Every Movie to Win Best Actress at the Oscars, and Where to Watch Them

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At the 96th Academy Awards, Emma Stone won her second Best Actress Oscar thanks to her role in Poor Things, where she plays a childlike woman who is brought back to life thanks to a revolutionary brain transplant. The movie joins a lofty ensemble of films that have taken home the coveted award honoring actresses who have portrayed hilarious, heartbreaking, and pivotal characters throughout cinematic history. Discover every movie to win Best Actress and find out where to stream them in our guide below.

The first Best Actress winner ever was Janet Gaynor, who was nominated for three films that year: 7th Heaven, Street Angel, and Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans. This was the only time an actress won an Academy Award for playing multiple roles in different films. Since then, the prestigious honor has been awarded to actresses from all walks of life in a wide array of films, like Julie Andrews for Mary Poppins, Cher for Moonstruck, Halle Berry in Monster's Ball, and Reese Witherspoon for Walk the Line, among many others.

In 1991, Jodie Foster won Best Actress for The Silence of the Lambs, which was a significant moment because very few horror and suspense films are ever recognized by the academy. In fact, The Silence of the Lambs scored every major award at the 64th Oscars. On top of Foster’s win, the movie also earned Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay, making it one of just a handful of movies to take home every major award.

So far, the all-time highest winner for the Best Actress Oscar is Katherine Hepburn, who holds the record with four wins for her films Morning Glory, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, The Lion in Winter (which she tied with Barbra Streisand's performance in 1968's Funny Girl) and On Golden Pond. Meryl Streep presently holds the record for most Best Actress nominations, being nominated a whopping 17 times, winning twice for Sophie’s Choice and The Iron Lady.

Check out our guide below to discover all the movies that have won the Oscar for Best Actress and find out where to stream them.

  1. Poor Things

    Poor Things

    2023

    IMDB 7.9 (244k)

    #1

    Brought back to life by an unorthodox scientist, a young woman runs off with a debauched lawyer on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, she grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation.

  2. Everything Everywhere All at Once

    #2

    An aging Chinese immigrant is swept up in an insane adventure, where she alone can save what's important to her by connecting with the lives she could have led in other universes.

  3. The Eyes of Tammy Faye

    #3

    From the 1960's to the 1980's, evangelist Jim Baker and his ambitious wife, Tammy Faye, rose from humble beginnings to to build an empire based on big-time evangelical Christianity--only for the couple to fall from grace because of some all-too-human sins.

  4. Nomadland

    Nomadland

    2021

    IMDB 7.3 (183k)

    #4

    A woman in her sixties embarks on a journey through the western United States after losing everything in the Great Recession, living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad.

  5. Judy

    Judy

    2019

    IMDB 6.8 (54k)

    #5

    Thirty years after starring in "The Wizard of Oz," beloved actress and singer Judy Garland arrives in London to perform sold-out shows at the Talk of the Town nightclub. While there, she reminisces with friends and fans and begins a whirlwind romance with musician Mickey Deans, her soon-to-be fifth husband.

  6. The Favourite

    The Favourite

    2018

    IMDB 7.5 (233k)

    #6

    England, early 18th century. The close relationship between Queen Anne and Sarah Churchill is threatened by the arrival of Sarah's cousin, Abigail Hill, resulting in a bitter rivalry between the two cousins to be the Queen's favourite.

  7. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

    #7

    After seven months have passed without a culprit in her daughter's murder case, Mildred Hayes makes a bold move, painting three signs leading into her town with a controversial message directed at Bill Willoughby, the town's revered chief of police. When his second-in-command Officer Jason Dixon, an immature mother's boy with a penchant for violence, gets involved, the battle between Mildred and Ebbing's law enforcement is only exacerbated.

  8. La La Land

    La La Land

    2016

    IMDB 8.0 (670k)

    #8

    Mia, an aspiring actress, serves lattes to movie stars in between auditions and Sebastian, a jazz musician, scrapes by playing cocktail party gigs in dingy bars, but as success mounts they are faced with decisions that begin to fray the fragile fabric of their love affair, and the dreams they worked so hard to maintain in each other threaten to rip them apart.

  9. Room

    Room

    2015

    IMDB 8.1 (450k)

    #9

    Held captive for 7 years in an enclosed space, a woman and her young son finally gain their freedom, allowing the boy to experience the outside world for the first time.

  10. Still Alice

    Still Alice

    2014

    IMDB 7.5 (143k)

    #10

    Alice Howland, happily married with three grown children, is a renowned linguistics professor who starts to forget words. When she receives a devastating diagnosis, Alice and her family find their bonds tested.

  11. Blue Jasmine

    Blue Jasmine

    2013

    IMDB 7.3 (212k)

    #11

    After experiencing a traumatic misfortune, Jasmine French, a wealthy woman from New York, moves to San Francisco to live with her foster sister Ginger and the firm purpose of getting a new life, but she will be haunted by anxiety and memories of the past.

  12. Silver Linings Playbook

    #12

    After spending eight months in a mental institution, a former teacher moves back in with his parents and tries to reconcile with his ex-wife.

  13. The Iron Lady

    The Iron Lady

    2011

    IMDB 6.4 (113k)

    #13

    A look at the life of Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, with a focus on the price she paid for power.

  14. Black Swan

    Black Swan

    2010

    IMDB 8.0 (824k)

    #14

    Nina is a talented but unstable ballerina on the verge of stardom. Pushed to the breaking point by her artistic director and a seductive rival, Nina's grip on reality slips, plunging her into a waking nightmare.

  15. The Blind Side

    The Blind Side

    2009

    IMDB 7.6 (360k)

    #15

    The story of Michael Oher, a homeless and traumatized boy who became an All American football player and first round NFL draft pick with the help of a caring woman and her family.

  16. The Reader

    The Reader

    2008

    IMDB 7.6 (259k)

    #16

    The story of Michael Berg, a German lawyer who, as a teenager in the late 1950s, had an affair with an older woman, Hanna, who then disappeared only to resurface years later as one of the defendants in a war crimes trial stemming from her actions as a concentration camp guard late in the war. He alone realizes that Hanna is illiterate and may be concealing that fact at the expense of her freedom.

  17. La Vie en Rose

    La Vie en Rose

    2007

    IMDB 7.6 (90k)

    #17

    From the mean streets of the Belleville district of Paris to the dazzling limelight of New York's most famous concert halls, Edith Piaf's life was a constant battle to sing and survive, to live and love. Raised in her grandmother's brothel, Piaf was discovered in 1935 by nightclub owner Louis Leplee, who persuaded her to sing despite her extreme nervousness. Piaf became one of France's immortal icons, her voice one of the indelible signatures of the 20th century.

  18. The Queen

    The Queen

    2006

    IMDB 7.3 (115k)

    #18

    The Queen is an intimate behind the scenes glimpse at the interaction between HM Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Tony Blair during their struggle, following the death of Diana, to reach a compromise between what was a private tragedy for the Royal family and the public's demand for an overt display of mourning.

  19. Walk the Line

    Walk the Line

    2005

    IMDB 7.8 (265k)

    #19

    A chronicle of country music legend Johnny Cash's life, from his early days on an Arkansas cotton farm to his rise to fame with Sun Records in Memphis, where he recorded alongside Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins.

  20. Million Dollar Baby

    Million Dollar Baby

    2004

    IMDB 8.1 (720k)

    #20

    Despondent over a painful estrangement from his daughter, trainer Frankie Dunn isn't prepared for boxer Maggie Fitzgerald to enter his life. But Maggie's determined to go pro and to convince Dunn and his cohort to help her.