Monster is a 2003 crime drama film about serial killer Aileen Wuornos, a former prostitute who was executed in Florida in 2002 for killing six men (she was not tried for a seventh murder) in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Wuornos was played by Charlize Theron, and her fictionalized lover, Selby Wall (based on Wuornos' real-life companion Tyria Moore), was played by Christina Ricci. Patty Jenkins wrote and directed the film.
Theron received overwhelming critical acclaim and won seventeen awards for her portrayal, including the Academy Award for Best Actress, Golden Globe Award for Best Actress and the Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress. Theron's performance garnered Monster's only Academy Award nomination. This was only the fifth time in the history of the Academy Awards in which a film's lead actress was its sole nomination and won. Previous occurrences were Joanne Woodward in The Three Faces of Eve, Jodie Foster in The Accused, Kathy Bates in Misery and Jessica Lange in Blue Sky.