Best Actress

Read our launch post here. 

These are the winners of Academy Award for Best Actress in order. Click through to read our review! 

1920s 

1927/28: Janet Gaynor for 7th Heaven; Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans; and Street Angel
1928/29: Mary Pickford for Coquette 
1929/30: Norma Shearer for Divorcee 

1930s 

1930/31: Marie Dressler for Min and Bill 
1931/32: Helen Hayes for The Sin of Madelon Claudet
1932/33: Katharine Hepburn for Morning Glory
1934: Claudette Colbert for It Happened One Night
1935: Bette Davis for Dangerous 
1936: Luise Rainer for The Great Ziegfeld
1937: Luise Rainer for The Good Earth
1938: Bette Davis for Jezebel 
1939: Vivien Leigh for Gone With The Wind 

1940s 

1940: Ginger Rogers for Kitty Foyle 
1941: Joan Fontaine for Suspicion
1942: Greer Garson for Mrs Miniver 
1943: Jennifer Jones for The Song of Bernadette
1944: Ingrid Bergman for Gaslight
1945: Joan Crawford for Mildred Pierce
1946: Olivia de Havilland for To Each His Own
1947: Loretta Young for The Farmer's Daughter
1948: Jane Wyman for Johnny Belinda 
1949: Olivia de Havilland for The Heiress

1950s 

1950: Judy Holliday for Born Yesterday
1951: Vivien Leigh for A Streetcar Named Desire
1952: Shirley Booth for Come Back, Little Sheba
1953: Audrey Hepburn for Roman Holiday
1954: Grace Kelly for The Country Girl
1955: Anna Magnani for The Rose Tattoo
1956: Ingrid Bergman for Anastasia
1957: Joanne Woodward for The Three Faces of Eve 
1958: Susan Hayward for I Want To Live! 
1959: Simone Signoret for Room at the Top 

1960s 

1960: Elizabeth Taylor for BUtterfield 8
1961: Sophia Loren for Two Women 
1962: Anne Bancroft for The Miracle Worker
1963: Patricia Neal for Hud 
1964: Julie Andrews for Mary Poppins 
1965: Julie Christie for Darling 
1966: Elizabeth Taylor for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
1967: Katharine Hepburn for Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?
1968: Katharine Hepburn for The Lion in Winter & Barbra Streisand for Funny Girl (joint winners)
1969: Maggie Smith for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

1970s 

1970: Glenda Jackson for Women in Love 
1971: Jane Fonda for Klute
1972: Liza Minnelli for Cabaret 
1973: Glenda Jackson for A Touch of Class 
1974: Ellen Burstyn for Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore 
1975: Louise Fletcher for One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
1976: Faye Dunaway for Network 
1977: Diane Keaton for Annie Hall 
1978: Jane Fonda for Coming Home 
1979: Sally Field for Norma Rae 

1980s 

1980: Sissy Spacek for Coal Miner's Daughter
1981: Katharine Hepburn for On Golden Pond 
1982: Meryl Streep for Sophie's Choice 
1983: Shirley MacLaine for Terms of Endearment
1984: Sally Field for Places in the Heart 
1985: Geraldine Page for The Trip to Bountiful
1986: Marlee Matlin for Children of a Lesser God 
1987: Cher for Moonstruck 
1988: Jodie Foster for The Accused
1989: Jessica Tandy for Driving Miss Daisy 

1990s

1990: Kathy Bates for Misery 
1991: Jodie Foster for Silence of the Lambs 
1992: Emma Thompson for Howard's End 
1993: Holly Hunter for The Piano 
1994: Jessica Lange for Blue Sky 
1995: Susan Sarandon for Dead Man Walking
1996: Frances McDormand for Fargo 
1997: Helen Hunt for As Good As It Gets 
1998: Gwyneth Paltrow for Shakespeare in Love 
1999: Hilary Swank for Boys Don't Cry 

2000s 

2000: Julia Roberts for Erin Brockovich
2001: Halle Berry for Monster's Ball 
2002: Nicole Kidman for The Hours 
2003: Charlize Theron for Monster 
2004: Hilary Swank for Million Dollar Baby 
2005: Reese Witherspoon for Walk the Line 
2006: Helen Mirren for The Queen 
2007: Marion Cottillard for La Vie En Rose 
2008: Kate Winslet for The Reader
2009: Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side 

2010s 

2010: Natalie Portman for Black Swan 
2011: Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady 
2012: Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook
2013: Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine 
2014: Julianne Moore for Still Alice 
2015: Brie Larson for Room 
2016: Emma Stone for La La Land 
2017: Frances McDormand for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri 
2018: Olivia Colman for The Favourite 
2019: Renee Zellweger for Judy 

2020s

2020: Frances McDormand for Nomadland

2021: Jessica Chastain for The Eyes of Tammy Faye

2022: Michelle Yeoh for Everything, Everywhere, All at Once
2023: Emma Stone for Poor Things

Best of the Rest 

Lauren Bacall in 'The Big Sleep' and 'Dark Passage' (1946/1947)

Gloria Swanson in 'Sunset Boulevard' (1950) 

Marlene Dietrich in 'Shanghai Express' (1932)

Mae West in 'She Done Him Wrong' (1933) 

Rosalind Russell in 'Mourning Becomes Electra' (1947)

Angela Lansbury in various performances

Barbara Stanwyck in 'Double Indemnity' (1944)