BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role


Best Actress in a Leading Role is a British Academy Film Award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding leading performance in a film.

Best British Actress (1952–1967)

Best Foreign Actress (1952–1967)

Best Actress in a Leading Role (1968–present)

1968–1979

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

Note: Between 1964–1973, several actresses were nominated for multiple performances in a single year, these each count as one nomination. Scarlett Johansson's two mentions in 2003 count as two separate nominations. The two mentions received by Kate Winslet in both 2004 and 2008 count as two separate nominations each time.
Note: The 2013 ceremony was the first time in the history of BAFTA that two French actresses were nominated for French-language performances in this category: Marion Cotillard for Rust and Bone and Emmanuelle Riva for Amour; the latter won.

Superlatives

Note: Meryl Streep and Judi Dench tie for the record of a total of 15 BAFTA Film nominations, with Streep having 12 Best Actress nominations and 3 Best Supporting Actress nominations. Dench has 5 Best Actress nominations and 9 Best Supporting Actress nominations. Dench's 15th nomination is for Best Newcomer in 1966. This gives her 6 BAFTA Film wins. In addition, she has won 4 BAFTA TV awards. In total, she has received 27 BAFTA Film & TV nominations with 10 wins. In 2001, Dench also received an honorary BAFTA: The BAFTA Fellowship.
Note: Maggie Smith has a total of 13 BAFTA Film nominations, for Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress and Best Newcomer, winning 5. She also has 5 BAFTA TV nominations. This gives her a total of 18 BAFTA Film and TV nominations. In addition, Smith has received two honorary awards: The BAFTA Special Award and BAFTA Fellowship.

Multiple nominations

;12 nominations
;8 nominations
;7 nominations
;6 nominations
;5 nominations
;4 nominations
;3 nominations
;2 nominations
;4 wins
;3 wins
;2 wins