IMDb - 20 : Top 20 Actresses of the Last 20 Years

Closer
"She has dominated the landscape of the last two decades with hits such as Pretty Woman and My Best Friend's Wedding and took home the Oscar with Erin Brokovich and we still have a bit of a crush on her. ”

The Devil Wears Prada
“ She's been nominated for 16 Oscars (won two) and eight have been in the last 20 years. She grants humanity to even the most odious characters but can also can play light and hit it big as she proved with Mama Mia! ”

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
“ Could anyone else play Queen Elizabeth, Galadriel, Katharine Hepburn, and Bob Dylan? Perhaps the most versatile actress of the impressive, versatile lot. ”

Titanic
“ Possibly the most fearless actress Winslet made Titanic's Rose DeWitt Bukater real and has never shied away from playing unpopular (sometimes painfully so) characters. ”

The Silence of the Lambs
“ Decent, smart and strong, Foster has imbued most of her characters with some smatterings of all three traits. She's also directed, creating the heartbreaking Little Man Tate, about a child prodigy, much as she was herself."

Moulin Rouge!
“ The creature most think of when they think of a glamorous actress Kidman seemed to will her persona into existence then was able to lampoon it in To Die For and Moulin Rouge. Her Oscar came for The Hours. ”

Crash
“ Calling her "America's Sweetheart" may seem unfair but it is precisely Bullock's winning screen personality that has kept her around for the last two decades, culminating in an Oscar for The Blind Side ”

X-Men: The Last Stand
“ 1) Bond girl 2) First African American actress to win Best Actress (for Monster's Ball). 3) Super-hero franchise. Who else can claim that? ”

Sense and Sensibility
“ Thompson cut a huge swath through much of the '90s in films such as Sense and Sensibility, Remains of the Day and In the Name of the Father. She's recently transitioned into the sensible matron, be it an unorthodox one, like Nanny McPhee, or a pragmatic one, as her headmistress in An Eduction."

Changeling
“ Put the tabloids aside and recall that she is an Oscar-winner (Girl, Interrupted) and nominee (The Changeling) And she was also grievously overlooked for her role in A Mighty Heart. She's also starred in some butt-kicking franchise attempts (Lara Croft, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Wanted) and has the kind of star-wattage that can get films made (Salt).”

Magnolia,
“ Nominated for four Oscars playing everything from a motherly porn star to a repressed housewife Moore may be up for another one with . The Kids are All Right. ”

Thelma & Louise
“ Nominated for five Oscars she won one for her role as Sister Helen Prejean in Dead Man Walking. She was Louise in Thelma & Louise and now plays the Mom in everything from Speed Racer to Leaves of Grass. ”

The Queen
“ She has such regal bearing now, despite her earlier, randier roles (Caligula, The Cook, The Thief..., Excalibur, anyone?). Mirren is the picture of reserve and determination, the vertible iron fist in the velvet glove. Nominated for four Oscars and won one for The Queen. ”

Se7en
“ She took a big long break during the last ten years to have a life but Paltrow appears here nonetheless. She won an Oscar for her only nomination in Shakespeare in Love and recently has been the sanity check of Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man. Who else could pull off playing a character named Pepper Potts? ”

Million Dollar Baby
“ One of our editors uses the mnemonic to recall how to spell her first name: "One 'L', two Oscars." When she's on, she's on "

There's Something About Mary
“ From her smokin' hot first appearance in The Mask, to Something About Mary to Charile's Angels to Shrek, Diaz has more than earned her place here. ”

Chicago
“ She had us at "Hello" with The Whole Wide World and then her turn as Jerry Maguire's wife. She won an Oscar for Cold Mountain and, amazingly, drew everyone's eyes off of Catherine Zeta-Jones during the Chicago finale. She's pulled off a coup embodying Bridget Jones. ”

Sleepless in Seattle
“ There was a time, the '90s, to be precise, when every screenplay in town that another actress got had Ryan's fingerprints on it (meaning she'd already been shown it first and had passed on it). ”

Friends
“ She conquered TV and has since become a one-woman cottage industry creating rom-coms but has also tried to stretch herself with unsuccessful but at least interesting indies. ”

Casino Royale
“ Nominated for 6 Oscars (she won for her shortest appearance, as Queen Elizabeth in Shakespeare in Love) and as "M" in the most recent iteration of the Bond series. ”