Best Female Lead movies that are award winners or nominees

Actors : Jennifer O'Neill, Gary Grimes, Jerry Houser, Oliver Conant,
Directors : Robert Mulligan,

During his summer vacation on Nantucket Island in 1942, a youth eagerly awaiting his first sexual encounter finds himself developing an innocent love for a young woman awaiting news on her soldier husband's fate in WWII.

Actors : Lainie Kazan, Ray Wise, John Cusack, Meredith Salenger,
Directors : Jeremy Kagan,

In the 1930s, a tomboyish girl runs away from her guardian to join her single father who is 2,000 miles away, because there was work there.

Actors : Maureen Stapleton, Barbra Streisand, Karl Malden, Richard Dreyfuss,
Directors : Martin Ritt,

A high-class call girl accused of murder fights for the right to stand trial rather than be declared mentally incompetent.

Actors : Martin Hewitt, Brooke Shields, Don Murray, Shirley Knight,
Directors : Franco Zeffirelli,

A high school student's love for a 15-year-old girl is thwarted by parental disapproval, circumstance and accident.

Actors : Hayley Mills, Charles Ruggles, Maureen O'Hara, Brian Keith,
Directors : David Swift,

Teenage twin sisters swap places and scheme to reunite their divorced parents.

Actors : Shirley MacLaine, Juliette Lewis, Miranda Richardson, Bill Paxton,
Directors : Robert Harling,

Continuing the story of Aurora Greenway in her latter years. After the death of her daughter, Aurora struggled to keep her family together, but has one grandson in jail, a rebellious ...

Actors : Laurence Harvey, Eddie Fisher, Elizabeth Taylor, Dina Merrill,
Directors : Daniel Mann,

A Manhattan call girl has a tragic affair with a rich married man.

Actors : Anne Bancroft, Victor Jory, Patty Duke, Inga Swenson,
Directors : Arthur Penn,

The story of Anne Sullivan's struggle to teach the blind and deaf Helen Keller how to communicate.

Actors : Raul Julia, Diane Salinger, Jane Fonda, Jeff Bridges,
Directors : Sidney Lumet,

A washed up, alcoholic actress who is prone to blackouts wakes up next to a murdered man. Did she kill him and, if not, is she in danger?

Actors : Roseanne Barr, Meryl Streep, Linda Hunt, Ed Begley Jr.,
Directors : Susan Seidelman,

A cunning and resourceful housewife vows revenge on her husband when he begins an affair with a wealthy romance novelist.

Actors : Simone Signoret, José Ferrer, Lee Marvin, Vivien Leigh,
Directors : Stanley Kramer,

A varied group of passengers boarding a ship bound for post-war Germany represents a microcosm of 1930s society.

Actors : Carroll Baker, Eric Roberts, Cliff Robertson, Mariel Hemingway,
Directors : Bob Fosse,

A successful young model finds trouble when her obsessive manager-turned-husband becomes dangerously jealous. Based on the true story of 1980 Playmate of the Year Dorothy Stratten.

Actors : Mia Farrow, William Hurt, Joe Mantegna, June Squibb,
Directors : Woody Allen,

A spoiled Manhattan housewife re-evaluates her life after visiting a Chinatown healer.

Actors : Lukas Haas, Robert Duvall, Laura Dern, Diane Ladd,
Directors : Martha Coolidge,

A young woman who exudes sexuality battles temptation.

Actors : Richard Burton, Charles Bronson, Elizabeth Taylor, Eva Marie Saint,
Directors : Vincente Minnelli,

A free-spirited single mother forms a connection with the wed headmaster of an Episcopal boarding school in California.

Actors : Ed Harris, David Clennon, Ann Wedgeworth, Jessica Lange,
Directors : Karel Reisz,

Jessica Lange stunningly portrays Patsy Cline, the velvet-voiced country music singer who died in a tragic plane crash at the height of her fame.

Actors : Pamela Reed, Thomas G. Waites, Daryl Hannah, James Remar,
Directors : Michael Chapman,

A young Cro-Magnon woman is raised by Neanderthals.

Actors : Charles Bronson, Robert Redford, Natalie Wood, Kate Reid,
Directors : Sydney Pollack,

A railroad official, Owen Legate comes to Dodson, Mississippi to shut down much of the town's railway (town's main income). Owen unexpectedly finds love with Dodson's flirt and main ...

Actors : James Fox, Carol Channing, Julie Andrews, Mary Tyler Moore,
Directors : George Roy Hill,

Millie comes to town in the roaring twenties to encounter flappers, sexuality and white slavers.

Actors : Roddy McDowall, Barbra Streisand, Omar Sharif, James Caan,
Directors : Herbert Ross,

Story of singer Fanny Brice's stormy relationship with showman Billy Rose.