| Year | Winners and nominees | Film | Role |
|---|
| 2000 | Jill Hennessy | Nuremberg | Elsie Douglas |
| Jennifer Beals | A House Divided | Amanda Dickson |
| Holly Hunter ‡ | Harlan Country War | Ruby Kincaid |
| Gena Rowlands ‡ | Jacey's Story | Georgia Porter |
| Vanessa Redgrave | If These Walls Could Talk 2 | Edith Tree |
| 2001 | Judy Davis † | Me and My Shadows | Judy Garland |
| Laura Linney ‡ | Wild Iris | Iris Bravard |
| Sissy Spacek | Midwives | Sibyl Danforth |
| Hannah Taylor-Gordon ‡ | The Whole Story | Anne Frank |
| Emma Thompson ‡ | Wit | Vivian Bearing |
| 2002 | Vanessa Williams | Keep the Faith, Baby | Hazel Scott |
| Kathy Bates | My Sister's Keeper | Christine Chapman |
| Stockard Channing | The Matthew Shepard Story | Judy Shepard |
| Marcia Gay Harden | King of Texas | Mrs. Susannah Lear Tumlinson |
| Vanessa Redgrave ‡ | The Gathering Storm | Clementine "Clemmie" Churchill |
| 2003 | Meryl Streep † | Angels in America | Various Characters |
| Felicity Huffman | Out of Order | Lorna Colm |
| Jessica Lange ‡ | Normal | Irma Applewood |
| Helen Mirren ‡ | The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone | Karen Stone |
| Mary Tyler Moore | Blessings | Lydia Blessing |
| Maggie Smith † | My House in Umbria | Mrs. Emily Delahunty |
| 2004 | Dianne Wiest | The Blackwater Lightship | Lily |
| Clea DuVall | Helter Skelter | Linda Kasabian |
| Angela Lansbury | The Blackwater Lightship | Dora |
| Helen Mirren ‡ | Prime Suspect 6: The Last Witness | DSI Jane Tennison |
| Miranda Richardson | The Lost Prince | Queen Mary |
| 2005 | Kristen Bell | Reefer Madness | Mary Lane |
| Natascha McElhone | Revelations | Sister Josepha Montafiore |
| Geraldine McEwan | Agatha Christie's Marple | Miss Marple |
| S. Epatha Merkerson † | Lackawanna Blues | Rachel "Nanny" Crosby |
| Cynthia Nixon ‡ | Warm Springs | Eleanor Roosevelt |
| Keri Russell | The Magic of Ordinary Days | Livvy Dunne |
| 2006 | Judy Davis ‡ | A Little Thing Called Murder | Sante Kimes |
| Gillian Anderson ‡ | Bleak House | Lady Dedlock |
| Annette Bening ‡ | Mrs. Harris | Jean Harris |
| Helen Mirren † | Elizabeth I | Elizabeth I |
| Miranda Richardson | Gideon's Daughter | Stella |
| 2007 | Samantha Morton ‡ | Longford | Myra Hindley |
| Ellen Burstyn | For One More Day | Pauline "Posey" Benetto |
| Queen Latifah ‡ | Life Support | Ana Wallace |
| Debra Messing ‡ | The Starter Wife | Molly Kagan |
| Sharon Small | The Inspector Lynley Mysteries | DS Barbara Havers |
| Ruth Wilson | Jane Eyre | Jane Eyre |
| 2008 | Judi Dench ‡ | Cranford | Matilda "Matty" Jenkyns |
| Jacqueline Bisset | An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving | Isabella |
| Laura Linney † | John Adams | Abigail Adams |
| Phylicia Rashad ‡ | A Raisin in the Sun | Lena Younger |
| Susan Sarandon ‡ | Bernard and Doris | Doris Duke |
| Julie Walters | The Mary Whitehouse Story | Mary Whitehouse |
| 2009 | Drew Barrymore ‡ | Grey Gardens | 'Little' Edith Bouvier Beale |
| Lauren Ambrose | Loving Leah | Leah Lever |
| Judy Davis | Diamonds | Senator Joan Cameron |
| Jessica Lange † | Grey Gardens | 'Big' Edith Bouvier Beale |
| Janet McTeer ‡ | Into the Storm | Clementine "Clemmie" Churchill |
| Sigourney Weaver ‡ | Prayers for Bobby | Mary Griffith |