The 7 Best Actresses Who Have Never Won an Oscar

Life’s just not fair sometimes, is it? You work hard, you master your craft, and you deliver top-tier work, and yet the powers that be simply don’t recognise how brilliant you are.

This happens in everyday life for us regular folk who work the 9-5, but even actresses living among the glitz and glamour of Hollywood are unappreciated from time to time.

For any performer, being able to step up on stage at the Academy Awards and take home a golden statuette is the ultimate goal, but these seven incredible actresses have never tasted that glory, even though they’ve absolutely deserved to.

1. Judy Garland

We’re taking it way back for this first entry. Legendary actress Judy Garland failed to win an Oscar on the two occasions she was nominated and was massively snubbed for her role in The Wizard of Oz. That incredible, vibrant technicolour dream of a film is rightly regarded as one of the greatest musicals ever made, and a young Garland was at the heart of it. How she didn’t even pick up a nomination is beyond me.

Later in her career, Garland would gain recognition for her leading role in A Star is Born and her supporting role in Judgment at Nuremberg. Granted, she lost the latter to Rita Moreno, who was superb in West Side Story. However, Garland’s moving portrayal of Vicki Lester in A Star is Born was head and shoulders above Grace Kelly’s performance in The Country Girl. It should have been her getting up on stage to collect the award.

2. Glenn Close

Glenn Close has the unwanted record of currently being the actress with the most Oscar nominations and no wins. Honestly, it just feels cruel at this point. She has eight nominations in total, four of which have come in the supporting category for roles in The World According to Garp, The Big Chill, The Natural, and, somewhat surprisingly, the Netflix movie Hillbilly Elegy. Close was also nominated for leading roles in Fatal Attraction, Dangerous Liaisons, Albert Nobbs, and The Wife.

Now, should Close actually have won any of those awards? Maybe not. Hillbilly Elegy in particular was an odd one, with the film itself getting panned by critics at the time for its use of harmful stereotypes and questionable political motivations. Close’s performance in that movie was something of a caricature, really, and shouldn’t even have been nominated. Still, for the otherwise stellar performer to come so close on eight occasions and never win must be so painful.

3. Sigourney Weaver

She’s been involved in two of the biggest, most popular franchises of all time, Alien and Avatar, and she’s also joining the world of Star Wars thanks to The Mandalorian and Grogu. But that all counts for nothing when it comes to the Academy. Incredibly, Sigourney Weaver could have ended up with three Oscars if things had gone her way in the late 1980s, but she went into the ‘90s and beyond empty-handed.

Weaver was nominated for her role as Ellen Ripley in Aliens, but lost out in the lead actress category in 1987 to Marlee Matlin for Children of a Lesser God. Two years later, Weaver got two nominations: one for her supporting role in Working Girl and one for her lead role in Gorillas in the Mist. To have two horses in the race and still lose must be so frustrating, especially given just how much of a good run Weaver was on at the time. Sadly, she’s been nowhere near since.

4. Angela Bassett

Angela Bassett goes under the radar sometimes, but she really shouldn’t. The formidable actress has given some incredibly powerful performances over the years, and it feels like a real oversight that she’s never been handed an Oscar. She did get an honorary award in 2024, but that consolation prize doesn’t change the fact that she’s been snubbed a couple of times for the big awards.

Bassett was nominated in 1994 for What’s Love Got to Do With It. Her portrayal of legendary musician Tina Turner earned critical acclaim, and we know how much the Academy loves a biopic, too. Alas, it wasn’t enough, with Holly Hunter winning for The Piano instead. Almost 20 years later, Bassett was back on the campaign trail once more, this time for a very different project. 

Everyone was backing her to win for her supporting role in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, where she unleashed all her emotions in a poignant depiction of a grieving mother. In a huge shock, it was Jamie Lee Curtis who won the award for her role in Everything Everywhere All At Once, which still doesn’t feel right to this day.

5. Amy Adams

I will never forgive the Academy for failing to nominate Amy Adams for her role as Dr Louise Banks in the phenomenal, thought-provoking sci-fi film Arrival. It’s widely regarded as one of the most egregious snubs in Oscars history, and rightly so. Adams absolutely broke my heart with her performance in this Denis Villeneuve movie, and I know I’m not alone in feeling the emotional weight of this profound story.

Even putting Arrival aside, Adams has six nominations to her name, and yet she’s never gone all the way. Five of those nods have been for supporting roles, with Adams recognised for her work on Junebug, Doubt, The Fighter, The Master, and Vice. Of those, her work in Paul Thomas Anderson’s epic The Master was surely the closest she came to nabbing the top prize. Adams also has a nomination for leading actress in American Hustle, though to be fair, she was massively outdone in that film by the brilliant Jennifer Lawrence.

6. Carey Mulligan

Why does it feel like Carey Mulligan has already won an Oscar? She’s the kind of actress who gives off the vibe of being an awards darling, and yet she’s actually won very few big gongs in her illustrious career. She does have three Oscar nominations, for her roles in An Education, Promising Young Woman, and Maestro, as well as a handful of BAFTA nods, but her one win at the latter is the main major accolade she’s picked up.

Mulligan’s performance in Promising Young Woman was a truly special one. In my opinion, that film was one of the best of its year, but it really faded in popularity as time ticked on and never really stood a chance at the Oscars. Still, Mulligan can be proud of her work there, and also in Drive. She didn’t get any attention at the Oscars for that one, but it’s a fantastic movie that gave Mulligan a lot of work to do opposite a subdued Ryan Gosling.

7. Saoirse Ronan

Saoirse Ronan has been an acting sensation for a very long time now, having earned her first Oscar nomination at the age of just 13 for her breathtaking role in Atonement. She lost out there to an equally brilliant Tilda Swinton for Michael Clayton, but she’s been in the spotlight plenty of times since. Ronan was recognised in the leading actress category for Brooklyn in 2016, then two years later for Lady Bird, and again in 2020 for Little Women.

Clearly, working with Greta Gerwig is a lucky charm for Ronan, but not quite lucky enough. Still, Ronan holds the record of being the second-youngest actress to acquire four nominations, after Jennifer Lawrence managed the feat (and won a couple, too). 

Of all her losses, the one for Little Women was the most surprising, with Renée Zellweger taking the award for her role in Judy. Ronan was absolutely captivating as Jo March, from her tender, emotional moments to those of fierce defiance as the leader of the family and a strong-willed, talented young writer. Ronan’s time will come, that’s for sure, but she should already have at least one Oscar on her mantle.