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Academy Award for best actress
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Michelle Yeoh smiles and holds the Oscar statuette for Best Actress in a Leading Role at the 95th Annual Academy Awards in Hollywood.
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Making history
Making history Michelle Yeoh holding an Oscar at the 95th Academy Awards ceremony after being named best actress, 2023.

Academy Award for best actress

Academy Award
Also known as: Best Actress in a Leading Role
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Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
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What is the Academy Award for best actress?

Who has won the most Oscars for best actress?

Academy Award for best actress, award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, located in Beverly Hills, California. It honors the actress in a leading role who delivered the most outstanding performance in a movie of a given year, as determined by the academy’s voting members. The prize was first presented in 1929 at the inaugural Academy Awards ceremony, and it recognized work in films from 1927–28. It was not until 1935, at the seventh ceremony, that only performances in movies released the previous year were eligible for consideration. The winning actress is given a gold-plated statuette known as an Oscar.

Katharine Hepburn has won the most Academy Awards for best actress (four), and Frances McDormand has received three. A number of actresses have earned two awards, notably Meryl Streep, who holds the record for the most nominations in the category (17). Below is a list of the winning actresses and the movies for which they won. The year is when the award was presented.

1929 and 1930s

  • (All subsequent movies were released the previous year.)

1940s and 1950s

1960s and 1970s

1980s and 1990s

2000s and 2010s

2020s

The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Will Gosner.