She was praised for her roles in Volver (2006) and Nine (2009), receiving Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations for each. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2008 for playing volatile painter María Elena in Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona. She is the first and only Spanish actress to both win and be nominated for an Academy Award, as well as the first Spanish actress to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.