BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role facts for kids

Quick facts for kids BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
The 2024 recipient: Mikey Madison
Presented by	British Academy of Film and Television Arts
Country	United Kingdom
Currently held by	Mikey Madison for Anora (2024)

Best Actress in a Leading Role is a British Academy Film Award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding leading performance in a film.

• From 1952 to 1967, there were two Best Actress awards presented, Best British Actress and Best Foreign Actress.
• From 1968 onwards, the two awards merged into one award, which from 1968 to 1984 was known as Best Actress.
• From 1985 to present, the award has been known by its current name of Best Actress in a Leading Role.

In the following lists, the titles and names in bold with a gold background are the winners and recipients respectively; those not in bold are the nominees. The years given are those in which the films under consideration were released, not the year of the ceremony, which always takes place the following year.

Winners and nominees

     indicates the winner

Vivien Leigh was the inaugural winner, for A Streetcar Named Desire (1952).

Simone Signoret was the inaugural winner, and she won three times for Golden Helmet (1952), The Witches of Salem (1957), and Room at the Top (1958).

Audrey Hepburn won three times for Roman Holiday (1953), The Nun's Story (1959), and Charade (1963).

Shirley MacLaine won two consecutive times for Ask Any Girl (1959) and The Apartment (1960).

Rachel Roberts won twice, for Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) and This Sporting Life (1963).

Sophia Loren won for Two Women (1961)

Leslie Caron won for The L-Shaped Room (1962).

Patricia Neal won twice for Hud (1963) and In Harms Way (1965)

Anne Bancroft won three times, for The Miracle Worker (1962), The Pumpkin Eater (1964), and 84 Charing Cross Road (1987).

Julie Christie won for Darling (1965).

Elizabeth Taylor won for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966).

Jeanne Moreau won for Viva Maria! (1966)

Anouk Aimee won for A Man and a Woman (1967)

Katharine Hepburn won twice, for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner / The Lion in Winter (1968) and On Golden Pond (1981).

Maggie Smith holds the record for most wins in this category, with four for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969), A Private Function (1984), A Room with a View (1985), and The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1987).

Katharine Ross won for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid / Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (1970).

Glenda Jackson won for Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971).

Liza Minnelli won for Cabaret (1972).

Joanne Woodward won for Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams (1973).

Ellen Burstyn won for Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974).

Diane Keaton won for Annie Hall (1977).

Jane Fonda won two consecutive times for Julia (1977) and The China Syndrome (1978).

Meryl Streep received a leading twelve nominations in this category, winning two times for The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981) and The Iron Lady (2011).

Judy Davis won for My Brilliant Career (1980)

Julie Walters won for Educating Rita (1983).

Pauline Collins won for Shirley Valentine (1989)

Jodie Foster won for The Silence of the Lambs (1991).

Emma Thompson won twice, for Howards End (1992) and Sense and Sensibility (1995).

Holly Hunter won for The Piano (1993).

Susan Sarandon won for The Client (1994).

Brenda Blethyn won for Secrets & Lies (1996).

Judi Dench won twice, for Mrs Brown (1997) and Iris (2001).

Cate Blanchett won three times for Elizabeth (1998), Blue Jasmine (2013), and Tár (2022).

Annette Bening won for American Beauty (1999).

Julia Roberts won for Erin Brockovich (2000).

Nicole Kidman won for The Hours (2002).

Scarlett Johansson won for Lost in Translation (2003).

Imelda Staunton won for Vera Drake (2004)

Reese Witherspoon won for Walk the Line (2005).

Helen Mirren won for The Queen (2006).

Marion Cotillard won for La Vie en Rose (2007).

Kate Winslet won for The Reader (2008).

Carey Mulligan won for An Education (2009).

Natalie Portman won for Black Swan (2010).

Emmanuelle Riva won for Amour (2012); this category's oldest winner, at age 85.

Julianne Moore won for Still Alice (2014).

Brie Larson won for Room (2015).

Emma Stone won twice, for La La Land (2016) and Poor Things (2023).

Frances McDormand won twice, for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) and Nomadland (2020).

Olivia Colman won for The Favourite (2018).

Joanna Scanlan won for After Love (2021).

Mikey Madison won for Anora (2024).

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s

Superlatives

Multiple nominations

12 nominations

• Meryl Streep

8 nominations

• Maggie Smith

7 nominations

6 nominations

5 nominations

4 nominations

3 nominations

2 nominations

Multiple wins

See also

In Spanish: Anexo:BAFTA a la mejor actriz para niños

• Academy Award for Best Actress
• Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress
• Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead
• Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama
• Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical
• BIFA Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a British Independent Film
• Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role