Oscar Awards List Best Actress: From Janet Gaynor in 1929 To Frances McDormand In 2021

Apart from films, the Oscar Awards annually also celebrates the leading men and women in the industry by presenting Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress awards and more. Each year stars put their best foot forward to achieve the winning trophy and for 2022 several first-time nominees have been listed in acting categories.

In the history of Academy Awards, best actresses have been awarded to a great range of stars who have gone on to play roles from devoted moms to hookers to activists. The most Oscar winner is also the beloved actress Katharine Hepburn. Meanwhile, the artist who received the most nominations for leading star is also another actress, Meryl Streep.

Ahead of the Oscars 2022 ceremony, we decided to look at every actor that has won the top acting awards.

Here is a list of all Best Actress winners in the history of the Academy Awards:

2021: Frances McDormand for Nomadland
2020: Renee Zellweger for Judy
2019: Olivia Colman for The Favourite
2018: Frances McDormand for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
2017: Emma Stone for La La Land
2016: Brie Larson for Room
2015: Julianne Moore for Still Alice
2014: Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine
2013: Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook
2012: Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady
2011: Natalie Portman for Black Swan
2010: Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side
2009: Kate Winslet for The Reader
2008: Marion Cotillard for La Vie en Rose
2007: Helen Mirren for The Queen
2006: Reese Witherspoon for Walk the Line
2005: Hilary Swank for Million Dollar Baby
2004: Charlize Theron for Monster
2003: Nicole Kidman for The Hours
2002: Halle Berry for Monster's Ball
2001: Julia Roberts for Erin Brockovich
2000: Hilary Swank for Boys Don't Cry
1999: Gwyneth Paltrow for Shakespeare in Love
1998: Helen Hunt for As Good as It Gets
1997: Frances McDormand for Fargo
1996: Susan Sarandon for Dead Man Walking
1995: Jessica Lange for Blue Sky
1994: Holly Hunter for The Piano
1993: Emma Thompson for Howards End
1992: Jodie Foster for The Silence of the Lambs
1991: Kathy Bates for Misery

1990: Jessica Tandy for Driving Miss Daisy
1989: Jodie Foster for The Accused
1988: Cher for Moonstruck
1987: Marlee Matlin for Children of a Lesser God
1986: Geraldine Page for The Trip to Bountiful
1985: Sally Field for Places in the Heart
1984: Shirley MacLaine for Terms of Endearment
1983: Meryl Streep for Sophie's Choice
1982: Katharine Hepburn for On Golden Pond
1981: Sissy Spacek for Coal Miner's Daughter
1980: Sally Field for Norma Rae
1979: Jane Fonda for Coming Home
1978: Diane Keaton for Annie Hall
1977: Faye Dunaway for Network
1976: Louise Fletcher for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
1975: Ellen Burstyn for Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
1974: Glenda Jackson for A Touch of Class
1973: Liza Minnelli for Cabaret
1972: Jane Fonda for Klute
1971: Glenda Jackson for Women in Love
1970: Maggie Smith for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
1969: Barbra Streisand for Funny Girl
1969: Katharine Hepburn for The Lion in Winter
1968: Katharine Hepburn for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
1967: Elizabeth Taylor for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
1966: Julie Christie for Darling
1965: Julie Andrews for Mary Poppins
1964: Patricia Neal for Hud
1963: Anne Bancroft for The Miracle Worker
1962: Sophia Loren for Two Women
1961: Elizabeth Taylor for BUtterfield 8
1960: Simone Signoret for Room at the Top
1959: Susan Hayward for I Want to Live!
1958: Joanne Woodward for The Three Faces of Eve
1957: Ingrid Bergman for Anastasia
1956: Anna Magnani for The Rose Tattoo
1955: Grace Kelly for The Country Girl
1954: Audrey Hepburn for Roman Holiday
1953: Shirley Booth for Come Back, Little Sheba
1952: Vivien Leigh for A Streetcar Named Desire
1951: Judy Holliday for Born Yesterday

1950: Olivia de Havilland for The Heiress
1949: Jane Wyman for Johnny Belinda
1948: Loretta Young for The Farmer's Daughter
1947: Olivia de Havilland for To Each His Own
1946: Joan Crawford for Mildred Pierce
1945: Ingrid Bergman for Gaslight
1944: Jennifer Jones for The Song of Bernadette
1943: Greer Garson for Mrs. Miniver
1942: Joan Fontaine for Suspicion
1941: Ginger Rogers for Kitty Foyle
1940: Vivien Leigh for Gone With the Wind
1939: Bette Davis for Jezebel
1938: Luise Rainer for The Good Earth
1937: Luise Rainer for The Great Ziegfield
1936: Bette Davis for Dangerous
1935: Claudette Colbert for It Happened One Night
1934: Katharine Hepburn for Morning Glory
1933: Helen Hayes for The Sin of Madelon Claudet
1932/1931: Marie Dressler for Min and Bill
1931/1930: Norma Shearer for The Divorcee
1930/1929: Mary Pickford for Coquette
1929/1928: Janet Gaynor for 7th Heaven, Street Angel, Sunrise: a Song of Two Humans.

The 94th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 27, 2022, in Los Angeles at the Dolby Theatre.