"Adriana Barraza's compelling performance in Babel takes the audience on the shattering journey through Amelia's fear and guilt-stricken terror after she is coerced into the unwise decision to take the two young children she nannies for (as an illegal immigrant) in Southern California across the Mexican border to attend her brother's wedding. On the return trip home, we watch in desperation as Barraza is forced to make a gut-wrenching life and death decision when things go terribly awry for she and the children in the unforgiving Mexican desert. Barraza's is the character I empathize with the most as she forges on in the unbearable desert heat like a fierce, yet trapped mother lion, pushed to the brink of madness."- Jenny Sekwa

Category rankings:
1. Adriana Barraza, Babel (39 points/6 votes)
2. Maribel Verdu, Pan's Labyrinth (32/5)
3. Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls (30/5)
4. Emily Blunt, The Devil Wears Prada (24/4)
5. Rinko Kikuchi, Babel (22/4)
6. Catherine O'Hara, For Your Consideration (18/3)
6. Shareeka Epps, Half Nelson (18/3)
8. Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine (16/3)
8. Vera Farmiga, The Departed (16/3)
10. Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal (14/2)
11. Pam Ferris, Children of Men (13/2)
11. Mia Kershner, The Black Dahlia (13/2)
13. Frances McDormand, Friends With Money (10/2)
13. Eva Green, Casino Royale (10/2)

The following actresses received one vote apiece:
Asia Argento, Marie-Antoinette
Cate Blanchett, Babel
Sandra Bullock, Infamous
Emma de Caunes, The Science of Sleep
Jodie Foster, Inside Man
Deborah Francois, The Child
Gong Li, Miami Vice
Rebecca Hall, The Prestige
Naomie Harris, Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story
Rachel Hurd-Wood, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Cloris Leachman, Beerfest
Sook-Yin Lee, Shortbus
Lucy Liu, Lucky Number Slevin
Virginia Madsen, A Prairie Home Companion
Nathalie Mendoza, The Descent
Julianne Moore, Children of Men
Jeanne Moreau, Time to Leave
Dany Perea, Duck Season
Charlotte Rampling, Lemming
Fiona Shaw, The Black Dahlia
Laetitia Spigarelli, Clean
Meryl Streep, A Prairie Home Companion
Emma Thompson, Stranger Than Fiction
Emily Watson, The Proposition
Misty Dawn Wilkins, Bubble