The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) presents the Academy Award for Best Actress every year. Since the first Academy Awards, it has been given to an actress who has performed exceptionally well in a major role in a movie that came out that year. Traditionally, the Best Actor winner from the preceding year presents the award. But in recent years, the Best Actress winners from previous years have started to present it.
Seventy-nine actresses have received the Best Actress award since the award’s inception. Janet Gaynor, who starred in Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927), Street Angel (1928), and 7th Heaven (1927), was the first winner. The most recent recipient is Emma Stone, who earned the award for her performance in Poor Things (2023) and La La Land (2016).
Best Actress Oscar Winners
Here is a list of all the actresses to have won the Best Actress award at the Oscars over the years:
| Year | Winner | Film(s) | Role |
| 1927/28 | Janet Gaynor | 7th Heaven, Street Angel, Sunrise | Diane, Angela, The Wife |
| 1928/29 | Mary Pickford | Coquette | Norma Besant |
| 1929/30 | Norma Shearer | The Divorcee | Jerry |
| 1930/31 | Marie Dressler | Min and Bill | Min |
| 1931/32 | Helen Hayes | The Sin of Madelon Claudet | Madelon |
| 1932/33 | Katharine Hepburn | Morning Glory | Eva Lovelace |
| 1934 | Claudette Colbert | It Happened One Night | Ellie Andrews |
| 1935 | Bette Davis | Dangerous | Joyce Heath |
| 1936 | Luise Rainer | The Great Ziegfeld | Anna Held |
| 1937 | Luise Rainer | The Good Earth | O-Lan |
| 1938 | Bette Davis | Jezebel | Julie Morrison |
| 1939 | Vivien Leigh | Gone with the Wind | Scarlett O'Hara |
| 1940 | Ginger Rogers | Kitty Foyle | Kitty Foyle |
| 1941 | Joan Fontaine | Suspicion | Lina McLaidlaw |
| 1942 | Greer Garson | Mrs. Miniver | Kay Miniver |
| 1943 | Jennifer Jones | The Song of Bernadette | Bernadette Soubirous |
| 1944 | Ingrid Bergman | Gaslight | Paula Alquist |
| 1945 | Joan Crawford | Mildred Pierce | Mildred Pierce |
| 1946 | Olivia de Havilland | To Each His Own | Jody Norris |
| 1947 | Loretta Young | The Farmer's Daughter | Katrin Holstrom |
| 1948 | Jane Wyman | Johnny Belinda | Belinda McDonald |
| 1949 | Olivia de Havilland | The Heiress | Catherine Sloper |
| 1950 | Judy Holliday | Born Yesterday | Billie Dawn |
| 1951 | Vivien Leigh | A Streetcar Named Desire | Blanche DuBois |
| 1952 | Shirley Booth | Come Back, Little Sheba | Lola Delaney |
| 1953 | Audrey Hepburn | Roman Holiday | Princess Anne |
| 1954 | Grace Kelly | The Country Girl | Georgie Elgin |
| 1955 | Anna Magnani | The Rose Tattoo | Serafina Della Rose |
| 1956 | Ingrid Bergman | Anastasia | The Woman |
| 1957 | Joanne Woodward | The Three Faces of Eve | Eve White/Eve Black/Jane |
| 1958 | Susan Hayward | I Want to Live! | Barbara Graham |
| 1959 | Simone Signoret | Room at the Top | Alice Aisgill |
| 1960 | Elizabeth Taylor | Butterfield 8 | Gloria Wandrous |
| 1961 | Sophia Loren | Two Women | Cesira |
| 1962 | Anne Bancroft | The Miracle Worker | Annie Sullivan |
| 1963 | Patricia Neal | Hud | Alma |
| 1964 | Julie Andrews | Mary Poppins | Mary Poppins |
| 1965 | Julie Christie | Darling | Diana Scott |
| 1966 | Elizabeth Taylor | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? | Martha |
| 1967 | Katharine Hepburn | Guess Who's Coming to Dinner | Christina Drayton |
| 1968 | Katharine Hepburn | The Lion in Winter | Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine |
| 1968 | Barbra Streisand | Funny Girl | Fanny Brice |
| 1969 | Maggie Smith | The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie | Miss Jean Brodie |
| 1970 | Glenda Jackson | Women in Love | Gudrun Brangwen |
| 1971 | Jane Fonda | Klute | Bree Daniel |
| 1972 | Liza Minnelli | Cabaret | Sally Bowles |
| 1973 | Glenda Jackson | A Touch of Class | Vicki Allessio |
| 1974 | Ellen Burstyn | Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore | Alice Hyatt |
| 1975 | Louise Fletcher | One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest | Nurse Mildred Ratched |
| 1976 | Faye Dunaway | Network | Diana Christensen |
| 1977 | Diane Keaton | Annie Hall | Annie Hall |
| 1978 | Jane Fonda | Coming Home | Sally Hyde |
| 1979 | Sally Field | Norma Rae | Norma Rae |
| 1980 | Sissy Spacek | Coal Miner's Daughter | Loretta Lynn |
| 1981 | Katharine Hepburn | On Golden Pond | Ethel Thayer |
| 1982 | Meryl Streep | Sophie's Choice | Sophie |
| 1983 | Shirley MacLaine | Terms of Endearment | Aurora Greenway |
| 1984 | Sally Field | Places in the Heart | Edna Spalding |
| 1985 | Geraldine Page | The Trip to Bountiful | Mrs. Watts |
| 1986 | Marlee Matlin | Children of a Lesser God | Sarah |
| 1987 | Cher | Moonstruck | Loretta Castorini |
| 1988 | Jodie Foster | The Accused | Sarah Tobias |
| 1989 | Jessica Tandy | Driving Miss Daisy | Daisy Werthan |
| 1990 | Kathy Bates | Misery | Annie Wilkes |
| 1991 | Jodie Foster | The Silence of the Lambs | Clarice Starling |
| 1992 | Emma Thompson | Howards End | Margaret Schlegel |
| 1993 | Holly Hunter | The Piano | Ada |
| 1994 | Jessica Lange | Blue Sky | Carly Marshall |
| 1995 | Susan Sarandon | Dead Man Walking | Sister Helen Prejean |
| 1996 | Frances McDormand | Fargo | Marge Gunderson |
| 1997 | Helen Hunt | As Good as It Gets | Carol Connelly |
| 1998 | Gwyneth Paltrow | Shakespeare in Love | Viola De Lesseps |
| 1999 | Hilary Swank | Boys Don't Cry | Brandon Teena |
| 2000 | Julia Roberts | Erin Brockovich | Erin Brockovich |
| 2001 | Halle Berry | Monster's Ball | Leticia Musgrove |
| 2002 | Nicole Kidman | The Hours | Virginia Woolf |
| 2003 | Charlize Theron | Monster | Aileen Wuornos |
| 2004 | Hilary Swank | Million Dollar Baby | Maggie Fitzgerald |
| 2005 | Reese Witherspoon | Walk the Line | June Carter |
| 2006 | Helen Mirren | The Queen | The Queen |
| 2007 | Marion Cotillard | La Vie en Rose | Edith Piaf |
| 2008 | Kate Winslet | The Reader | Hanna Schmitz |
| 2009 | Sandra Bullock | The Blind Side | Leigh Anne Tuohy |
| 2010 | Natalie Portman | Black Swan | Nina Sayers |
| 2011 | Meryl Streep | The Iron Lady | Margaret Thatcher |
| 2012 | Jennifer Lawrence | Silver Linings Playbook | Tiffany |
| 2013 | Cate Blanchett | Blue Jasmine | Jasmine |
| 2014 | Julianne Moore | Still Alice | Alice Howland |
| 2015 | Brie Larson | Room | Ma |
| 2016 | Emma Stone | La La Land | Mia |
| 2017 | Frances McDormand | Three Billboards | Mildred |
| 2018 | Olivia Colman | The Favourite | Queen Anne |
| 2019 | Renée Zellweger | Judy | Judy Garland |
| 2020 | Frances McDormand | Nomadland | Fern |
| 2021 | Jessica Chastain | The Eyes of Tammy Faye | Tammy Faye Bakker |
| 2022 | Michelle Yeoh | Everything Everywhere All at Once | Evelyn Wang |
| 2023 | Emma Stone | Poor Things | Bella Baxter |
Read More: Best Actor Oscar Winners
FAQs about the Oscars
Katharine Hepburn has won the most Oscars for the Best Actress category. She won four times in this category throughout the years.
Marlee Matlin is the youngest actress to receive an Oscar for Best Actress. The actress was 21 at the time she earned the honour.
Halle Berry was the first woman of color to win the Best Actress award at the Oscars. She won the award for this category in 2002.
