For Vanity Fair's 23rd Hollywood Issue, Annie Leibovitz photographed 11 accomplished actresses, who among them have a total of nine Oscar nominations and two wins, on the back lot at Paramount Studios in a setting inspired by the industry's golden era of cinema. "This year we looked at the young and wildly talented lineup and wanted a bit of femininity—a beautiful, any palette, almost like a fantasy, to highlight then very distinct individuality," says Jessica Diehl, V.F. creative director, fashion and style. "We were in the mood for beauty, lightness, and romance—the Hollywood we all dream of."

Natalie Portman, who first appeared on the Hollywood cover at age 16, in 1998, was pregnant when she won her first Oscar, in 2011, for Black Swan. She is again pregnant and the subject of best-actress buzz—this time for playing a bereaved Jackie Kennedy in Pablo Lorrain's unconventional biopic Jackie. (Vanity Fair went to press before the announcement of the 2017 Oscar nominations.) Amy Adams riveted audiences with performances in Arrival, as the linguist Dr. Louise Banks, and in Tom Ford's Nocturnal Animals, as Susan, an ait gallerist disillusioned by her life choices. During the photo shoot, Adams and Portman bonded over motherhood (Adams has a six-year-old daughter) and careers.

Lupita Nyong'o continues to establish herself as one of the greats with her performance as the conflicted mother of a young chess phenom in Queen of Katwe, based on the true story of Ugandan chess champion Phiona Mutesi. She also voiced the character Raksha for Disney's The Jungle Book, and she is joining the Marvel family in the upcoming Black Panther.

Emma Stone sang and danced her way to a Golden Globe best-actress award, bringing her character, Mia, an aspiring artist, to full Technicolor life in Damien Chazelle's La La Land. The film marked her third collaboration with co-star Ryan Gosling, making them a modem Hepburn and Tracy. Be sure to visit VF.com to check out Emma Stone's pogo-stick skills (yes, she jumped around during the photo shoot) as well as the other cover stars' secret talents, ranging from ballet to football.

Fresh off her performance in Ewan McGregor's adaptation of Philip Roth's American Pastoral, Dakota Fanning poises herself to take on another prized literary work, as star and a producer of The Bell Jar, an adaptation of the Sylvia Plath novel. Younger sister Elle Fanning flew in for the day from the New Orleans set of Sofia Coppola's The Beguiled, a remake of the 1971 Clint Eastwood classic. As Julie, a sexually precocious teenager, in Mike Mills's 20th Century Women and as Loretta Figgis in Ben Affleck's gangster drama Live by Night, she showed her depth and maturity. Elle and Dakota both required transportation in golf carts to keep their elaborate frocks pristine.

Musician Janelle Monae transitioned to the screen and dazzled: first in Barry Jenkins's Moonlight as the sympathetic and nurturing girlfriend of a Florida drug dealer, and again in Hidden Figures, a true story about the female African-American mathematicians who were essential to NASA's 1960s space race.

She was joined by two other actresses playing real-life figures: Aja Naomi King, the How to Get Away with Murder actress, delivered a powerhouse performance as Nat Turner's wife, Cherry, in The Birth of a Nation. Ruth Negga, the Irish-Ethiopian actress from AMC's Preacher, is earning rave reviews for her role in Loving. Negga and Joel Edgerton play Mildred and Richard Loving, a Virginia couple who fought for the repeal of laws banning inter-racial marriage.

"WE WERE IN THE MOOD FOR THE HOLLYWOOD WE ALL DREAM OF."

Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy star Dakota Johnson wins the award for most air 1 miles traveled, arriving on set from Milan. (She was in Italy filming the remake of Suspiria, which re-unites her with A Bigger Splash director Luca Guadagnino.) Due to her hectic travel schedule, her father, legend Don Johnson, visited our shoot to squeeze in tune with his busy daughter, to the delight of all. Actress Greta Gerwig (Jackie and 20th Century Women), fresh from directing a film called Lady Bird, sought to get a different lens on things by shadowing Leibovitz throughout the day.

At times, thanks to the cool music and lively conversation, the shoot ended up feeling a bit like a party—one with a really fun favor: custom Vanity Fair bathrobes.