he Next Karate Kid is a 1994 film starring Hilary Swank and Pat Morita. It is the fourth and final movie in the Karate Kid series. In September 1997, Swank was cast as single mother Carly Reynolds on Beverly Hills, 90210. She was initially promised it would be a two-year role, but saw her character written out after 16 episodes in January 1998. Swank later said that she was devastated at being cut from the show, thinking, "If I'm not good enough for 90210, I'm not good enough for anything." As it turned out, the firing was a lucky break for Swank, freeing her to audition for the role of Brandon Teena in Boys Don't Cry. Swank reduced her body fat to seven percent in preparation for the role. Many critics hailed hers as the best female performance of 1999; her co-star, Chloë Sevigny, had her performance singled out as well. Swank's work ultimately won her the Golden Globe and Oscar for Best Actress. She subsequently won the Best Actress Oscar and Golden Globe again for playing a boxer in Clint Eastwood's 2004 Oscar-winning film Million Dollar Baby, a role for which she underwent training in the ring and gained 19 pounds of muscle.

Swank's success meant that she had joined the ranks of Vivien Leigh, Helen Hayes, Sally Field, and Luise Rainer as the only actresses to have been nominated for Academy Awards twice and win both times. She is the third-youngest double Best Actress winner (after Rainer and Jodie Foster). After winning her second Oscar, she said, "I don't know what I did in this life to deserve this. I'm just a girl from a trailer park who had a dream." Swank had earned only $75 per day for her work on Boys Don't Cry, culminating in a total of $3,000. Her earnings were so low, that (according to an anecdote on 60 Minutes) she had not even earned enough to qualify for health insurance.

In early 2006, Swank signed a three-year contract as spokesperson for Guerlain (a women's fragrance). In 2007, Swank starred in and executive produced Freedom Writers, a drama about a real-life teacher who inspired a California high school class. Many reviews of Swank's performance were positive, with one critic noting that she "brings credibility" to the role and another stating that her performance reaches a "singular lack of artifice, stripping herself back to the bare essentials". Swank starred in The Reaping, a horror film released on April 5, 2007, in which she plays a debunker of religious phenomena. Swank convinced the producers to move the film's setting from New England to the Deep South, and the movie was being filmed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, when Hurricane Katrina struck. Swank also appeared in the romantic comedy P.S. I Love You alongside Gerard Butler, an actor for whom she has much praise, it was released at the end of 2007.

Swank received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on January 8, 2007. Hers was the 2,325th star presented. Variety online reported in February 2008, that Swank would be portraying Amelia Earhart, and be co-executive producer for a biopic titled Amelia. Filming occurred in the summer of 2008 in a number of international locations. Swank is also attached to star in the Hollywood remake version of Intimate Strangers.

• Betty Anne Waters (2009) (in production) .... Betty Ann Waters
• The Resident (2010) (announced) (rumored)
• Amelia (2009) (post-production) .... Amelia Earhart
  
• Birds of America (2008) .... Laura
• P.S. I Love You (2007) .... Holly
• The Reaping (2007) .... Katherine
• Freedom Writers (2007) .... Erin Gruwell
• The Black Dahlia (2006) .... Madeleine Linscott
  ... aka Black Dahlia (Germany)
  ... aka Die Schwarze Dahlie (Germany: TV title)
• Million Dollar Baby (2004) .... Maggie Fitzgerald
• Red Dust (2004) .... Sarah Barcant
• Iron Jawed Angels (2004) (TV) .... Alice Paul
• 11:14 (2003) .... Buzzy
• The Core (2003) .... Maj. Rebecca Childs
  ... aka Core (USA: poster title)
• The Space Between (2002)
• Insomnia (2002/I) .... Detective Ellie Burr
  ... aka Insomnie (Canada: French title)
• The Affair of the Necklace (2001) .... Jeanne St. Remy de Valois
• The Gift (2000) .... Valerie Barksdale
• The Audition (2000)