The Other Movie Oscars: The 1980s

Please keep in mind three things:

1. I'm only choosing Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Actress.  Let's be honest and say that these are the only three categories most people care about.

2. I'm only choosing from the movies reviewed in my "Some Other Movies From..." entries.  This means that some of the movies I choose might actually be award-winners from that year.

3. The movies reviewed in my "Some Other Movies From..." entries were chosen because I hadn't seen them before, and/or because of their relative obscurity.  To put an even finer point on it, they were chosen half willfully and half randomly.  I tend to pick 7 or 8 movies featuring people I'm familiar with, and 7 or 8 movies featuring people unknown to me.

4. For fun I'm adding another category, something memorable from a film belonging to a given year.

1989

Best Picture: My Left Foot
Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lews (My Left Foot)
Best Actress: Joanne Whalley-Kilmer (Scandal)
Most Memorable Movie: Society

1988

Best Picture: Frantic
Best Actor: Harrison Ford (Frantic)
Best Actress: Jodie Foster (The Accused)
Most Overlooked Movie: Patty Hearst

1987

Best Picture: Wall Street
Best Actor: Richard E. Grant (Withnail and I)
Best Actress: Faye Dunaway (Barfly)
Biggest Trainwreck: Nuts

1986

Best Picture: Manhunter
Best Actor: Bob Hoskins (Mona Lisa)
Best Actress: Marlee Matlin (Children of a Lesser God)
Most Gloriously Bad Movie: Never Too Young to Die

1985

Best Picture: Runaway Train (hands down)
Best Actor: Jon Voigt (Runaway Train)
Best Actress: Jessica Lange (Sweet Dreams)
Most Disturbing Movie: Come and See

1984

Best Picture: A Passage to India
Best Actor: Haing S. Ngor (The Killing Fields)
Best Actress: Judy Davis (A Passage to India)
Cringiest Movie: The Hotel New Hampshire

1983

Best Picture: Blue Thunder (fuck it, why not?)
Best Actor: Roy Scheider (Blue Thunder)
Best Actress: Meryl Streep (Silkwood)
Cheesy 80s Goodness: tie between Xtro and Deathstalker

1982

Best Picture: Gandhi (how could it be otherwise?)
Best Actor: Ben Kingsley (Gandhi)
Best Actress: Debra Winger (An Officer and a Gentleman)
Best B Movie: Basket Case

1981

Best Picture: Reds
Best Actor: Klaus Maria Brandauer (Mephisto)
Best Actress: Diane Keaton (Reds)
Most Hysterical: Faye Dunaway (Mommie Dearest)

1980

Best Picture: Atlantic City
Best Actor: Donald Sutherland (Ordinary People)
Best Actress: Mary Tyler Moore (Ordinary People)
So Bad It Demands Your Attention: Can't Stop the Music (a.k.a. "The Village People Movie")

Related Entries:

Some Other Movies From 1981
Some Other Movies From 1983
Superhero Movies From October 2018 Onward (7)
Some Other Movies From 1985