Oscars 2021: Frances McDormand now has the second most Best Actress awards – here’s who has the most

Nomadland star previously won for Fargo and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Frances McDormand won Best Actress at the 2021 Oscars for her role in Nomadland, making her the woman with the second most awards in the category.

In what was widely considered the tightest race in this year’s acting categories, McDormand beat off competition from Andra Day (The United States vs Billie Holiday), Carey Mulligan (Promising Young Woman), Vanessa Kirby (Pieces of a Woman) and Viola Davis (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom).

Nomadland also won Best Picture and Best Director (for Chloe Zhao). In the film, McDormand plays a woman struggling to stay afloat, who joins the vandwelling community in the contemporary American west.

“I have no words,” said McDormand in her acceptance speech. “My voice is in my sword. We know the sword is our work and I like work. Thank you for knowing that and thanks for this.”

The win represents McDormand’s third in the category, with the actor having previously won Best Actress for her roles in Fargo (1997) and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2018).

She is in second place for the most victories in the category, only behind the four-time winner Katharine Hepburn.

Hepburn, who died in 2003, won for Morning Glory (1934), Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner (1968), The Lion in Winter (1969) and On Golden Pond (1982).

The 93rd Academy Awards took place on 25 April, having been delayed for two months due to the ongoing pandemic.

The ceremony was held primarily in Los Angeles’s famed Union Station, with nominees from outside of the US attending the event via international hubs.