Independent Spirit Award / Best Actress
Award-winning and nominated actresses for the Independent Spirit Award in the category Best Actress (Best Female Lead) .
In 1986, 1997, 2000, 2004, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2018, the award winner agreed with the Oscar winner in the Best Actress category .
| statistics | Surname | number | year |
| Most frequent awards | Frances McDormand | 2 | 1997, 2018 |
| Julianne Moore | 2 | 2003, 2015 | |
| Most frequent nominations (* = victory) |
Michelle Williams | 4th | 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012 * |
| Most frequent nominations without a win | Catherine Keener | 3 | 1993, 1997, 2003 |
1980s
1986
Geraldine Page - A Trip to Bountiful - Reise ins Glück (A Trip to Bountiful)
- Rosanna Arquette - The Time After Midnight (After Hours)
- Laura Dern - Menacing Whisper (Smooth Talk)
- Lori Singer - Trouble in Mind
1987
Isabella Rossellini - Blue Velvet
- Elpidia Carrillo - Salvador
- Patricia Charbonneau - Desert Hearts
- Laura Dern - Blue Velvet
- Tracy Camilla Johns - Nola Darling (She's Gotta Have It)
1988
Sally Kirkland - Anna ... Exile New York (Anna)
- Lillian Gish - whales in August (The Whales of August)
- Louise Smith - Working Girls
- Debra Stipe - Tough Guys Do not Dance (Tough Guys Do not Dance)
- Joanne Woodward - The Glass Menagerie (The Glass Menagerie)
1989
Jodie Foster - Penguins in the Bronx (Five Corners)
- Ricki Lake - Hairspray
- Nobu McCarthy - The Wash
- Julia Roberts - Pizza Pizza - A Slice of Heaven (Mystic Pizza)
- Meg Ryan - Promised Land
1990s
1990
Andie MacDowell - Sex, Lies, and Video (Sex, Lies, and Videotape)
- Youki Kudoh - Mystery Train
- Kelly Lynch - Drugstore Cowboy
- Winona Ryder - Heathers
- Annabella Sciorra - True Love (True Love)
1991
Anjelica Huston - Grifters (The Grifters)
- Mary Alice - Angry sleep (To Sleep with Anger)
- Eszter Bálint - After Us the Flood (Bail Jumper)
- Carolyn Farina - Metropolitan - Damn, bourgeois, in love (Metropolitan)
- Joanne Woodward - Mr. & Mrs. Bridge
1992
Judy Davis - In Love With Chopin (Impromptu)
- Patsy Kensit - Twenty-One
- Mimi Rogers - Dark Enlightenment (The Rapture)
- Lili Taylor - An Unbelievable Mission (Bright Angel)
- Lily Tomlin - The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe
1993
Fairuza Balk - Gas Food Lodging
- Edie Falco - Laws of Gravity
- Catherine Keener - Johnny Suede
- Sheryl Lee - Twin Peaks - The Movie (Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me)
- Cynda Williams - One False Move
1994
Ashley Judd - Ruby in Paradise
- May Chin - The Wedding Banquet (喜宴, Hsi yen )
- Ariyan A. Johnson - Brooklyn Girl
- Emma Thompson - Much Ado About Nothing (Much Ado About Nothing)
- Suzy Amis - Little Jo - A Woman Among Wolves (The Ballad of Little Jo)
1995
Linda Fiorentino - The Last Seduction (The Last Seduction)
- Jennifer Jason Leigh - Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle
- Karen Sillas - What Happened Was ...
- Lauren Luna Vélez - Life is Trouble (I Like It Like That)
- Chien-Lien Wu - Eat Drink Man Woman (飲食 男女, Yǐn Shí Nán Nǚ )
1996
Elisabeth Shue - Leaving Las Vegas
- Jennifer Jason Leigh - Georgia
- Elina Löwensohn - Nadja
- Julianne Moore - Safe
- Lili Taylor - The Addiction
1997
- María Conchita Alonso - Caught - In the web of passion (Caught)
- Scarlett Johansson - Manny & Lo
- Catherine Keener - Walking and Talking
- Renée Zellweger - Love Put to the Test (The Whole Wide World)
1998
Julie Christie - Love Whispers (Afterglow)
- Stacy Edwards - In the Company of Men
- Alison Folland - All Over Me
- Lisa Harrow - Sunday
- Robin Wright Penn - Loved
1999
- Katrin Cartlidge - Claire Dolan
- Christina Ricci - The Opposite of Sex (The Opposite of Sex)
- Robin Tunney - Niagara, Niagara
- Alfre Woodard - Down in the Delta
2000s
2000
- Diane Lane - A Walk on the Moon
- Janet McTeer - Tumbleweeds
- Susan Traylor - Valerie Flake
- Reese Witherspoon - Election
2001
Ellen Burstyn - Requiem for a Dream
- Joan Allen - Character Assassination - Beyond Morality (The Contender)
- Sanaa Lathan - Love and Basketball (Love & Basketball)
- Laura Linney - You Can Count on Me
- Kelly Macdonald - Two Family House
2002
- Kim Dickens - Things Behind the Sun
- Molly Parker - Power of Desire (The Center of the World)
- Tilda Swinton - The Deep End - Deceptive Silence (The Deep End)
- Kerry Washington - elevator
2003
Julianne Moore - Far from Heaven (Far from Heaven)
- Jennifer Aniston - The Good Girl
- Maggie Gyllenhaal - Secretary
- Catherine Keener - Lovely & Amazing
- Parker Posey - Personal Velocity: Three Portraits
2004
- Agnes Bruckner - Blue Car - Poetry of Summer (Blue Car)
- Zooey Deschanel - All the Real Girls
- Samantha Morton - In America
- Elisabeth Moss - Virgin
2005
Catalina Sandino Moreno - Maria Full of Grace (Maria Full of Grace)
- Kimberly Elise - Woman Thou Art Loosed
- Vera Farmiga - Down to the Bone
- Judy Marte - On the Outs
- Kyra Sedgwick - Cavedweller
2006
Felicity Huffman - Transamerica
- Dina Korzun - Forty Shades of Blue
- Laura Linney - The Squid and the Whale (The Squid and the Whale)
- S. Epatha Merkerson - Lackawanna Blues
- Cyndi Williams - Room
2007
- Catherine O'Hara - Long Live Hollywood (For Your Consideration)
- Elizabeth Reaser - Sweet Land
- Michelle Williams - Land of Plenty
- Robin Wright Penn - Sorry Haters
2008
- Angelina Jolie - A Mighty Heart (A Mighty Heart)
- Sienna Miller - Interview
- Parker Posey - Broken English
- Tang Wei - danger and desire (色 ， 戒, Sè, jiè )
2009
- Summer Bishil - Bluntly - Nothing is Private (Towelhead)
- Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married (Rachel Getting Married)
- Tarra Riggs - ballast
- Michelle Williams - Wendy and Lucy
2010s
2010
Gabourey Sidibe - Precious - Life is Precious (Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire)
- Maria Bello - Downloading Nancy
- Nisreen Faour - Amreeka
- Helen Mirren - A Russian Summer (The Last Station)
- Gwyneth Paltrow - Two Lovers
2011
- Annette Bening - The Kids Are All Right
- Greta Gerwig - Greenberg
- Nicole Kidman - Rabbit Hole
- Jennifer Lawrence - Winter's Bone
- Michelle Williams - Blue Valentine
2012
Michelle Williams - My Week with Marilyn
- Lauren Ambrose - About Sunny
- Rachael Harris - Natural Selection
- Adepero Oduye - Pariah
- Elizabeth Olsen - Martha Marcy May Marlene
2013
Jennifer Lawrence - Silver Linings (Silver Linings Playbook)
- Linda Cardellini - Return
- Emayatzy Corinealdi - Middle of Nowhere
- Quvenzhané Wallis - Beasts of the Southern Wild
- Mary Elizabeth Winstead - Smashed
2014
- Julie Delpy - Before Midnight
- Gaby Hoffmann - Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus and 2012
- Brie Larson - Short Term Dec.
- Shailene Woodley - The Spectacular Now - Perfect is now (The Spectacular Now)
2015
Julianne Moore - Still Alice - My Life Without Yesterday (Still Alice)
- Marion Cotillard - The Immigrant
- Rinko Kikuchi - Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter
- Jenny Slate - Obvious Child
- Tilda Swinton - Only Lovers Left Alive
2016
Brie Larson - room (Room)
- Cate Blanchett - Carol
- Rooney Mara - Carol
- Bel Powley - The Diary of a Teenage Girl
- Kitana Kiki Rodriguez - Tangerine
2017
- Annette Bening - Century Women (20th Century Women)
- Sasha Lane - American Honey
- Ruth Negga - Loving
- Natalie Portman - Jackie: The First Lady (Jackie)
Frances McDormand - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
- Salma Hayek - Beatrice at Dinner
- Margot Robbie - I, Tonya
- Saoirse Ronan - Lady Bird
- Shinobu Terajima - Oh Lucy!
- Regina Williams - Life & Nothing More
Glenn Close - The wife of Nobel Prize winner (The Wife)
- Elsie Fisher - Eighth Grade
- Toni Collette - Hereditary - Das Vermächtnis ( Hereditary )
- Helena Howard - Madeline's Madeline
- Regina Hall - Support the Girls
- Carey Mulligan - Wildlife
2020s
- Karen Allen - Colewell
- Hong Chau - Driveways
- Elisabeth Moss - Her Smell
- Mary Kay Place - Diane
- Alfre Woodard - Clemency