When she won the Academy Award as best actress, Sally Field announced, "You like me! You really like me!" Name this film in which she played a young widow and cotton farmer in the south.

The film in which Sally Field played a young widow and cotton farmer in the South, leading to her memorable Academy Award speech, is "Places in the Heart." This 1984 drama, written and directed by Robert Benton, is set in 1935 Waxahachie, Texas, during the Great (Review) Depression. It follows Edna Spalding, who, after the accidental death of her sheriff husband, is left to raise her two children and save their struggling cotton farm from foreclosure. To do so, she takes in a blind boarder and a Black laborer to help with the harvest, facing immense challenges with resilience and determination.

It was for her moving portrayal of Edna Spalding that Sally Field won her second Academy Award for Best Actress in 1985. Her acceptance speech that night (Review) became one of the most famous in Oscar history, though it is frequently misquoted. Overcome with emotion, Field actually declared, "I can't deny the fact that you like me. Right now, you like me!" The slightly altered phrase, "You like me! You really like me!", gained widespread popularity through subsequent parodies and cultural references.

This emotional declaration stemmed from Field's long journey in Hollywood, where she worked to transition from her early career in television sitcoms to being recognized as a serious dramatic actress. Her win for "Places in the Heart" was a profound moment of validation, signifying that her talent and hard work were truly appreciated by her peers. The film itself was also a critical success, earning seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, and winning for Best Original Screenplay.