1994 - Holly Hunter

Holly Hunter drew huge praise for her turn as Ada McGrath in Jane Campion's historial drama 'The Piano', a mute Scottish woman who travels to a remote part of New Zealand with her young daughter after her arranged marriage to a frontiersman.

Angela Basset ('What's Love Got to Do with It'), Stockard Channing ('Six Degrees of Separation'), Emma Thompson ('The Remains of the Day'), and Debra Winger ('Shadowlands') were also nominated.