# National Board of Review Award for Best Actress

The National Board of Review Award for Best Actress is one of the annual film awards given (since 1945) by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures.

## Winners
### 1940s

| Year | Winner | Film | Role |
| 1945 | Joan Crawford | Mildred Pierce | Mildred Pierce Beragon |
| 1946 | Anna Magnani | Rome, Open City | Pina |
| 1947 | Celia Johnson | This Happy Breed | Ethel Gibbons |
| 1948 | Olivia de Havilland | The Snake Pit | Virginia Stuart Cunningham |
| 1949 | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded |

### 1950s

| Year | Winner | Film | Role |
| 1950 | Gloria Swanson | Sunset Boulevard | Norma Desmond |
| 1951 | Jan Sterling | Ace in the Hole | Lorraine Minosa |
| 1952 | Shirley Booth | Come Back, Little Sheba | Lola Delaney |
| 1953 | Jean Simmons | The Actress | Ruth Gordon Jones |
| 1953 | Jean Simmons | The Robe | Diana |
| 1953 | Jean Simmons | Young Bess | Princess Elizabeth |
| 1954 | Grace Kelly | The Country Girl | Georgie Elgin |
| 1954 | Grace Kelly | Dial M for Murder | Margot Mary Wendice |
| 1954 | Grace Kelly | Rear Window | Lisa Carol Fremont |
| 1955 | Anna Magnani | The Rose Tattoo | Serafina Delle Rose |
| 1956 | Dorothy McGuire | Friendly Persuasion | Eliza Birdwell |
| 1957 | Joanne Woodward | The Three Faces of Eve | Eve White / Eve Black / Jane |
| 1958 | Ingrid Bergman | The Inn of the Sixth Happiness | Gladys Aylward |
| 1959 | Simone Signoret | Room at the Top | Alice Aisgill |

### 1960s

| Year | Winner | Film | Role |
| 1960 | Greer Garson | Sunrise at Campobello | Eleanor Roosevelt |
| 1961 | Geraldine Page | Summer and Smoke | Alma Winemiller |
| 1962 | Anne Bancroft | The Miracle Worker | Anne Sullivan |
| 1963 | Patricia Neal | Hud | Alma Brown |
| 1964 | Kim Stanley | Séance on a Wet Afternoon | Myra Savage |
| 1965 | Julie Christie | Darling | Diana Scott |
| 1965 | Julie Christie | Doctor Zhivago | Lara Antipova |
| 1966 | Elizabeth Taylor | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? | Martha |
| 1967 | Edith Evans | The Whisperers | Maggie Ross |
| 1968 | Liv Ullmann | Hour of the Wolf (Vargtimmen) | Alma Borg |
| 1968 | Liv Ullmann | Shame (Skammen) | Eva Rosenberg |
| 1969 | Geraldine Page | Trilogy | Sook |

### 1970s

| Year | Winner | Film | Role |
| 1970 | Glenda Jackson | Women in Love | Gudrun Brangwen |
| 1971 | Irene Papas | The Trojan Women | Helen of Troy |
| 1972 | Cicely Tyson | Sounder | Rebecca Morgan |
| 1973 | Liv Ullmann | The New Land (Nybyggarna) | Kristina |
| 1974 | Gena Rowlands | A Woman Under the Influence | Mabel Longhetti |
| 1975 | Isabelle Adjani | The Story of Adele H. (L’histoire d'Adèle H.) | Adèle Hugo / Adèle Lewry |
| 1976 | Liv Ullmann | Face to Face (Ansikte mot ansikte) | Dr. Jenny Isaksson |
| 1977 | Anne Bancroft | The Turning Point | Emma Jacklin |
| 1978 | Ingrid Bergman | Autumn Sonata | Charlotte Andergast |
| 1979 | Sally Field | Norma Rae | Norma Rae Webster |

### 1980s

| Year | Winner | Film | Role |
| 1980 | Sissy Spacek | Coal Miner's Daughter | Loretta Lynn |
| 1981 | Glenda Jackson | Stevie | Stevie Smith |
| 1982 | Meryl Streep | Sophie's Choice | Zofia "Sophie" Zawistowski |
| 1983 | Shirley MacLaine | Terms of Endearment | Aurora Greenway |
| 1984 | Peggy Ashcroft | A Passage to India | Mrs. Moore |
| 1985 | Whoopi Goldberg | The Color Purple | Celie Johnson |
| 1986 | Kathleen Turner | Peggy Sue Got Married | Peggy Sue |
| 1987 | Lillian Gish | The Whales of August | Sarah Webber |
| 1987 | Holly Hunter | Broadcast News | Jane Craig |
| 1988 | Jodie Foster | The Accused | Sarah Tobias |
| 1989 | Michelle Pfeiffer | The Fabulous Baker Boys | Susie Diamond |

### 1990s

| Year | Winner | Film | Role |
| 1990 | Mia Farrow | Alice | Alice Smith Tate |
| 1991 | Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon | Thelma & Louise | Thelma Dickinson and Louise Sawyer |
| 1992 | Emma Thompson | Howards End | Margaret Schlegel |
| 1993 | Holly Hunter | The Piano | Ada McGrath |
| 1994 | Miranda Richardson | Tom & Viv | Vivienne Haigh-Wood Eliot |
| 1995 | Emma Thompson | Sense and Sensibility | Elinor Dashwood |
| 1996 | Frances McDormand | Fargo | Marge Gunderson |
| 1997 | Helena Bonham Carter | The Wings of the Dove | Kate Croy |
| 1998 | Fernanda Montenegro | Central Station (Central do Brasil) | Isadora "Dora" Teixeira |
| 1999 | Janet McTeer | Tumbleweeds | Mary Jo Walker |

### 2000s

| Year | Winner | Film | Role |
| 2000 | Julia Roberts | Erin Brockovich | Erin Brockovich |
| 2001 | Halle Berry | Monster's Ball | Leticia Musgrove |
| 2002 | Julianne Moore | Far from Heaven | Cathy Whitaker |
| 2003 | Diane Keaton | Something's Gotta Give | Erica Barry |
| 2004 | Annette Bening | Being Julia | Julia Lambert |
| 2005 | Felicity Huffman | Transamerica | Sabrina "Bree" Osbourne / Stanley Schupak |
| 2006 | Helen Mirren | The Queen | Queen Elizabeth II |
| 2007 | Julie Christie | Away from Her | Fiona Anderson |
| 2008 | Anne Hathaway | Rachel Getting Married | Kym Ryder |
| 2009 | Carey Mulligan | An Education | Jenny Mellor |

### 2010s

| Year | Winner | Film | Role |
| 2010 | Lesley Manville | Another Year | Mary Smith |
| 2011 | Tilda Swinton | We Need to Talk About Kevin | Eva Khatchadourian |
| 2012 | Jessica Chastain | Zero Dark Thirty | Maya |
| 2013 | Emma Thompson | Saving Mr. Banks | Pamela "P. L." Travers |
| 2014 | Julianne Moore | Still Alice | Dr. Alice Howland |
| 2015 | Brie Larson | Room | Joy "Ma" Newsome |
| 2016 | Amy Adams | Arrival | Dr. Louise Banks |
| 2017 | Meryl Streep | The Post | Katharine Graham |
| 2018 | Lady Gaga | A Star Is Born | Ally Maine |
| 2019 | Renée Zellweger | Judy | Judy Garland |

### 2020s

| Year | Winner | Film | Role |
| 2020 | Carey Mulligan | Promising Young Woman | Cassandra "Cassie" Thomas |
| 2021 | Rachel Zegler | West Side Story | María Vasquez |
| 2022 | Michelle Yeoh | Everything Everywhere All At Once | Evelyn Quan Wang |
| 2023 | Lily Gladstone | Killers of the Flower Moon | Mollie Kyle |
| 2024 | Nicole Kidman | Babygirl | Romy Mathis |