10 most impressive female performances!

Actress: Barbra Streisand!

Character: Fanny Brice!

Other notes: Barbra won the Academy Award for Best Actress (which was tied with Katherine Hepburn - This is the first and, so far, the only time 2 actresses have been tied).

Actress: Gloria Swanson

Character: Norma Desmond

Other notes: Swanson was nominated for Best Actress but did not win. She's also the originator of such classic cinema quotes like "All right Mr. DeMille, i'm ready for my closeup", "I'm big. It's the pictures that have gotten small" and my personal favourite: "We didn't need dialogues. We had faces"!

Actress: Bette Davis

Character: Margo Channing

Other notes: Davis was nominated for Best Actress Award but failed to win.

Actress: Cate Blanchett

Character: Katherine Hepburn

Other notes: Unsurprisingly, Cate Blanchett won the Best Supporting Actress Award. In this film, Cate plays Katherine Hepburn - Which is widely considered the greatest female actress of all time!

Actress: Sissy Spacek

Character: Loretta Lynn

Other notes: Spacek sweeped up the Best Actress Award and like the above, Spacek also plays a real life person - Famed country star Loretta Lynn. When Sissy Spacek won the Best Actress Award, it marked one of the only 2 times that an actor/actress & person they were portraying onscreen were both present at the Oscars. The other is Raging Bull!

Actress: Meryl Streep

Character: Zofia "Sophie" Zawistowski

Other notes: Meryl Streep deservedly won the Best Actress Award. The sole winner of the film.

Actress: Julie Andrews

Character: Maria Von Trapp

Other notes: Julie Andrews also played a real life person - Maria Von Trapp: The matriach of the Von Trapp family. Andrews was also nominated but did not win.

Actress: Glenn Close

Character: Alex Forrest

Other notes: Forrest's performance as Forrest was very well received, was nominated, but did not win the Award For Best Actress.

Actress: Kathy Bates

Character: Annie Wilkes

Other notes: Kathy Bates portrayal of one of the most haunting villains in cinema history was immortalized when she won the Academy Award For Best Actress. A very well deserved i say!

Actress: Mara Wilson

Character: Matilda Wormwood

Other notes: The most youngest in this list and the most natural. Even though she wasn't nominated for any major awards, she won several Young Artists Awards. A very heartwarming and touching performance that sends Shirley Temple back to Year 1!