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Forbes 30 Under 30 Alicia Vikander Wins Best Supporting Actress Oscar

This article is more than 8 years old.

Swedish actress Alicia Vikander just won her first Oscar for her role in The Danish Girl.

She beat out competition from Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight), Rooney Mara (Carol), Rachel McAdams (Spotlight) and Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs).

"Eddie [Redmayne,] thanks for being the best acting partner," Vikander gushed, addressing her costar during her acceptance speech. "I couldn't have done it without you, you raised my game."

Vikander, 27, went on to thank her friends and family. "Thanks Mom and Dad for giving me the belief that anything can happen even, though I would never have believed this," Vikander continued, raising her statue in a salute.

A member of FORBES’ 30 Under 30 Hollywood Class of 2016, Vikander stunned as a humanoid robot Ava in 2015's Ex Machina.

"I know this was not an easy film to get made and it's been almost 50 years one of our producers worked on it," said Vikander, acknowledging the difficult passage of The Danish Girl. Though the film came under fire for casting a cisgendered actor as a transgender character with Redmayne, Vikander expressed hope that the film helped signal a societal shift in acceptance of transgender people.

"With Caitlyn Jenner coming out and Transparent and Tangerine , it's a social change," Vikander concluded. "In the same way that this film has been so educational for me I hope it can open up wider conversation."

The Danish Girl grossed $53 million worldwide on an estimated $15 million budget. This is Vikander's first Academy Award nomination and win. She has yet to join FORBES' highest-paid actress ranking but thanks to a Louis Vuitton endorsement and increasingly high-profile films, her earnings are set to rise.

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