Claim: Clint Eastwood performs.

The Academy Award for Best Actor is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences -LRB- AMPAS -RRB- . It is given in honor of an actor 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 Emil Jannings receiving the award for his roles in The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh . 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 , actors 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 actor 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 .   Since its inception , the award has been given to 79 actors . Daniel Day-Lewis has received the most awards in this category with three Oscars . Spencer Tracy and Laurence Olivier were nominated on nine occasions , more than any other actor . As of the 2017 ceremony , Casey Affleck is the most recent winner in this category for his role as Lee Chandler in Manchester by the Sea .