Best Actress 1996
by graveyardhang | created - 01 Sep 2019 | updated - 24 Jan 2023 | PublicEditing the Oscars: best performances by an actress in a leading role in a film released in the US in the year 1996.
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1. Breaking the Waves (1996)
R | 159 min | Drama
Oilman Jan is paralyzed in an accident. His wife, who prayed for his return, feels guilty; even more, when Jan urges her to have sex with another.
Director: Lars von Trier | Stars: Emily Watson, Stellan Skarsgård, Katrin Cartlidge, Jean-Marc Barr
Votes: 71,551 | Gross: $4.04M
Emily Watson as devout and dangerously devoted Scottish newlywed Bess McNeill, spiraling into utter self-destruction in her commitment to love in Lars von Trier’s “Breaking the Waves”.
“How can you love a word? You cannot love words. You can’t be in love with a word. You can only love another human being. That’s perfection.”
2. Secrets & Lies (1996)
R | 136 min | Comedy, Drama
Following the death of her adoptive parents, a successful young black optometrist establishes contact with her biological mother -- a lonely white factory worker living in poverty in East London.
Director: Mike Leigh | Stars: Timothy Spall, Brenda Blethyn, Phyllis Logan, Claire Rushbrook
Votes: 47,175 | Gross: $13.42M
Brenda Blethyn as desperate, emotionally fragile working-class mother Cynthia Rose Purley, shocked at the revelation of her long-lost daughter but ultimately warm-hearted and giving in Mike Leigh’s “Secrets & Lies”.
“Oh this is the life, ain’t it?”
3. Fargo (1996)
R | 98 min | Crime, Thriller
Minnesota car salesman Jerry Lundegaard's inept crime falls apart due to his and his henchmen's bungling and the persistent police work of the quite pregnant Marge Gunderson.
Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen | Stars: William H. Macy, Frances McDormand, Steve Buscemi, Peter Stormare
Votes: 726,542 | Gross: $24.61M
Frances McDormand as pregnant Minnesota police chief Marge Gunderson, stumbling upon an inept crime in Joel and Ethan Coen’s “Fargo”.
“I’m not sure I agree with you a hundred percent on your police work there, Lou.”
4. Freeway (1996)
R | 102 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A twisted take on "Little Red Riding Hood", with a teenage juvenile delinquent on the run from a social worker travelling to her grandmother's house and being hounded by a charming, but sadistic, serial killer and pedophile.
Director: Matthew Bright | Stars: Reese Witherspoon, Kiefer Sutherland, Bokeem Woodbine, Paul Perri
Votes: 31,744 | Gross: $0.30M
Reese Witherspoon as impoverished, illiterate, on-the-run teenager Vanessa Lutz, angrily defying the victimhood the world has cast her in in Matthew Bright’s “Freeway”.
“‘Cause I’m pissed off and the whole world owes me.”
5. I Shot Andy Warhol (1996)
R | 103 min | Biography, Drama
The story of Valerie Solanas, a '60s radical who preached misandry in her "Scum" manifesto. She wrote a screenplay for a film that she wanted Andy Warhol to produce, but after he repeatedly ignored her, she shot him.
Director: Mary Harron | Stars: Lili Taylor, Jared Harris, Martha Plimpton, Lothaire Bluteau
Votes: 7,117 | Gross: $1.81M
Lili Taylor as radical feminist author, hustler and attempted murderer Valerie Solanas in Mary Harron’s “I Shot Andy Warhol”.
“Give me fifteen cents and I’ll give you a dirty word.”
6. Scream (1996)
R | 111 min | Horror, Mystery
A year after the murder of her mother, a teenage girl is terrorized by a masked killer who targets her and her friends by using scary movies as part of a deadly game.
Director: Wes Craven | Stars: Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Skeet Ulrich
Votes: 388,360 | Gross: $103.05M
Neve Campbell as self-aware final girl Sidney Prescott, terrorized by a masked killer while still grieving the brutal murder of her mother in Wes Craven’s “Scream”.
“What’s the point? They’re all the same. Some stupid killer stalking some big-breasted girl who can’t act who is always running up the stairs when she should be running out the front door. It’s insulting.”
7. Bound (1996)
R | 109 min | Crime, Thriller
Tough ex-con Corky and her lover Violet concoct a scheme to steal millions of stashed mob money and pin the blame on Violet's crooked boyfriend Caesar.
Directors: Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski | Stars: Jennifer Tilly, Gina Gershon, Joe Pantoliano, John P. Ryan
Votes: 60,741 | Gross: $3.80M
Jennifer Tilly as seductive, scheming moll and covert lesbian Violet in the Wachowskis’ “Bound”.
“Isn’t it obvious? I’m trying to seduce you.”
8. The English Patient (1996)
R | 162 min | Drama, Romance, War
At the close of World War II, a young nurse tends to a badly burned plane crash victim. His past is shown in flashbacks, revealing an involvement in a fateful love affair.
Director: Anthony Minghella | Stars: Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Kristin Scott Thomas
Votes: 200,864 | Gross: $78.65M
Kristin Scott Thomas as self-assured 1930s noblewoman and amateur pilot Katharine Clifton in Anthony Minghella’s “The English Patient”.
“We die. We die rich with lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we’ve entered and swum up like rivers. Fears we’ve hidden in— like this wretched cave. I want all this marked on my body. We are the real countries. Not boundaries drawn on maps with the names of powerful men. I know you’ll come carry me out to the Palace of Winds. That’s what I’ve wanted: to walk in such a place with you. With friends, on an earth without maps.”
9. Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995)
R | 88 min | Comedy, Drama
An awkward seventh-grader struggles to cope with inattentive parents, snobbish class-mates, a smart older brother, an attractive younger sister and her own insecurities in suburban New Jersey.
Director: Todd Solondz | Stars: Heather Matarazzo, Christina Brucato, Victoria Davis, Christina Vidal
Votes: 37,167 | Gross: $4.77M
Heather Matarazzo as ultimate awkward middle schooler Dawn Wiener in Todd Solondz’s “Welcome to the Dollhouse”.
“Why do you hate me?”
10. Chungking Express (1994)
PG-13 | 102 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Two melancholic Hong Kong policemen fall in love: one with a mysterious female underworld figure, the other with a beautiful and ethereal waitress at a late-night restaurant he frequents.
Director: Kar-Wai Wong | Stars: Brigitte Lin, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Faye Wong
Votes: 95,727 | Gross: $0.60M
Faye Wong as Faye in Wong Kar-wai’s “Chungking Express”.
11. Set It Off (1996)
R | 123 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Desperation drives four inner-city women to bank robbery in Los Angeles, then they start mistrusting each other.
Director: F. Gary Gray | Stars: Jada Pinkett Smith, Queen Latifah, Vivica A. Fox, Kimberly Elise
Votes: 18,456 | Gross: $36.05M
Jada Pinkett Smith as Stony Newsom in F. Gary Gray’s “Set It Off”.
12. Matilda (1996)
PG | 102 min | Comedy, Family, Fantasy
A girl gifted with a keen intellect and psychic powers uses both to get even with her callous family and free her kindly schoolteacher from the tyrannical grip of a sadistic headmistress.
Director: Danny DeVito | Stars: Danny DeVito, Rhea Perlman, Mara Wilson, Embeth Davidtz
Votes: 174,546 | Gross: $33.08M
Mara Wilson as Matilda Wormwood in Danny DeVito’s “Matilda”.
13. The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996)
PG-13 | 126 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A shy, middle-aged professor enters into a romantic but non-physical relationship with an unlucky-in-love colleague.
Director: Barbra Streisand | Stars: Barbra Streisand, Jeff Bridges, Lauren Bacall, George Segal
Votes: 22,414 | Gross: $41.25M
Barbra Streisand as quippy, insecure New York lit professor Rose Morgan in her own “The Mirror Has Two Faces”.
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