Mildred Pierce Mildred Pierce Mildred Pierce is a 1941 hardboiled novel by James M. Cain. It was made into an Academy Award–winning film of the same name in 1945, starring Joan Crawford, and a 2011 Emmy Award–winning miniseries of the same name, starring Kate Winslet. Set in Glendale, California, in the 1930s, the book is the story of a middle-class housewife, Mildred Pierce, and her attempts to maintain her family's social position during the Great Depression. Mildred separates from Bert, her unemployed husband, and sets out to support herself and her children. After a difficult search she finds a job as a
AACTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role the AFI Awards). When the AFI launched the AACTA in 2011, it changed the annual ceremony to the AACTA Awards, with the current award being a continuum of the AFI Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. From 1971–1975 it was presented as a special award and was accompanied with a cash prize, before it became a competitive award from 1976 onward. Judy Davis is the most nominated actress in this category, with eight nominations, including five wins, most recently for her role in "The Eye of the Storm" (2011). Candidates for this award must be human and female,