The AACTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role is an award presented by the

Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) is a professional organisation of film and television practitioners in Australia. The Academy's aim is "to identify, award, promote, and celebrate Australia's greatest achievements i ...

(AACTA), a non-profit organisation whose aim is to "identify, award, promote, and celebrate Australia's greatest achievements in film and television". The award is presented annually at the

AACTA Awards The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards, known as the AACTA Awards, are presented annually by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA). The awards recognise excellence in the film and television industr ...

, which hands out accolades for achievements in

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

documentaries A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in term ...

, and

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

s. From 1971 to 2010, the category was presented by the Australian Film Institute (AFI), the Academy's parent organisation, at the annual Australian Film Institute Awards (known as the AFI Awards). When the AFI launched the AACTA in 2011, it changed the annual ceremony to the AACTA Awards, with the current award being a continuum of the AFI Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. From 1971 to 1975, it was presented as a special award, and was accompanied with a cash prize, before it became a competitive award from 1976 onward.

Judy Davis Judith Davis (born 23 April 1955) is an Australian actress in film, television, and on stage. With a career spanning over 40 years, she has been commended for her versatility and regarded as one of the finest actresses of her generation. Frequen ...

is the most nominated and winning actress in this category, with nine nominations, including six wins, most recently for her role in '' Nitram'' (2021). Candidates for this award must be

female Female ( symbol: ♀) is the sex of an organism that produces the large non-motile ova (egg cells), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Females ...

, and cannot be nominated for the same role in the supporting actress category.

Winners and nominees

In the following table, the years listed correspond to the year of film release; the ceremonies are usually held the same year. The actress in bold and in dark blue background have received a special award; those in bold and in yellow background have won a regular competitive award. Those that are neither highlighted nor in bold are the nominees. When sorted chronologically, the table always lists the winning actress first and then the other nominees.Winners and nominees by year: *1971: *1972: *1973: *1974–75: *1976: *1977: *1978: *1979: *1980: *1981: *1982: *1983: *1984: *1985: *1986: *1987: *1988: *1989: *1990: *1991: *1992: *1993: *1994: *1995: *1996: *1997: *1998: *1999: *2000: *2001: *2002: *2003: *2004: *2005: *2006: *2007: *2008: *2009: *2010: *2011: Additional winners and nominees references: * * * * Judy Davis - Eye of The Storm

AFI Awards

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

AACTA Awards

2010s

2020s

Notes

:A: From 1958–2010, the awards were held during the year of the film's release. However, the 1974–1975 awards were held in 1975 for films released in 1974 and 1975, and the first AACTA Awards were held in 2012 for films released in 2011.

References

External links

Official website of the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts
{{Australian Film Institute Awards A AACTA Award winners Film awards for lead actress