- 2024: Jessica Chastain - The Forgiven
- 2023: Nicole Kidman - Being the Ricardos
- 2022: Jessica Chastain - The Eyes of Tammy Faye
- 2021: Frances McDormand - Nomadland
- 2020: Renée Zellweger - Judy
- 2019: Olivia Colman - The Favourite
- 2018: Frances McDormand - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
- 2017: Emma Stone - La La Land
- 2016: Brie Larson - Room
- 2015: Julianne Moore - Still Alice
- 2014: Cate Blanchett - Blue Jasmine
- 2013: Jennifer Lawrence - Silver Linings Playbook
- 2012: Meryl Streep - The Iron Lady
- 2011: Natalie Portman - Black Swan
- 2010: Sandra Bullock - The Blind Side
- 2009: Kate Winslet - The Reader
- 2008: Marion Cotillard - La Vie en Rose
- 2007: Helen Mirren - The Queen
- 2006: Reese Witherspoon - Walk the Line
- 2005: Hilary Swank - Million Dollar Baby
- 2004: Charlize Theron - Monster
- 2003: Nicole Kidman - The Hours
- 2002: Halle Berry - Monster's Ball
- 2001: Julia Roberts - Erin Brockovich
- 2000: Hilary Swank - Boys Don't Cry
- 1999: Gwyneth Paltrow - Shakespeare in Love
- 1998: Helen Hunt - As Good as It Gets
- 1997: Frances McDormand - Fargo
- 1996: Susan Sarandon - Dead Man Walking
- 1995: Jessica Lange - Blue Sky
- 1994: Holly Hunter - The Piano
- 1993: Emma Thompson - Howards End
- 1992: Jodie Foster - The Silence of the Lambs
- 1991: Kathy Bates - Misery
- 1990: Jessica Tandy - Driving Miss Daisy
- 1989: Jodie Foster - The Accused
- 1988: Cher - Moonstruck
- 1987: Marlee Matlin - Children of a Lesser God
- 1986: Geraldine Page - The Trip to Bountiful
- 1985: Sally Field - Places in the Heart
- 1984: Shirley MacLaine - Terms of Endearment
- 1983: Meryl Streep - Sophie's Choice
- 1982: Katharine Hepburn - On Golden Pond
- 1981: Sissy Spacek - Coal Miner's Daughter
- 1980: Sally Field - Norma Rae
- 1979: Jane Fonda - Coming Home
- 1978: Diane Keaton - Annie Hall
- 1977: Faye Dunaway - Network
- 1976: Louise Fletcher - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
- 1975: Ellen Burstyn - Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
- 1974: Glenda Jackson - A Touch of Class
- 1973: Liza Minnelli - Cabaret
- 1972: Jane Fonda - Klute
- 1971: Glenda Jackson - Women in Love
- 1970: Maggie Smith - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
- 1969: Katharine Hepburn - The Lion in Winter, Barbra Streisand - Funny Girl (Tie)
- 1968: Katharine Hepburn - Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
- 1967: Elizabeth Taylor - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
- 1966: Julie Christie - Darling
- 1965: Julie Andrews - Mary Poppins
- 1964: Patricia Neal - Hud
- 1963: Anne Bancroft - The Miracle Worker
- 1962: Sophia Loren - Two Women
- 1961: Elizabeth Taylor - BUtterfield 8
- 1960: Simone Signoret - Room at the Top
- 1959: Susan Hayward - I Want to Live!
- 1958: Joanne Woodward - The Three Faces of Eve
- 1957: Ingrid Bergman - Anastasia
- 1956: Anna Magnani - The Rose Tattoo
- 1955: Grace Kelly - The Country Girl
- 1954: Audrey Hepburn - Roman Holiday
- 1953: Shirley Booth - Come Back, Little Sheba
- 1952: Vivien Leigh - A Streetcar Named Desire
- 1951: Judy Holliday - Born Yesterday
- 1950: Olivia de Havilland - The Heiress
- 1949: Jane Wyman - Johnny Belinda
- 1948: Loretta Young - The Farmer's Daughter
- 1947: Olivia de Havilland - To Each His Own
- 1946: Joan Crawford - Mildred Pierce
- 1945: Ingrid Bergman - Gaslight
- 1944: Jennifer Jones - The Song of Bernadette
- 1943: Greer Garson - Mrs. Miniver
- 1942: Joan Fontaine - Suspicion
- 1941: Ginger Rogers - Kitty Foyle
- 1940: Vivien Leigh - Gone with the Wind
- 1939: Bette Davis - Jezebel
- 1938: Luise Rainer - The Good Earth
- 1937: Luise Rainer - The Great Ziegfeld
- 1936: Bette Davis - Dangerous
- 1935: Claudette Colbert - It Happened One Night
- 1934: Katharine Hepburn - Morning Glory
- 1933: Helen Hayes - The Sin of Madelon Claudet
- 1932: Marie Dressler - Min and Bill
- 1931: Norma Shearer - The Divorcee
- 1930: Mary Pickford - Coquette
- 1929: Janet Gaynor - 7th Heaven, Street Angel, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
