This post originally appeared on the DVD Netflix blog “Inside the Envelope.” That company closed in 2023, and the blog was shut down.
Many Academy Awards in the 1980s went to movies that explored non-traditional subjects, indicating a move toward inclusiveness, as film makers began to explore dysfunction, disabilities, and cultural issues. Here are some notable Academy Award winners from the 1980s that are worth watching.
To start out the decade, the 1980 Academy Awards bestowed the best picture honor on a movie that set the spotlight on divorce and its effect on children. Kramer vs. Kramer, stars Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep, who earned best actor and best supporting actress, respectively. This film upends the age-old scenario, in that the mother is the one to leave home. Then, just as the father starts to feel comfortable in his expanded role, the mother returns, while at the center of the turmoil sits a young boy.
Another 1980 noteworthy Oscar winner is the German production, The Tin Drum, which won best foreign-language film. In this film, a young boy, in the chaos of the rise of Nazism, takes matters into his own hands and, in protest, decides to stop growing at the age of three.
A devastatingly dysfunctional family drama won best picture in 1981. Ordinary People features Mary Tyler Moore in a role quite different from those she had played in the past. Her repressed character is morose, she’s lost a son, and her surviving son is a disappointment. Robert Redford won best director for this film.
Away from a family subject, best picture in 1982 went to Chariots of Fire, based on the true story of two British runners competing for the 1924 Olympic games. It won four other Oscars, including music, for the original score by Vangelis.
The 1983 Academy Award winner for best picture, Gandhi, also exhibited British influence in its former rule over India and the country’s struggle for independence. Ben Kingsley, who played Gandhi, won the Oscar for best actor. In all, the movie won eight Academy awards.
It was back to the family front at the 1984 Academy Awards as Terms of Endearment took home the best-picture award, while Shirley MacLaine won best actress and Jack Nicholson won best supporting actor. This mother/daughter drama, which spans 30 years, was adapted from Larry McMurtry’s 1975 novel of the same name. McMurtry also wrote The Last Picture Show and Lonesome Dove, which were adapted into a movie and television series, respectively.
Another 1984 winner worth mentioning is Yentl, which tests the gender barrier, as a young Jewish woman poses as a boy to learn more about her faith. Winning the Oscar for best song score, Yentl stars Barbra Streisand, who sang several of the memorable songs in the film, including, “Papa, Can You Hear Me?” Streisand also pushed the gender barrier by serving as director.
In 1986, neither Meryl Streep, nor her co-star, Robert Redford, won Oscars for their work in Out of Africa, but the film won best picture and six other awards, including best directing for Sydney Pollack. Streep plays a woman who wants a better life and finds herself in Africa, miserably married to a womanizer. That is where Robert Redford’s character steps in and things start to get complicated.
The 1987 Academy Awards leaped lightyears forward in disability awareness with Marlee Matlin’s best-actress win for her role as a troubled deaf school custodian in Children of a Lesser God. Matlin, who is deaf, has enjoyed a lengthy acting career since, mainly in television, in shows such as The West Wing.
A significant shift occurred in 1988 when best picture went to a movie about China’s Ching Dynasty, The Last Emperor. It became the third most-honored film in Academy history, after Ben-Hur and West Side Story. In all, The Last Emperor won nine awards. Peter O’Toole stars among a representative Asian cast.
And last, in 1989, years before the devasting figures emerged regarding the rise of autism diagnoses, Rain Man won best picture. Dustin Hoffman, who plays an autistic savant, won best actor, and the film also won for best directing and writing. Tom Cruise plays the brother, an unwilling escort on a cross-country journey, who learns something about slowing down.
At-A-Glance 1980s Academy Award Winners
1980
- Best Picture: Kramer vs. Kramer
- 9 nominations, 5 wins
- Best Actor (Dustin Hoffman), Supporting Actor (Meryl Streep), Directing, Writing
- Eight-year-old Justin Henry became the youngest nominee in a competitive category in the Academy’s history for his supporting performance in Kramer vs. Kramer.
- Star Trek – The Motion Picture broke box office records by grossing almost $12 million in the U.S. in its first three days of release but received only three nominations and no wins.
- The Tin Drum
- 1 nomination, 1 win (Best Foreign Language Film – Federal Republic of Germany)
- Young boy in Nazi WWII decides to stop growing at age three and just play his drum. No one notices.
1981
- Best Picture: Ordinary People
- 6 nominations, 4 wins
- Best Supporting Actor (Timothy Hutton), Directing (Robert Redford), and Writing– Screenplay (Alvin Sargent).
- The loss of her favorite son makes the one barely tolerable to the depressed mother.
- Cissy Spacek won best actress for Coal Miner’s Daughter
- Fame won best musical score and song
1982
- Best Picture: Chariots of Fire
- 7 nominations, 4 wins
- Costume Design, Music – Original Score (Vangelis), Writing – Screenplay
- 1924 Olympic running hopefuls in a story of pressure and faith. Based on a true story.
1983
- Best Picture: Gandhi
- 11 nominations, 8 wins
- Best Actor, Art Direction-Set Decoration, Cinematography, Costume Design, Directing, Film Editing, and Writing–Screenplay.
- True story of a lawyer who stood up (nonviolently) against British rule in India.
- Jessica Lange, Best Supporting Actress for Tootsie and Best Actress for Frances. It was only the fourth time in Academy history that a performer competed in two acting categories in the same year. The others were Fay Bainter (1938), Teresa Wright (1942), and Barry Fitzgerald (1944).
- E. T. The Extra-Terrestrial
- 9 nomination, 4 wins
- Visual Effects, Sound Effects, Music (Original Score), Sound.
1984
- Best Picture: Terms of Endearment
- 11 nominations, 5 wins
- Best Actress (Shirley MacLaine), Best Supporting Actor (Jack Nicholson), Directing, and Writing–Screenplay.
- Mother-daughter drama adapted from Larry McMurty’s novel.
- Flashdance (Best original song)
- The Right Stuff, 8 nominations, 4 wins
- Music, Film Editing, Sound Effects Editing, Sound.
- NASA’s early evolution from sound barrier in 1947 to Mercury astronauts in the 1960s.
- Yentl, 4 nominations, 1 win
- The daughter of a Talmud teacher learns the sacred text even though it’s forbidden for girls by disguising herself as a boy.
1985
- Best Picture: Amadeus
- 11 nominations, 8 wins
- Best Actor, Art Direction-Set Decoration, Costume Design, Directing, Makeup, Sound, and Writing–Screenplay.
- The Killing Fields, 7 nominations, 3 wins
- Cinematography, Supporting Actor, Film Editing
- Journalist covers bloody civil war in Cambodia
1986
- Best Picture: Out of Africa
- 11 nominations, 7 wins
- Art Direction-Set Decoration, Cinematography, Directing, Music–Original Sound, and Writing–Screenplay.
- Denmark native marries a womanizing baron, moves to Africa, and falls in love with a hunter.
1987
- Best Picture: Platoon
- 7 nominations, 4 wins
- Directing, Film Editing, Sound
- True Vietnam experiences of Chris Taylor, volunteer soldier.
- Children of a Lesser God
- 5 nominations, 1 win
- Speech Teacher uses unconventional methods on hearing-impaired students, but the school’s deaf custodian isn’t interested.
- Marlee Matlin (Best Actress)
- A Room With a View
- 8 nominations, 3 wins
- Art Direction, Costume Design, Writing—Screenplay
- Englishwoman travels to Florence with her chaperone, where she falls in love.
1988
- Best Picture: The Last Emporer
- 9 nominations, 9 wins
- Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume Design, Directing, Film Editing, Music, Sound, and Writing—Screenplay
- Last years of China’s Ching Dynasty.
1989
- Best Picture: Rain Man
- 8 nominations, 4 winsBest Actor, Directing, Writing
- Yuppie goes on cross-country trip with his autistic, savant brother.
- Hotel Terminus
- 1 nomination, 1 win
- Klaus Barbie, the Butcher of Lyons is interviewed about his life, hiding, deportation, and trial.
