Academy Award For Best Actress - International Presence

International Presence

As the Academy Awards are based in the United States and are centered on the Hollywood film industry, the majority of Academy Award winners have been Americans. Nonetheless, there is significant international presence at the awards, as evidenced by the following list of winners for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

• Australia: Nicole Kidman (Kidman was born in the United States of Australian parents who were temporarily living in Hawaii; she is a citizen of both countries.)
• Canada: Marie Dressler, Mary Pickford, Norma Shearer (Pickford, Shearer, and Dressler won their respective awards in three consecutive years, 1929–1931.)
• France: Claudette Colbert, Marion Cotillard, Simone Signoret (Colbert later became a dual French and American citizen.)
• Germany: Luise Rainer
• Italy: Sophia Loren, Anna Magnani
• Israel: Natalie Portman (Portman, born in Israel, has an Israeli father and an American mother, and is a dual Israeli and American citizen.)
• The Netherlands: Audrey Hepburn (Hepburn had a British father and a Dutch mother; hence, she was a native-born citizen of both countries. Hepburn spent her childhood and teenage years mostly in The Netherlands and Belgium.)
• South Africa: Charlize Theron (Theron later became an American citizen.)
• Sweden: Ingrid Bergman (Bergman became an Italian by marriage.)
• United Kingdom: Julie Andrews, Julie Christie, Olivia de Havilland, Joan Fontaine, Greer Garson, Audrey Hepburn, Glenda Jackson, Vivien Leigh, Helen Mirren, Maggie Smith, Jessica Tandy, Elizabeth Taylor, Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet (Taylor was born in England of American parents who were living there temporarily and who returned to the United States permanently in 1939. Hence, Taylor had dual citizenship and has been eligible to receive a damehood in the United Kingdom.)

There have been two years in which all four of the top acting Academy Awards were presented to non-Americans.

• At the 37th Academy Awards (1964), the winners were Rex Harrison (British), Julie Andrews (British), Peter Ustinov (British), and Lila Kedrova (Russian-born French).
• At the 80th Academy Awards (2007), the winners were Daniel Day-Lewis (British and Irish), Marion Cotillard (French), Javier Bardem (Spanish), and Tilda Swinton (British).