- 2024: Da'Vine Joy Randolph - The Holdovers
- 2023: Jamie Lee Curtis - Everything Everywhere All at Once
- 2022: Ariana DeBose - West Side Story
- 2021: Yuh-jung Youn - Minari
- 2020: Laura Dern - Marriage Story
- 2019: Regina King - If Beale Street Could Talk
- 2018: Allison Janney - I, Tonya
- 2017: Viola Davis - Fences
- 2016: Alicia Vikander - The Danish Girl
- 2015: Patricia Arquette - Boyhood
- 2014: Lupita Nyong'o - 12 Years a Slave
- 2013: Anne Hathaway - Les Misérables
- 2012: Octavia Spencer - The Help
- 2011: Melissa Leo - The Fighter
- 2010: Mo'Nique - Precious
- 2009: Penélope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
- 2008: Tilda Swinton - Michael Clayton
- 2007: Jennifer Hudson - Dreamgirls
- 2006: Rachel Weisz - The Constant Gardener
- 2005: Cate Blanchett - The Aviator
- 2004: Renée Zellweger - Cold Mountain
- 2003: Catherine Zeta-Jones - Chicago
- 2002: Jennifer Connelly - A Beautiful Mind
- 2001: Marcia Gay Harden - Pollock
- 2000: Angelina Jolie - Girl, Interrupted
- 1999: Judi Dench - Shakespeare in Love
- 1998: Kim Basinger - L.A. Confidential
- 1997: Juliette Binoche - The English Patient
- 1996: Mira Sorvino - Mighty Aphrodite
- 1995: Dianne Wiest - Bullets Over Broadway
- 1994: Anna Paquin - The Piano
- 1993: Marisa Tomei - My Cousin Vinny
- 1992: Mercedes Ruehl - The Fisher King
- 1991: Whoopi Goldberg - Ghost
- 1990: Brenda Fricker - My Left Foot
- 1989: Geena Davis - The Accidental Tourist
- 1988: Olympia Dukakis - Moonstruck
- 1987: Dianne Wiest - Hannah and Her Sisters
- 1986: Anjelica Huston - Prizzi's Honor
- 1985: Peggy Ashcroft - A Passage to India
- 1984: Linda Hunt - The Year of Living Dangerously
- 1983: Jessica Lange - Tootsie
- 1982: Maureen Stapleton - Reds
- 1981: Mary Steenburgen - Melvin and Howard
- 1980: Meryl Streep - Kramer vs. Kramer
- 1979: Maggie Smith - California Suite
- 1978: Vanessa Redgrave - Julia
- 1977: Beatrice Straight - Network
- 1976: Lee Grant - Shampoo
- 1975: Ingrid Bergman - Murder on the Orient Express
- 1974: Tatum O'Neal - Paper Moon
- 1973: Eileen Heckart - Butterflies Are Free
- 1972: Cloris Leachman - The Last Picture Show
- 1971: Helen Hayes - Airport
- 1970: Goldie Hawn - Cactus Flower
- 1969: Ruth Gordon - Rosemary's Baby
- 1968: Estelle Parsons - Bonnie and Clyde
- 1967: Sandy Dennis - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
- 1966: Shelley Winters - A Patch of Blue
- 1965: Lila Kedrova - Zorba the Greek
- 1964: Margaret Rutherford - The V.I.P.s
- 1963: Patty Duke - The Miracle Worker
- 1962: Rita Moreno - West Side Story
- 1961: Shirley Jones - Elmer Gantry
- 1960: Shelley Winters - The Diary of Anne Frank
- 1959: Wendy Hiller - Separate Tables
- 1958: Miyoshi Umeki - Sayonara
- 1957: Dorothy Malone - Written on the Wind
- 1956: Jo Van Fleet - East of Eden
- 1955: Eva Marie Saint - On the Waterfront
- 1954: Donna Reed - From Here to Eternity
- 1953: Gloria Grahame - The Bad and the Beautiful
- 1952: Kim Hunter - A Streetcar Named Desire
- 1951: Josephine Hull - Harvey
- 1950: Mercedes McCambridge - All the King's Men
- 1949: Claire Trevor - Key Largo
- 1948: Celeste Holm - Gentleman's Agreement
- 1947: Anne Baxter - The Razor's Edge
- 1946: Anne Revere - National Velvet
- 1945: Ethel Barrymore - None but the Lonely Heart
- 1944: Katina Paxinou - For Whom the Bell Tolls
- 1943: Teresa Wright - Mrs. Miniver
- 1942: Mary Astor - The Great Lie
- 1941: Jane Darwell - The Grapes of Wrath
- 1940: Hattie McDaniel - Gone with the Wind
- 1939: Fay Bainter - Jezebel
- 1938: Alice Brady - In Old Chicago
- 1937: Gale Sondergaard - Anthony Adverse
- 1936: Not Introduced
- 1935: Not Introduced
- 1934: Not Introduced
- 1933: Not Introduced
- 1932: Not Introduced
- 1931: Not Introduced
- 1930: Not Introduced
- 1929: Not Introduced
