Claim: Joan Allen is a star of The Contender.

The Academy Award for Best Actress is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences -LRB- AMPAS -RRB- . It is given in honor of an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role while working within the film industry .   The 1st Academy Awards ceremony was held in 1929 with Janet Gaynor receiving the award for her roles in 7th Heaven , Street Angel , and Sunrise . Currently , nominees are determined by single transferable vote within the actors branch of AMPAS ; winners are selected by a plurality vote from the entire eligible voting members of the Academy .   In the first three years of the awards , actresses were nominated as the best in their categories . At that time , all of their work during the qualifying period -LRB- as many as three films , in some cases -RRB- was listed after the award . However , during the 3rd ceremony held in 1930 , only one of those films was cited in each winner 's final award , even though each of the acting winners had two films following their names on the ballots .   The following year , this unwieldy and confusing system was replaced by the current system in which an actress is nominated for a specific performance in a single film . Starting with the 9th ceremony held in 1937 , the category was officially limited to five nominations per year . One actress has been nominated posthumously , Jeanne Eagels . Only three film characters have been nominated more than once in this category . Elizabeth I of England -LRB- two times by Cate Blanchett -RRB- , Leslie Crosbie in The Letter , and Esther Blodgett in A Star is Born . Six women on the list have received an Honorary Academy Award for their acting ; they are Greta Garbo , Barbara Stanwyck , Mary Pickford , Deborah Kerr , Gena Rowlands , and Sophia Loren .   Since its inception , the award has been given to 74 actresses . Katharine Hepburn has won the most awards in this category , with four Oscars . Meryl Streep , who has a total of 20 Oscar nominations -LRB- three wins -RRB- , has been nominated in this category on 16 occasions , resulting in two awards . As of the 2017 ceremony , Emma Stone is the most recent winner in this category for her role as Mia Dolan in La La Land .