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.
