Renée Zellweger (Bridget Jones's Diary)

An extraordinarily close category, this featured probably the most surprising result to me of the entire survey and certainly the most populist result. Renée Zellweger's key achievement that propelled her to first place seems to be her near flawless British accent and a natural charm. I'm at a bit of a loss for much else as this is the only top five finisher in a major category that I didn't see. Nicole Kidman, as would be expected, captured two spots in the top five, with her more standard turn in The Others garnering more support than her musical role in Moulin Rouge!. French ingenue Audrey Tatou charmed and winked her way into third place while a passionate group of voters nearly took the category for Naomi Watts from Mulholland Drive. She only received nine votes, but five of them were for first place. Multiple early award winner Sissy Spacek fared poorly, likely as a result of a tiny distribution pattern that had almost no voters able to see her movie, In the Bedroom.

Top Five
Actress	Film	Total Points
Renée Zellweger	Bridget Jones's Diary	190
Nicole Kidman	The Others	186
Audrey Tatou	Amélie	176
Naomi Watts	Mulholland Drive	171
Nicole Kidman	Moulin Rouge!	127

Candidates receiving first place votes
Actress	Film	Number of First Place Votes
Naomi Watts	Mulholland Drive	5
Renée Zellweger	Bridget Jones's Diary	2
Nicole Kidman	The Others	2
Audrey Tatou	Amélie	2
Tilda Swinton	The Deep End	2
Nicole Kidman	Moulin Rouge!	1
Thora Birch	Ghost World	1
Mary Gibbs	Monsters, Inc.	1
Brooke Smith	Series 7: The Contenders	1
Maggie Cheung	In the Mood for Love	1
Zhang Ziyi	The Road Home	1

Other actresses receiving votes
Reese Witherspoon (Legally Blonde), Kirsten Dunst (crazy/beautiful), Sissy Spacek (In the Bedroom), Gwyneth Paltrow (Shallow Hal), Julie Andrews (The Princess Diaries), Julia Stiles (Save the Last Dance), Kate Beckinsale (Serendipity), Charlotte Rampling (Under the Sand), Cate Blanchett (Bandits), Julianne Moore (Hannibal), Julia Blake (Innocence), Regina Case (Me, You, Them), Teresa Lee (Lunch with Charles), Janet McTeer (Songcatcher), Tran Nu Yên-Khê (The Vertical Ray of the Sun), Alex Vega (Spy Kids), Vivica Fox (Two Can Play That Game), Anaïs Reboux (Fat Girl), Julia Roberts (The Mexican), Franka Potente (The Princess and the Warrior), Jeanne Balibar (Va Savoir), Rachel Weisz (Enemy at the Gates), Emily Perkins (Ginger Snaps), Ming-Na (Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within), Katharine Isabelle (Ginger Snaps), Anne Hathaway (The Princess Diaries), Stockard Channing (The Business of Strangers)