1942: Joan Fontaine, Suspicion
1941: Ginger Rogers, Kitty Foyle
1940: Vivien Leigh, Gone with the Wind
1939: Bette Davis, Jezebel
1938: Luise Rainer, The Good Earth
1937: Luise Rainer, The Great Ziegfeld
1936: Bette Davis, Dangerous
1935: Claudette Colbert, It Happened One Night
1934: Katharine Hepburn, Morning Glory
1933: Helen Hayes, The Sin of Madelon Claudet
1932: Marie Dressler, Min and Bill
1931: Norma Shearer, The Divorcee
1930: Mary Pickford, Coquette
1929: Janet Gaynor for “7th Heaven,” “Street Angel,” “Sunrise: a Song of Two Humans”
