Winslet landed the role of Juliet in "Heavenly Creatures" after an impressive audition. Her on screen performance marked her as one to watch: she was riveting as the tubercular, highly intelligent teen who develops a strong rapport with a fellow student, allowing the pair to create a fantasy world and, when threatened with separation, conspire to commit murder. Winslet then played a princess in Disney's "A Kid in King Arthur's Court" (1995) before winning raves and an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress for her subtle performance as the spirited Marianne Dashwood in "Sense and Sensibility" (also 1995). Winslet continued to appear in period pieces with "Jude" (1996). Adapted from "Jude the Obscure" by Thomas Hardy, the film featured Winslet as Sue, the title character's unconventional cousin whose mercurial nature creates problems. Later that year, she was Ophelia to Kenneth Branagh's "Hamlet,” in the actor-director's all-star feature version of the Shakespeare classic.

Moving from Shakespeare, Winslet adopted an American accent as a Philadelphia socialite who finds unlikely romance with a lower-class artist (Leonardo DiCaprio) in James Cameron's spectacular "Titanic" (1997). More than just a film, "Titanic" became a phenomenon: grossing more than $600 million and earning 14 Oscar nominations, including one for Winslet as Best Actress. Her onscreen chemistry with DiCaprio had a cross-generational appeal and the young actress found herself on magazine covers and fodder for the tabloids. Rather than become confined to Hollywood blockbusters, though, Winslet accepted roles in two rather small films that both shared some similarities in that they revolved around a spiritual search. "Hideous Kinky" (1999) cast the actress as the mother of two young daughters who packs up and heads to Marrakech seeking wisdom from a Sufi while "Holy Smoke" (also 1999) saw her portray a cult member whose family hires a deprogrammer. Both roles allowed the young actress to display her emotional intensity and daring range, as well as to play relatively contemporary characters.

In 2000, it was back to the petticoats as Winslet portrayed a laundress in the asylum of Charenton who colludes with the incarcerated Marquis de Sade to help smuggle out his writings in "Quills.” Once again, the actress demonstrated her remarkable gifts for playing intelligent and sensual characters, and to continue to reveal her utter fearlessness as an actress, unafraid to explore dark corners and push conventional boundaries. In "Enigma" (2001), the WWII-era spy drama in which she co-starred as a mathematician working on breaking the German code, she took a role that was less emotionally charged and edgy, instead more subtle. Again she showed a gift for believably thinking on screen in the contemplative drama. "Iris" (also 2001), in which she essayed the youthful incarnation of the British philosopher and novelist Iris Murdoch, was a return to form (although she split the role with Judi Dench, who played Murdoch in her Alzheimer's period, a juicier era for an actress to explore). Nevertheless, Winslet caught Murdoch's unconventional, free-spirited youth and realistically portrayed her romance with her eventual husband. Her work brought the actress a third career Academy Award nomination , this time as Best Supporting Actress. Winslet next appeared as Elizabeth "Bitesy" Bloom, an ambitious reporter investigating the case of a death row inmate in "The Life of David Gale" (2003). Winslet was praised for her performance, but it couldn't overcome the bad feelings engendered by the film's overwrought, unconvincing story and the overkill behind its anti-death penalty message.

The full-figured—and, after childbirth, zaftig—Winslet proudly refused to conform to the typical Hollywood standard for extreme thinness, and her fan base loved her for it—not only was she happy with her figure, she unabashedly displayed it in several films and spoke openly of defying her industry's physical expectations. A small firestorm erupted in 2003, however, when a radically thinned-down Winslet appeared on the cover of GQ magazine. It turned out that the actress was digitally slimmed by photo retouchers, but she blamed the controversy on herself for being so outspoken on the subject—still, she claimed she had no plans to change her own natural shape.

In 2004 Winslett took on another free-spirited role for "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" playing Clementine, the ex-girlfriend with the multicolored hair whose break-up with her repressed boyfriend (Jim Carrey) prompts him to undergo a procedure to erase all trace of her from his memory. Again employing a flawless American accent, Winslett turned in a rich, multi-layered performance in one her best films to date, though it was not a major box office champion. The role did, however, earn the actress several award nominations: she was given nods by the Screen Actors Guild, the Golden Globes, and the Academy Awards. In "Finding Neverland" (2004), Winslet was on top of her game once more, playing Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, the widowed mother of four boys who, along with her sons, becomes the muse for "Peter Pan" author J.M. Barrie (Johnny Depp) and whose life takes a tragic turn. Though she received no major award nominations for the role, she did serve as an effective emotional counterpoint to Depp’s own nominated and much ballyhooed performance.

Retreating to more obscure, independent roles—as well as motherhood and domestic life with husband, director Sam Mendes—Winslet costarred in the emotionally engaging musical “Romance and Cigarettes” (2005), playing a seductive lingerie sales clerk who embarks on a passionate affair with a married ironworker (James Gandolfini). In much of 2006, Winslet was relatively quiet, appearing in Steven Zaillian’s botched and barely noticed rehash of “All the King’s Men” (2006), then voicing the streetwise Rita, a rat living in a vast sewer metropolis stumbled upon by a pampered pet mouse, Roddy (Hugh Jackman), in the middling animated comedy “Flushed Away” (2006). After starring as a single mom who engages in an affair with a discontented married man (Patrick Wilson) in “Little Children” (2006), Winslet shifted gears to costar in a romantic comedy, “The Holiday” (2006), playing an Englishwoman spurned by love who switches houses for the Christmas holiday with a disenfranchised American woman (Cameron Diaz) in Los Angeles, as both find the last thing either wanted—another romance. Her role in “Little Children” earned Winslet several award nominations, including a Golden Globe Awards nod for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama and another for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role – Theatrical Motion Pictures at the 13th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards. She went on to earn another Academy Award nomination, joining Penelope Cruz, Judi Dench, Helen Mirren and Meryl Streep in the Best Actress category.