The Best Actress category has been subjected to some revisionist history in the past due in part to both teenage and post-teenage angst. Rather than re-assess everything all over again, especially in 1996 where I made several changes in the past, I will leave well enough alone. Any award whether awarded by an individual or an organization is rather like a time capsule and re-examination is futile. One always has a chance to make a Best of Decade or Performance in Genre or Subgenre list down the road and then there is the Test of Time, which is the ultimate. In the end when assessing my feelings and making decisions I never take into consideration “What will I think of this film/performer in five or ten years?” and just have to go with my gut.

One more minor note: in listing my nominees annually I have frequently listed Best Actress closer to Best Picture than Best Actor to try as a very minor political statement regarding sexism.

Without any further ado, the Best Actress winners:

2022 Michelle Yeoh Everything Everywhere All At Once

2021 Peri Baumeister Blood Red Sky

2020 Maria Baklova Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm

2019 Lupita Nyong’o Us

2018 Toni Collette Hereditary 

2017 Sally Hawkins The Shape of Water

2016 Sonia Braga Aquarius

2015 Julianne Moore Still Alice

2014 Charlotte Gainsbourg Nymphomaniac: Volume II

2013 Cate Blanchett Blue Jasmine

2012 Keira Knightley Anna Karenina

2011 Elizabeth Olsen Martha Marcy May Marlene

2010 Emma Stone Easy A

2009 Michelle Monaghan Trucker

2008 Marion Cotillard La Vie en Rose (La Môme)

2007 Cate Blanchett Notes on a Scandal

2006 Felicity Huffman Transamerica

2005 Julia Dufvenius Saraband

2004 Heather Smith Unscrewed

2003 Nicole Kidman The Hours

2002 Isabelle Huppert The Piano Teacher (La Pianiste)

2001 Melanie Griffith Cecil B. Demented

2000 Jessica Lange Titus

1999 Jessica Lange Cousin Bette

1998 Fernanda Montenegro Central Station (Central do Brasil)

1997 Jodie Foster Contact

1996 Reese Witherspoon Freeway