Empire Award for Best Actress

Empire Award for Best Actress
Awarded for	Best performance by an actress in a leading role
Country	United Kingdom
Presented by	Empire magazine
First awarded	1996
Currently held by	Alicia Vikander - The Danish Girl (2016)

The Empire Award for Best Actress is an Empire Award presented annually by the British film magazine Empire to honor an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role while working within the film industry. The Empire Award for Best Actress is one of five ongoing awards which were first introduced at the 1st Empire Awards ceremony in 1996 (the others being Best Actor, Best Director, Best Film and Best British Film) with Nicole Kidman receiving the award for her role in To Die For. Winners are voted by the readers of Empire magazine.

Since its inception, the award has been given to 19 actress. Nicole Kidman has received the most awards in this category with two awards. Cate Blanchett and Nicole Kidman were nominated on five occasions, more than any other actress. Rosamund Pike is the most recent winner in this category for her role in Gone Girl.

Winners and nominees

In the list below, winners are listed first in boldface, followed by the other nominees. The number of the ceremony (1st, 2nd, etc.) appears in parentheses after the awards year, linked to the article (if any) on that ceremony.

1990s

Year	Actress	Film	Ref.
1996 (1st)	Nicole Kidman	To Die For	[1]
1997 (2nd)	Frances McDormand	Fargo	[2]
1998 (3rd)	Joan Allen	The Crucible	[3]
1999 (4th)	Cate Blanchett	Elizabeth	[4][5]
	Gwyneth Paltrow	Sliding Doors
	Helen Hunt	As Good as It Gets
	Jennifer Lopez	Out of Sight
	Pam Grier	Jackie Brown

2000s

Year	Actress	Film	Ref.
2000 (5th)	Gwyneth Paltrow	Shakespeare in Love	[6][7]
	Nicole Kidman	Eyes Wide Shut
	Rene Russo	The Thomas Crown Affair
	Sophie Marceau	The World Is Not Enough
	Toni Collette	The Sixth Sense
2001 (6th)	Connie Nielsen	Gladiator	[8][9]
	Angelina Jolie	Girl, Interrupted
	Hilary Swank	Boys Don't Cry
	Julia Roberts	Erin Brockovich
	Kate Winslet	Quills
2002 (7th)	Nicole Kidman	Moulin Rouge!	[10][11] [12]
	Audrey Tautou	Amélie
	Frances O'Connor	A.I. Artificial Intelligence
	Nicole Kidman	The Others
	Renée Zellweger	Bridget Jones's Diary
2003 (8th)	Kirsten Dunst	Spider-Man	[13]
	Halle Berry	Die Another Day
	Hilary Swank	Insomnia
	Jennifer Connelly	A Beautiful Mind
	Miranda Otto	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
2004 (9th)	Uma Thurman	Kill Bill: Volume 1	[14]
	Cate Blanchett	Veronica Guerin
	Julianne Moore	Far from Heaven
	Maggie Gyllenhaal	Secretary
	Nicole Kidman	Cold Mountain
2005 (10th)	Julie Delpy	Before Sunset	[15]
	Bryce Dallas Howard	The Village
	Cate Blanchett	The Aviator
	Kirsten Dunst	Spider-Man 2
	Uma Thurman	Kill Bill: Volume 2
2006 (11th)	Thandie Newton	Crash	[16][17] [18]
	Hilary Swank	Million Dollar Baby
	Keira Knightley	Pride & Prejudice
	Naomi Watts	King Kong
	Renée Zellweger	Cinderella Man
2007 (12th)	Penélope Cruz	Volver	[19]
	Helen Mirren	The Queen
	Kate Winslet	Little Children
	Keira Knightley	Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
	Reese Witherspoon	Walk the Line
2008 (13th)	Keira Knightley	Atonement	[20]
	Angelina Jolie	A Mighty Heart
	Cate Blanchett	Elizabeth: The Golden Age
	Emma Watson	Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
	Katherine Heigl	Knocked Up
2009 (14th)	Helena Bonham Carter	Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street	[21]
	Angelina Jolie	Changeling
	Ellen Page	Juno
	Olga Kurylenko	Quantum of Solace
	Sally Hawkins	Happy-Go-Lucky

2010s

Year	Actress	Film	Ref.
2010 (15th)	Zoe Saldana	Avatar	[22][23]
	Anne-Marie Duff	Nowhere Boy
	Carey Mulligan	An Education
	Emily Blunt	The Young Victoria
	Mélanie Laurent	Inglourious Basterds
2011 (16th)	Noomi Rapace	The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo	[24][25]
	Emma Watson	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
	Helena Bonham Carter	The King's Speech
	Natalie Portman	Black Swan
	Olivia Williams	The Ghost Writer
2012 (17th)	Olivia Colman	Tyrannosaur	[26]
	Carey Mulligan	Drive
	Meryl Streep	The Iron Lady
	Michelle Williams	My Week with Marilyn
	Rooney Mara	The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
2013 (18th)	Jennifer Lawrence	The Hunger Games	[27]
	Anne Hathaway	The Dark Knight Rises
	Jessica Chastain	Zero Dark Thirty
	Judi Dench	Skyfall
	Naomi Watts	The Impossible
2014 (19th)	Emma Thompson	Saving Mr. Banks	[28]
	Amy Adams	American Hustle
	Cate Blanchett	Blue Jasmine
	Jennifer Lawrence	The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
	Sandra Bullock	Gravity
2015 (20th)	Rosamund Pike	Gone Girl	[29][30]
	Alicia Vikander	Ex Machina
	Emily Blunt	Edge of Tomorrow
	Felicity Jones	The Theory of Everything
	Keira Knightley	The Imitation Game
2016 (21st)	Alicia Vikander	The Danish Girl	[31]
	Emily Blunt	Sicario
	Brie Larson	Room
	Jennifer Lawrence	The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2
	Charlize Theron	Mad Max: Fury Road

Multiple awards and nominations

Multiple awards

The following individual received two or more Best Actress awards:

Awards	Film
2	Nicole Kidman

Multiple nominations

The following individuals received two or more Best Actress nominations:

Nominations	Film
5	Cate Blanchett
	Nicole Kidman
4	Keira Knightley
3	Angelina Jolie
	Jennifer Lawrence
	Hilary Swank
	Emily Blunt
2	Carey Mulligan
	Emma Watson
	Gwyneth Paltrow
	Helena Bonham Carter
	Kate Winslet
	Kirsten Dunst
	Naomi Watts
	Renée Zellweger
	Uma Thurman
	Alicia Vikander

References

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16. "2006 Awards Winners". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2013. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
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18. "Best Actress". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2006. Archived from the original on June 16, 2013.
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20. "Best Actress". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2008. Retrieved September 15, 2011.
21. "Best Actress". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2009. Retrieved September 19, 2011.
22. "Best Actress". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2010. Retrieved September 20, 2011.
23. Reynolds, Simon (February 25, 2010). "In Full: Empire Awards 2010 nominees". Digital Spy. Hearst Magazines UK. Retrieved September 27, 2014.
24. "2011 Awards Winners". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2013. Retrieved September 27, 2014.
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26. "Best Actress". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2012. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
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28. "Best Actress". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2014. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
29. "Best Actress". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2015. Retrieved April 1, 2015.
30. Barraclough, Leo (March 30, 2015). "'Interstellar' wins Film, Director at Empire Awards". Variety.com. Penske Business Media. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
31. "Best Actress". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2016. Retrieved March 23, 2016.

External links