Connelly won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Alicia Nash in Ron Howard's biopic A Beautiful Mind (2001).

[21] When her mother began taking her to acting auditions, a then 11 year-old Connelly was quickly selected for a supporting role as the aspiring dancer and actress Deborah Gelly in Sergio Leone's Jewish gangster epic Once Upon a Time in America (filmed 1982–83, released 1984).

[22] Connelly gained public recognition with Jim Henson's 1986 fantasy Labyrinth with David Bowie, in which she played Sarah Williams, a teenager on a quest to rescue her brother Toby from the world of goblins.

[20] Stephen Schaefer wrote for USA Today, "Anyone looking for proof that little girls do grow up fast in the movies should take a gander at curvaceous Jennifer Connelly [...] in The Hot Spot.

[20] In the same year, director Garry Marshall considered her for the role of Vivian Ward in Pretty Woman, but ultimately felt that she was too young for the part.

[42] She played Jenny Blake, a Disney dilution of what was in the original work a Betty Page persona, here the aspiring actress girlfriend of stunt pilot Cliff, "the Rocketeer".

[43] New York characterized the film as "pallid" but said of her performance, "Connelly is properly cast; she has the moist, full-to-the-cheek-bones sensuality of the Hollywood starlets of that period, but she's a little straight".

[44] She appeared alongside Jason Priestley in the Roy Orbison music video for "I Drove All Night" the following year, directed by Peter Care.

[45][46] Connelly next appeared in Of Love and Shadows, a 1994 Argentine-American drama film written and directed by Betty Kaplan starring Antonio Banderas.

[20] Her next appearance was in the critically acclaimed 1998 science fiction film Dark City, in which she played alongside Rufus Sewell, William Hurt, Ian Richardson and Kiefer Sutherland.

[54] Connelly portrayed femme fatale Emma, a torch singer whose husband, John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell), suffers from amnesia.

[60] She appeared in Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream, based on the novel of the same name by Hubert Selby Jr.[61] Connelly was drawn to the script for its depiction of addiction and its effects on relatives;[62] she played Marion Silver, the girlfriend of Harry (Jared Leto).

[63][64] Marion is a middle-class girl from Manhattan Beach who pursues the dream of establishing a dress shop, but becomes addicted to heroin and descends into a life of prostitution.

[66] Also in 2000, Connelly appeared in Waking the Dead, based on the 1986 novel of the same name, playing Sarah Williams, an activist killed by a car bomb in Minneapolis while she was driving Chilean refugees.

And she and Mr. Crudup connect powerfully in love scenes that convey the fierce tenderness of a relationship whose passion carries a tinge of religious fervor.

"[69] The script of Ron Howard's 2001 biopic A Beautiful Mind, loosely based on Sylvia Nasar's 1998 biography of the mathematician John Nash, sparked her interest in the project.

Although the showier performance belongs to Crowe, it is Connelly's complex work, depicting a woman torn by love for and fear of the same man, that elevates the film to a higher level".

Scott of The New York Times said, "There is, for one thing, Ms. Connelly, keen and spirited in the underwritten role of a woman who starts out as a math groupie and soon finds herself the helpmeet of a disturbed, difficult man.

She portrayed Kathy Nicolo, an abandoned wife whose inherited house is sold at auction to the Iranian emigre and former colonel Massoud Amir Behrani (Ben Kingsley).

Producer Michael London said about Connelly's portrayal: "I think she understood Kathy and knew in her bones that she could take this character and give her the kind of dimension that she had.

[21] She played Dahlia, a frightened young woman traumatized by her past, who moves with her daughter to an apartment in New York City where paranormal happenings take place.

[93] USA Today's Susan Wloszczyna commented, "The strong performances of Jennifer Connelly and Mark Ruffalo ... raise the film above overheated melodrama".

[94] Connelly portrayed astrobiologist Helen Benson alongside Keanu Reeves in the 2008 remake of the 1951 science fiction film The Day The Earth Stood Still.

[99] Set during the writing of On the Origin of Species, the film depicts Darwin's struggle with the subject of the book as well as with his wife, who opposed his theories, and their mourning for their daughter Anne.

During preparation, Black requested Connelly's advice to design the set of Virginia's house, as well as the selection of the apparel to create the character's style.

[112] In the film, Connelly played Gwen, the wife of Carl Vanderveer (Greg Kinnear); the couple are members of the Church of the Third Millennium, led by pastor Dan (Pierce Brosnan).

[113] During the same year, Connelly recorded an audiobook version of Paul Bowles' The Sheltering Sky that was released in March 2012 as part of Audible.com's The A-List Collection.

[120] Working again in collaboration with A Beautiful Mind co-star Russell Crowe, she portrayed Naameh in Darren Aronofsky's 2014 biblical epic Noah.

Working again with Director Joseph Kosinski, Connelly portrayed Penelope "Penny" Benjamin in the action blockbuster film Top Gun: Maverick, which released in 2022 after a series of delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

[146][147] In February 2012, Connelly was announced as the first global brand ambassador for Shiseido, having previously worked with the company in the 1980s in a series of advertisements for the Japanese market.