Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)

She had already burned brightly through Manhattan, The Seduction of Joe Tynan, the TV presentation of Wendy Wasserstein's Uncommon Women...and Others, and the miniseries The Holocaust when Streep played dissatisfied wife and mother opposite Dustin Hoffman in Avery Corman's hot-button story of gender roles, self-actualization, and post-feminist child-rearing. On her second nomination, Streep won her first Oscar (in the category of Best Supporting Actress).