Academy Award for Best Actress | |
---|---|
Awarded for | Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role |
Country | United States |
Presented by | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) |
First awarded | 1929 |
Most recent winner | Emma Stone, Poor Things (2024) |
Most awards | Katharine Hepburn (4) |
Most nominations | Meryl Streep (17) |
Website | oscars |
The Academy Award for Best Actress is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It has been awarded since the 1st Academy Awards 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. However, in recent years, it has shifted towards being presented by previous years' Best Actress winners instead.
The Best Actress award has been presented 97 times, to 79 actresses. The first winner was Janet Gaynor for her roles in 7th Heaven , Street Angel , and Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans . The most recent winner is Emma Stone for her role in Poor Things (2023); she had previously won the award for her role in La La Land (2016). The record for most wins is four, held by Katharine Hepburn. Frances McDormand has won thrice, while thirteen other actresses have won the award twice. Meryl Streep has received the most nominations in this category—seventeen—and has won twice.Deborah Kerr holds the record in this category for most nominations (six) without a win—albeit in 1993, she was an Honorary Oscar recipient. At the 41st Academy Awards, Barbra Streisand and Katharine Hepburn received the same number of votes and thus tied for Best Actress (the only time this has occurred). Italian actress Sophia Loren became the first actor, in any category, to win for a foreign language performance in Two Women (1960). For the 97th Academy Awards, Karla Sofía Gascón became the first openly transgender person to receive a nomination in any acting category for Emilia Pérez . Elliot Page was nominated for his role in Juno prior to his transition.
Nominees are currently 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. [1]
In the first three years of the awards, actors and actresses were nominated as the best individuals 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. [2] Despite this, at the 3rd Academy Awards, held in 1930, only one film was cited in each winner's award regardless of how many they were eligible to be considered for during that span. [3] The current system, in which an actress is nominated for a specific performance in a single film, was introduced for the 4th Academy Awards. [2] Starting with the 9th Academy Awards, held in 1937, the category was limited to a maximum five nominations per year. [2]
In the following table, the years are listed as per Academy convention, and generally correspond to the year of film release in Los Angeles County; the ceremonies are always held the following year. [4] For the first five ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned twelve months, from August 1 to July 31. [5] For the 6th ceremony held in 1934, the eligibility period lasted from August 1, 1932, to December 31, 1933. [5] Since the 7th ceremony held in 1935, the period of eligibility became the full previous calendar year from January 1 to December 31. [5]
‡ | Indicates the winner |
---|---|
† | Indicates a posthumous nominee |
Year | Actress | Role(s) | Film | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
1927/28 (1st) | Janet Gaynor ‡ | Diane | 7th Heaven | [6] |
Angela | Street Angel | |||
The Wife | Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans | |||
Louise Dresser | Mrs. Pleznik | A Ship Comes In | ||
Gloria Swanson | Sadie Thompson | Sadie Thompson | ||
1928/29 (2nd) [note 1] | Mary Pickford ‡ | Norma Besant | Coquette | [7] |
Ruth Chatterton | Jacqueline Floriot | Madame X | ||
Betty Compson | Carrie | The Barker | ||
Jeanne Eagels † | Leslie Crosbie | The Letter | ||
Corinne Griffith | Emma Hamilton | The Divine Lady | ||
Bessie Love | Hank Mahoney | The Broadway Melody |
The following individuals received two or more Best Actress awards:
Wins | Actress | Nominations |
---|---|---|
4 | Katharine Hepburn | 12 |
3 | Frances McDormand | 3 |
2 | Meryl Streep | 17 |
Bette Davis | 11 | |
Ingrid Bergman | 6 | |
Jane Fonda | ||
Elizabeth Taylor | 5 | |
Olivia de Havilland | 4 | |
Glenda Jackson | ||
Jodie Foster | 3 | |
Sally Field | 2 | |
Vivien Leigh | ||
Luise Rainer | ||
Emma Stone | ||
Hilary Swank |
The following individuals received three or more Best Actress nominations:
Record | Actor | Film | Year | Age | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Oldest Winner | Jessica Tandy | Driving Miss Daisy | 1990 | 80 | [104] |
Oldest Nominee | Emmanuelle Riva | Amour | 2013 | 85 | [104] |
Youngest Winner | Marlee Matlin | Children of a Lesser God | 1987 | 21 | [104] |
Youngest Nominee | Quvenzhané Wallis | Beasts of the Southern Wild | 2013 | 9 | [104] |
Winners are in bold.
The following were nominated for their portrayals of the same fictional or non-fictional character in separate films (including variations of the original).
The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It has been awarded since the 9th Academy Awards to an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance in a supporting role in a film released that year. The award is traditionally presented by the previous year's Best Supporting Actor winner. However, in recent years, it has shifted towards being presented by previous years’ Best Supporting Actress winners instead. In lieu of the traditional Oscar statuette, supporting acting recipients were given plaques up until the 16th Academy Awards, when statuettes were awarded to each category instead.
The Academy Award for Best Animated Feature is given each year for the best animated film. An animated feature is defined by the academy as a film with a running time of more than 40 minutes in which characters' performances are created using a frame-by-frame technique, a significant number of the major characters are animated, and animation figures in no less than 75 percent of the running time. The Academy Award for Best Animated Feature was first awarded in 2002 for films released in 2001.
The Academy Award for Best Director is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given in honor of a film director who has exhibited outstanding directing while working in the film industry.
The 1st Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) and hosted by AMPAS president Douglas Fairbanks, honored the best films from 1 August 1927 to 31 July 1928 and took place on May 16, 1929, at a private dinner held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles, California. Tickets cost $5 ; 270 people attended the event, which lasted 15 minutes. It is the only Academy Awards ceremony not broadcast on either radio or television; a radio broadcast was introduced for the 2nd Academy Awards.
The 64th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 1991 in the United States and took place on March 30, 1992, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles beginning at 6:00 p.m. PST / 9:00 p.m. EST. During the ceremony, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented Academy Awards in 23 categories. The ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Gil Cates and directed by Jeff Margolis. Actor Billy Crystal hosted the show for the third consecutive year. Three weeks earlier, in a ceremony held at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles on March 7, the Academy Awards for Technical Achievement were presented by host Tom Hanks.
The 51st Academy Awards ceremony, organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored films released in 1978 and took place on April 9, 1979, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, beginning at 7:00 p.m. PST / 10:00 p.m. EST. During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards in 23 categories. The ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Jack Haley Jr. and directed by Marty Pasetta. Comedian and talk show host Johnny Carson hosted the show for the first time. Three days earlier, in a ceremony held at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, the Academy Awards for Technical Achievement were presented by hosts Gregory Peck and Christopher Reeve.
Danilo Donati was an Italian costume designer and production designer. In a career spanning over four decades, he is recognized for his prolific work across stage and screen. He has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, three BAFTA Awards, and eight David di Donatellos.
Piero Tosi was an Italian costume designer. He has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design five times. In 2013, he was the first costume designer to receive an Academy Honorary Award as "a visionary whose incomparable costume designs shaped timeless, living art in motion pictures."
The Academy Award for Best Actor is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It has been awarded since the 1st Academy Awards to an actor 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 Actress winner. However, in recent years, it has shifted towards being presented by previous years’ Best Actor winners instead.
The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It has been awarded since the 9th Academy Awards to an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance in a supporting role in a film released that year. The award is traditionally presented by the previous year's Best Supporting Actress winner. However, in recent years, it has shifted towards being presented by previous years’ Best Supporting Actor winners instead. In lieu of the traditional Oscar statuette, supporting acting recipients were given plaques up until the 16th Academy Awards, when statuettes were awarded to each category instead.
The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best screenplay not based upon previously published material. It was created in 1940 as a separate writing award from the Academy Award for Best Story. Beginning with the Oscars for 1957, the two categories were combined to honor only the screenplay.