Academy Award for Best Actress

The Academy Award for Best Actress is one of the awards given to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; nominations are made by Academy members who are actors and actresses. The winners are chosen by the Academy membership as a whole. Following the Academy's practice, the films below are listed by release year: for example, the Oscar for "Best Actress in 1999" was announced during the award ceremony held in 2000. Winners are listed first, followed by the other nominees.

1970s

• 1970 Glenda Jackson - Women in Love
• Jane Alexander - The Great White Hope
• Ali MacGraw - Love Story
• Sarah Miles - Ryan's Daughter
• Carrie Snodgress - Diary of a Mad Housewife
• 1971 Jane Fonda - Klute
• Julie Christie - McCabe & Mrs. Miller
• Glenda Jackson - Sunday Bloody Sunday
• Vanessa Redgrave - Mary, Queen of Scots
• Janet Suzman - Nicholas and Alexandra
• 1972 Liza Minnelli - Cabaret
• Diana Ross - Lady Sings the Blues
• Maggie Smith - Travels with My Aunt
• Cicely Tyson - Sounder
• Liv Ullmann - The Emigrants
• 1973 Glenda Jackson - A Touch of Class
• Ellen Burstyn - The Exorcist
• Marsha Mason - Cinderella Liberty
• Barbra Streisand - The Way We Were
• Joanne Woodward - Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams
• 1974 Ellen Burstyn - Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
• Diahann Carroll - Claudine
• Faye Dunaway - Chinatown
• Valerie Perrine - Lenny
• Gena Rowlands - A Woman Under the Influence
• 1975 Louise Fletcher - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
• Ann-Margret - Tommy
• Isabelle Adjani - The Story of Adele H.
• Glenda Jackson - Hedda
• Carol Kane - Hester Street
• 1976 Faye Dunaway - Network
• Marie-Christine Barrault - Cousin, cousine
• Talia Shire - Rocky
• Sissy Spacek - Carrie
• Liv Ullmann - Face to Face
• 1977 Diane Keaton - Annie Hall
• Anne Bancroft - The Turning Point
• Jane Fonda - Julia
• Shirley MacLaine - The Turning Point
• Marsha Mason - The Goodbye Girl
• 1978 Jane Fonda - Coming Home
• Ingrid Bergman - Autumn Sonata
• Ellen Burstyn - Same Time, Next Year
• Jill Clayburgh - An Unmarried Woman
• Geraldine Page - Interiors
• 1979 Sally Field - Norma Rae
• Jill Clayburgh - Starting Over
• Jane Fonda - The China Syndrome
• Marsha Mason - Chapter Two
• Bette Midler - The Rose