These 5 Lead Actress Oscar Winners of the Last 25 Years Are Among the Best of All Time

These 5 Lead Actress Oscar Winners of the Last 25 Years Are Among the Best of All Time Emma Stone as Bella Baxter looking up at an object offscreen in Poor ThingsImage via Searchlight Pictures By  David Caballero Published Jan 23, 2026, 7:34 PM EST David is a Senior Editor at Collider focused primarily on Lists. His professional journey began in the mid-2010s as a Marketing specialist before embarking on his writing career in the 2020s. At Collider, David started as a Senior Writer in late 2022 and has been a Senior Editor since mid-2023. He is in charge of ideating compelling and engaging List articles by working closely with writers, both Senior and Junior, as well as other editors. Occasionally, David also reviews movies and TV shows and writes episode recaps. Currently, David is also writing his second novel, a psychological horror satire that will, hopefully, be picked up for publication sometime next year. Sign in to your Collider account Add Us On follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap

The Oscar nominations were just announced, meaning film lovers and awards season aficionados are riding that high, discussing the biggest snubs and surprises for the upcoming 2026 ceremony. It's also a great time to look back at the last 25 years of Oscar history and acknowledge the great choices that the Academy made, because it has, indeed, elected some genuinely brilliant winners over the past quarter century, especially in the Lead Actress category.

Unlike its far more insipid male counterpart, the Lead Actress Oscar category is usually the most interesting and competitive in any given year, giving us thrilling races like Nicole Kidman vs. Renée Zellweger in 2003, Olivia Colman vs. Glenn Close in 2019, and Demi Moore vs. Mikey Madison just last year. We might not always agree with the Academy, and a few of its choices are certainly puzzling, but several of its Lead Actress picks over the last 25 years have aged like fine wine. Indeed, the entries on this list are all incredible feats of acting that, despite being relatively recent, are all worthy of standing among the all-time greats in the Lead Actress category, alongside the likes of Vivien Leigh, Elizabeth Taylor, and Meryl Streep.

Charlize Theron - 'Monster' (2003)

Charlize Theron as Aileen Wuornos in MonsterImage via Newmarket Films

De-glamming has always been a good way to attract the Academy's attention, especially if an extremely beautiful woman undergoes such a drastic transformation that she becomes unrecognizable. That's exactly what Charlize Theron did in Patty Jenkins' 2003 biopic Monster, about the life and crimes of convicted serial killer Aileen Wuornos. The film chronicles the events between 1989 and 1990, when Wuornos worked as a prostitute and killed seven of her male clients.

Beyond the de-glamming gimmick, Theron is genuinely spectacular in Monster. The makeup is outstanding, but Theron's fierce, committed work does most of the heavy lifting here. The actress never suppresses the rage within Wuornos; instead, she allows it to take over, resulting in a confrontational, off-putting performance that is as visceral as it is captivating. Theron refuses to cast judgment on Wuornos, focusing her portrayal on the circumstances that led to Wuornos' actions without ever excusing or trivializing them. The physicality of the role is certainly impressive, but it's the psychological complexity that turns Theron's work in Monster into an all-timer. Rightfully, she swept that year's award season, with the notable exception of BAFTA, where she contended until 2005 because of the film's release date in the UK.

Marion Cotillard - 'La Vie en Rose' (2007)

Marion Cotillard as Édith Piaf singing in La Vie En Rose

Image via Icon FIlm Distribution

Like Theron, French actress Marion Cotillard also underwent a drastic transformation to play songstress and 20th-century legend Édith Piaf in Olivier Dahan's musical biopic La Vie en Rose. The film chronicles Piaf's life, from her infancy growing up in a brothel to her career triumphs, all the way to her death from cancer at just 47. Her tumultuous romantic life, considerable personal losses, and heavy addiction also play a major role throughout the story.

Without a shadow of a doubt, Cotillard is among the greatest acting winners of the 2000s. Her transformation into Piaf is absolute, aided by Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald's Oscar-winning makeup, but fully realized by her complete adoption of the singer's frailty, mannerisms, and physicality. More importantly, Cotillard captures Piaf's essence, her enduring melancholy and intensity, which made her both inspiring and tragic. At the center of this performance is the dichotomy in Piaf herself: she was both victim and perpetrator, a larger-than-life icon who embodied both the allure of fame and the dangers that come with immense success. La Vie en Rose comes from a place of deep reverence for Piaf, and Cotillard's performance proves it: empathetic without being indulgent and sympathetic without being saccharine, it's a beautiful depiction of a full life that, while challenging, is no less resonant.

Natalie Portman - 'Black Swan' (2010)

Natalie Portman's transformative and vulnerable work as a ballerina striving for perfection in Black Swan is often ranked highly among the best performances of the 21st century. The film, directed by Darren Aronofsky, sees Portman as Nina Sayers, a young ballerina pushing herself to the limit after being cast in a new production of Swan Lake. As she struggles to embody both the grace of the White Swan and the duplicity of its black counterpart, Nina loses her grip on reality.

Simply put, Portman is exceptional in Black Swan. Her performance is the perfect balance between restraint and chaos, a slow descent into anguish, paranoia, and desperation that remains riveting throughout. Black Swan is among modern cinema's greatest character studies, and it's all because of Portman's stellar work. It's a fully committed and embodied performance, with Portman surrendering herself to the pursuit of greatness, much like her character does in the movie. Beyond the impressive physicality she displays, what's truly striking about Portman here is how visceral her work is, how raw her depiction of Nina's mental distress is. Black Swan is a beautiful nightmare, a graceful journey into the darkest depths of the human mind and a reflection on the cost of perfection. Fifteen years on, Portman's work is as arresting as it originally was.

Cate Blanchett - 'Blue Jasmine' (2013)

Image via Sony Pictures Classics

Cate Blanchett won her first Oscar for playing Katharine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator, becoming the only performer to win the award for playing a previous Oscar-winner (Hepburn, of course, is the only actress to win four Oscars, all in the Lead category, too). That victory was in the supporting category, though; her first Lead Actress Oscar came nine years later for her work as a disgraced socialite struggling with her mental health in the 2013 drama Blue Jasmine.

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Although the movie settles for being a pretty basic update of A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanchett's work in Blue Jasmine is simply outstanding. A modern take on Blanche DuBois, Jasmine is deluded yet self-destructive, a broken icon clinging to a time and a place that are no longer there. Blanchett portrays Jasmine's mental unraveling with empathy but fury, resulting in a singular character study that's as wicked as it's tragic. It's a performance that's equal parts operatic and remarkably humane, a depiction of psychological anguish and mental self-harm that ranks among the most intense in modern cinema. Blanchett is unfraid to show Jasmine in all her complicated glory, and the work is electrifying, crafting a modern-day antihero whose downfall is inevitable and perhaps even earned but no less impactful or devastating to behold.

Emma Stone - 'Poor Things' (2023)

Emma Stone as Bella Baxter in front of a blue sky in Poor ThingsImage via Searchlight Pictures

Few performances in the 21st century are as liberated, unrestrained, or courageous as Emma Stone's gleefully unhinged turn as Bella Baxter in Yorgos Lanthimos' sci-fi comedy Poor Things. Based on the eponymous novel by Alasdair Gray, the film follows eccentric scientist Goodwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe), who successfully reanimates a corpse by inserting a baby's brain into it. The newly awoken Bella (Stone) discovers the world for the first time with a lust for life that leads her to explore everything it has to offer.

Stone goes for broke here, embracing the wild possibilities that playing a character like Bella offers. She skillfully blends eccentricity with vulnerability, curiosity with determination, passion with precision. Through Bella, Stone explores the need for a life fully lived, the pursuit of self-realization, and the possibility of reinvention, always with a decidedly life-affirming approach. It's such a refreshing and commanding performance that becomes instantly unforgettable, eschewing ego and pretension to deliver something raw, honest, and wholly unique. For her work, Stone earned her second Best Actress Oscar in a particularly competitive year, but the win was more than deserved. Bella is a fascinating figure, and in Stone's hand, an icon of modern cinema that only becomes better with each passing day.

Poor Things R Comedy Romance Sci-Fi Release Date September 8, 2023

Cast Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Mark Ruffalo, Ramy Youssef, Jerrod Carmichael, Christopher Abbott Runtime 141 Minutes Director Yorgos Lanthimos Writers Tony McNamara Powered by Expand Collapse

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