Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress

An annual Academy Award recognizing an actress’s supporting performance in a film. The category has been presented since the 9th Academy Awards in 1937.

Academy Awards: Annual awards presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for achievements in film. This acting category is one of the Academy Awards’ competitive honors.
Academy Award voting: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ process for selecting Oscar nominees and winners. It determines the nominees and winner in this category.
Thelma Ritter: American actress nominated six times for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress without winning. Her six nominations remain a defining record for performers without a win.
Academy Award records: Historical records of Academy Award nominations, wins, and category milestones. The category’s unusual winning and nomination records are tracked alongside other Oscar statistics.
9th Academy Awards: The 1937 ceremony honoring films released in 1936, at which the supporting acting categories were introduced. The ceremony established this category and presented its first award.
Oscar nomination: Formal selection of a film or achievement as a candidate for an Academy Award. Nomination is the stage preceding the category’s final vote.
Edith Head: American costume designer who won eight Academy Awards for costume design. Her wins illustrate the Academy’s distinction between acting and craft categories.
Oscars So White: A 2015 social-media campaign criticizing the lack of racial diversity among Academy Award acting nominees. Its criticism drew attention to representation in acting categories, including this one.
Gale Sondergaard: American actress who won the first Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Anthony Adverse. Her 1937 win set the category’s first precedent.
Academy Award for Best Actress: An annual Academy Award honoring a leading performance by an actress in a film. Its lead-performance distinction separates it from this supporting category.

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