Meryl Streep Receives Academy Award for Actress in a Leading Role

The 2012 Academy award for Actress in a Leading Role has been awarded to Meryl Streep for her performance in 'The Iron Lady.' This marks Streep's third Oscar win.

Streep stars as former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in Phyllida Lloyd's 'The Iron Lady'. The film imagines how Margaret, at the end of her life, might look back through fragmented memories to weigh-up the personal cost of her decisions. The film is not so much about politics as about power and the loss of power. The actress was recently made a 2011 Kennedy Center honoree for her award-winning work in film.

Streep has received countless awards and nominations as an artist, including an unprecedented 17 nominations for the Oscar and 18 Golden Globe nominations and seven wins.

Meryl Streep's international breakthrough came in the late 1970s with the TV series Holocaust and Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter (1978, first Oscar nomination) as well as the divorce drama Kramer vs. Kramer (1979, directed by Robert Benton), for which she received her first Oscar. She won a second Academy Award for her performance in Sophie's Choice (1982, directed by Alan J. Pakula). She also starred in Woody Allen's romantic comedy Manhattan (1979) and the historical drama The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981, directed by Karel Reisz). She portrayed a very committed union activist in Silkwood (1983) by Mike Nichols, as well as Tania Blixen in Sidney Pollack's epic adaptation of Out of Africa (1985). With Susan Seidelman's She-Devil (1989), Streep appeared in her first comedy; in 1992, in Death Becomes Her (directed by Robert Zemeckis). In the 1995 drama The Bridges of Madison County, she played the lead alongside Clint Eastwood, who also directed the film. In 2002, she performed in Stephen Daldry's screen adaptation of the novel The Hours. Leading roles followed in the energetic satire The Devil Wears Prada (2006, directed by David Frankel), Robert Altman's A Prairie Home Companion (2006), and the political thriller Lions for Lambs (2007, directed by Robert Redford). She performed in the musical comedy Mamma Mia (2008, directed by Phyllida Lloyd), and Julie & Julia (2009, directed by Nora Ephron. She has received her most recent Golden Globe nomination with her performance as Margaret Thatcher in the upcoming film The Iron Lady (2011, directed by Phyllida Lloyd).

Meryl Streep has been invited to the Berlin International Film Festival several times: in 1999, she was awarded the Berlinale Camera; and in 2003, Julianne Moore, Nicole Kidman and she shared a Silver Bear for their performances in The Hours. In 2006, she could again be seen in the Berlinale Competition in Robert Altman's ensemble comedy A Prairie Home Companion.