Best Female Lead movies that are award winners or nominees

Actors : Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba, Michael Cera, Kevin Costner,
Directors : Aaron Sorkin,

The true story of Molly Bloom, an Olympic-class skier who ran the world's most exclusive high-stakes poker game and became an FBI target.

Actors : Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, Marlon Wayans,
Directors : Darren Aronofsky,

The drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island people are shattered when their addictions run deep.

Actors : Frances Fisher, Jennifer Connelly, Ron Eldard, Ben Kingsley,
Directors : Vadim Perelman,

An abandoned wife is evicted from her house and starts a tragic conflict with her home's new owners.

Actors : Anne Hathaway, Adrian Grenier, Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt,
Directors : David Frankel,

A smart but sensible new graduate lands a job as an assistant to Miranda Priestly, the demanding editor-in-chief of a high fashion magazine.

Actors : Anne Hathaway, Johnny Depp, Mia Wasikowska, Helena Bonham Carter,
Directors : Tim Burton,

Nineteen-year-old Alice returns to the magical world from her childhood adventure, where she reunites with her old friends and learns of her true destiny: to end the Red Queen's reign of terror.

Actors : Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Lesley Manville, Sharlto Copley,
Directors : Robert Stromberg,

A vengeful fairy is driven to curse an infant princess, only to discover that the child may be the one person who can restore peace to their troubled land.

Actors : Hugh Grant, Meryl Streep, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Helberg,
Directors : Stephen Frears,

The story of Florence Foster Jenkins, a New York heiress who dreamed of becoming an opera singer, despite having a terrible singing voice.

Actors : Jenny Slate, Bill Murray, Jessica Henwick, Marlon Wayans, Rashida Jones,
Directors : Sofia Coppola,

A young mother reconnects with her larger-than-life playboy father on an adventure through New York.

Actors : Ellen Burstyn, Lee J. Cobb, Max von Sydow, Linda Blair,
Directors : William Friedkin,

When a teenage girl is possessed by a mysterious entity, her mother seeks the help of two priests to save her daughter.

Actors : William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Robert Duvall, Peter Finch,
Directors : Sidney Lumet,

A television network cynically exploits a deranged former anchor's ravings and revelations about the news media for its own profit.

Actors : Edward Norton, Liev Schreiber, Naomi Watts, Catherine An,
Directors : John Curran,

A British medical doctor fights a cholera epidemic in a small Chinese village, while being trapped at home in a loveless marriage to an unfaithful wife.

Actors : Julia Roberts, Tom Wilkinson, Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti,
Directors : Tony Gilroy,

Two ex-government agents turned rival industrial spies have to be at the top of their game when one of their companies prepares to launch a major product. However, they distract each other in more ways than one.

Actors : Michelle Williams, Julia Ormond, Eddie Redmayne, Kenneth Branagh,
Directors : Simon Curtis,

Colin Clark, an employee of Sir Laurence Olivier's, documents the tense interaction between Olivier and Marilyn Monroe during the production of The Prince and the Showgirl (1957).

Actors : Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Keira Knightley, Jude Law, Matthew Macfadyen,
Directors : Joe Wright,

In late-19th-century Russian high society, St. Petersburg aristocrat Anna Karenina enters into a life-changing affair with the dashing Count Alexei Vronsky.

Actors : Ellen Burstyn, Vanessa Kirby, Iliza Shlesinger, Shia LaBeouf,
Directors : Kornél Mundruczó,

When a young mother's home birth ends in unfathomable tragedy, she begins a year-long odyssey of mourning that fractures relationships with loved ones in this deeply personal story of a woman learning to live alongside her loss.

Actors : Al Pacino, Lady Gaga, Jeremy Irons, Adam Driver,
Directors : Ridley Scott,

When Patrizia Reggiani, an outsider from humble beginnings, marries into the Gucci family, her unbridled ambition begins to unravel their legacy and triggers a reckless spiral of betrayal, decadence, revenge, and ultimately...murder.

Actors : Amy Adams, Krysten Ritter, Christoph Waltz, Danny Huston,
Directors : Tim Burton,

A drama about the awakening of painter Margaret Keane, her phenomenal success in the 1950s, and the subsequent legal difficulties she had with her husband, who claimed credit for her works in the 1960s.

Actors : Ed Harris, Peter Sarsgaard, Dakota Johnson, Jessie Buckley, Olivia Colman,
Directors : Maggie Gyllenhaal,

A woman's beach vacation takes a dark turn when she begins to confront the troubles of her past.

Actors : Carrie-Anne Moss, Alfred Molina, Juliette Binoche, Judi Dench,
Directors : Lasse Hallström,

A woman and her daughter open a chocolate shop in a small French village that shakes up the rigid morality of the community.

Actors : Matthew Broderick, Rory Culkin, Laura Linney, Mark Ruffalo,
Directors : Kenneth Lonergan,

A single mother's life is thrown into turmoil after her struggling, rarely seen younger brother returns to town.