Best Actress Motion Picture Drama

The Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama is presented annually at the Golden Globe Awards ceremony. The ceremony is conducted by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) that is formed of reporters and photographers, who cover the US showbiz for publications predominantly in non-American media markets. This accolade is conferred to honor best performance in a lead female role of a drama film, thus adding a feather on the recipient’s cap, bringing more recognition, prestige and visibility to her work.

The Hollywood Foreign Correspondent Association (HFCA), predecessor of HFPA, launched the Golden Globe Awards ceremony to honor excellence in the film industry. The six original categories of the ceremony included the Best Actress in a Leading Role category. American actress Jennifer Jones received the first Best Actress in a Leading Role award for her outstanding performance in the titular role of Bernadette Soubirous in the American biographical drama film The Song of Bernadette (1943) during the 1944 held 1st Golden Globe Awards ceremony. In 1951, the association divided the category into two genres, Drama and Musical or Comedy, in order to take note of and recognize acting caliber of lead actresses in both the genres and presented the two separate categories, namely Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama and Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy that year during the 8th Golden Globe Awards event. American actress Gloria Swanson became first recipient of the Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama award for her splendid performance as former silent-film star Norma Desmond in the American black comedy film noir Sunset Boulevard (1950). The category was officially called Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama in 2005 and since 2013, it is known as Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama.

French film actress Anouk Aimée bagged the award in 1967 for her role of Anne Gauthier in the French romantic drama A Man and a Woman (1966) and with this emerged as the first actress who was honored with the accolade for a foreign language/non-English language performance. In 1986, American actor, comedian, television personality and author Whoopi Goldberg was presented with the award for her film breakthrough role of Celie, in the American epic coming-of-age period drama The Color Purple (1985), and with this she became the first actress of African descent to achieve such feat. The following year, Marlee Matlin earned the award as the first deaf actress for playing Sarah Norman in her debut film Children of a Lesser God (1986), an American romantic drama. The 46th Golden Globe Awards, held in 1989, had a little twist that witnessed three actresses namely Jodie Foster (for The Accused), Sigourney Weaver (for Gorillas in the Mist) and Shirley MacLaine (for Madame Sousatzka) winning the Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama award, marking the only three-way tie that occurred in the event’s history.

Accomplished actresses Ingrid Bergman, Meryl Streep, Jane Fonda and Cate Blanchett won the award thrice, of whom each of the former three won two awards in a row. Streep holds the record of garnering most nominations in the category with 14. Other thespians who won the award twice include Nicole Kidman, Jodie Foster, Jane Wyman, Sally Field, Hilary Swank, Shirley MacLaine, Joanne Woodward, Geraldine Page (consecutive) and Rosalind Russell (consecutive).

List of Winners Golden Globe Award Best Actress Motion Picture Drama