Films from the last 10 years have not been included on this list, and will be eligible in future updates when the moratorium has passed.
| Film | Actress | Year |
| 1. The Passion of Joan of Arc | Marie Falconetti | 1927 |
| 2. A Woman Under the Influence | Gena Rowlands | 1974 |
| 3. Breaking the Waves | Emily Watson | 1996 |
| 4. The Piano Teacher | Isabelle Huppert | 2001 |
| 5. La Strada | Giulietta Masina | 1954 |
| 6. Three Colours: Blue | Juliette Binoche | 1993 |
| 7. Casablanca | Ingrid Bergman | 1942 |
| 8. Black Swan | Natalie Portman | 2010 |
| 9. Possession | Isabelle Adjani | 1981 |
| 10. Double Indemnity | Barbara Stanwyck | 1944 |
| 11. In The Mood For Love | Maggie Cheung | 2000 |
| 12. Persona | Liv Ullmann | 1966 |
| 13. Requiem for a Dream | Ellen Burstyn | 2000 |
| 14. Mulholland Drive | Naomi Watts | 2001 |
| 15. Bringing up Baby | Katharine Hepburn | 1938 |
| 16. Dancer in the Dark | Björk | 2000 |
| 17. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? | Elizabeth Taylor | 1966 |
| 18. Rome, Open City | Anna Magnani | 1945 |
| 19. Rosemary’s Baby | Mia Farrow | 1968 |
| 20. Sophie’s Choice | Meryl Streep | 1982 |
| 21. Gone with the Wind | Vivien Leigh | 1939 |
| 22. Vivre sa Vie | Anna Karina | 1962 |
| 23. Annie Hall | Diane Keaton | 1977 |
| 24. The Wizard of Oz | Judy Garland | 1939 |
| 25. Jules and Jim | Jeanne Moreau | 1962 |
| 26. All About Eve | Bette Davis | 1950 |
| 27. Fargo | Frances McDormand | 1996 |
| 28. Cabaret | Liza Minnelli | 1950 |
| 29. Repulsion | Catherine Deneuve | 1965 |
| 30. Sunset Boulevard | Gloria Swanson | 1950 |
| 31. Safe | Julianne Moore | 1995 |
| 32. Melancholia | Kirsten Dunst | 2011 |
| 33. Scenes from a Marriage | Liv Ullmann | 1973 |
| 34. Notorious | Ingrid Bergman | 1946 |
| 35. Orlando | Tilda Swinton | 1992 |
| 36. Mad Max: Fury Road | Charlize Theron | 2015 |
| 37. Persona | Bibi Andersson | 1966 |
| 38. Hiroshima Mon Amour | Emmanuelle Riva | 1959 |
| 39. The Silence of the Lambs | Jodie Foster | 1991 |
| 40. Pierrot Le Fou | Anna Karina | 1965 |
| 41. His Girl Friday | Rosalind Russell | 1940 |
| 42. Nights of Cabiria | Giulietta Masina | 1957 |
| 43. The Wind | Lillian Gish | 1928 |
| 44. Red Desert | Monica Vitti | 1964 |
| 45. The Lady Eve | Barbara Stanwyck | 1941 |
| 46. Juliet of the Spirits | Giulietta Masina | 1965 |
| 47. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind | Kate Winslet | 2004 |
| 48. Pandora’s Box | Louise Brooks | 1929 |
| 49. Face to Face | Liv Ullmann | 1976 |
| 50. A Star is Born | Judy Garland | 1954 |
| 51. Cleo From 5 to 7 | Corinne Marchand | 1962 |
| 52. We Need To Talk About Kevin | Tilda Swinton | 2011 |
| 53. Blue Velvet | Isabella Rossellini | 1986 |
| 54. Chungking Express | Faye Wong | 1994 |
| 55. Vertigo | Kim Novak | 1958 |
| 56. The Graduate | Anne Bancroft | 1967 |
| 57. Before Sunset | Julie Delpy | 2004 |
| 58. Some Like it Hot | Marilyn Monroe | 1959 |
| 59. Carrie | Sissy Spacek | 1976 |
| 60. Pulp Fiction | Uma Thurman | 1994 |
| 61. The Piano | Holly Hunter | 1993 |
| 62. Johnny Guitar | Joan Crawford | 1954 |
| 63. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown | Carmen Maura | 1988 |
| 64. L’Eclisse | Monica Vitti | 1962 |
| 65. It Happened One Night | Claudette Colbert | 1934 |
| 66. The Silence | Ingrid Thulin | 1963 |
| 67. The Innocents | Deborah Kerr | 1961 |
| 68. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans | Janet Gaynor | 1927 |
| 69. Amelie | Audrey Tatou | 2001 |
| 70. Far From Heaven | Julianne Moore | 2002 |
| 71. The Blue Angel | Marlene Dietrich | 1930 |
| 72. Gone Girl | Rosamund Pike | 2014 |
| 73. Lovers on the Bridge | Juliette Binoche | 1991 |
| 74. The Philadelphia Story | Katharine Hepburn | 1940 |
| 75. The Green Ray | Marie Rivière | 1986 |
| 76. Before Midnight | Julie Delpy | 2013 |
| 77. Raging Bull | Cathy Moriarty | 1980 |
| 78. The Exorcist | Ellen Burstyn | 1973 |
| 79. Lost in Translation | Scarlett Johansson | 2004 |
| 80. The Apartment | Shirley MacLaine | 1960 |
| 81. The Third Man | Alida Valli | 1949 |
| 82. Cries and Whispers | Ingrid Thulin | 1972 |
| 83. Kill Bill | Uma Thurman | 2003-04 |
| 84. Lady Vengeance | Lee Young-ae | 2005 |
| 85. Body Heat | Kathleen Turner | 1981 |
| 86. The Deep Blue Sea | Rachel Weisz | 2011 |
| 87. Run Lola Run | Franka Potente | 1998 |
| 88. Carol | Cate Blanchett | 2015 |
| 89. Aliens | Sigourney Weaver | 1986 |
| 90. Pickup on South Street | Thelma Ritter | 1953 |
| 91. Broken Blossoms | Lillian Gish | 1919 |
| 92. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me | Sheryl Lee | 1992 |
| 93. Letter From an Unknown Woman | Joan Fontaine | 1948 |
| 94. Chinatown | Faye Dunaway | 1974 |
| 95. Elevator to the Gallows | Jeanne Moreau | 1958 |
| 96. Doctor Zhivago | Julie Christie | 1965 |
| 97. Klute | Jane Fonda | 1971 |
| 98. Million Dollar Baby | Hilary Swank | 2004 |
| 99. Lola | Anouk Aimée | 1961 |
| 100. A Woman is a Woman | Anna Karina | 1961 |
No Cate Blanchett in Tar?
I haven’t included films from the past 10 years in these lists, so you won’t see anything from 2016 on.
That’s a mighty white list you have there
You’re not wrong. The list does skew white, and that’s partly a reflection of how the film canon itself has been shaped. A lot of earlier cinema, especially in Hollywood and Europe, simply didn’t offer the same range of roles to non-white actresses, which limits the pool when you’re looking historically.
A major exception is certain strands of Asian cinema. I’m a big admirer of Setsuko Hara for instance, but I don’t believe any individual performance is strong enough to make this list. Since making it, I’d also include Gong Li in Raise the Red Lantern and Madhabi Mukherjee in Charulata as strong contenders. I also recognise I have some pretty big blind spots with Kinuyo Tanaka.
The list is really a reflection of my own viewing which is always expanding, so I’m not sure it will ever be fully definitive. I’m definitely open to recommendations that would help broaden it.
You got owned kid