The film industry underwent a significant transformation during the 1980s. Following the revolutionary New Hollywood era of the 1960s and 1970s, studios shifted power from visionary directors to corporate executives. The ’70s were marked by somber storytelling, but the ’80s brought a wave of joyful escapism, captivating audiences with blockbuster entertainment. This decade proved to be a golden era for the box office, as films that thrilled and delighted audiences garnered substantial profits. Stars such as Tom Cruise, Eddie Murphy, and Sylvester Stallone earned lucrative paychecks, while directors like Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Robert Zemeckis skillfully tapped into public tastes. Through it all, the Academy Awards continued to highlight what they believed were the year’s finest films, sometimes aligning with popular opinion and other times diverging from it.

While iconic movies like “The Empire Strikes Back,” “Back to the Future,” and “Batman” dominated at the box office, they received minimal recognition at the Oscars. Spielberg’s “E.T.” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark” did secure nominations for Best Picture but were ultimately overshadowed by more serious contenders. This isn’t to suggest that box office success guarantees Oscar glory; many blockbuster hits have not stood the test of time, just as numerous Oscar-winning films have not aged well either.

The Oscars in the 1980s tell a story of diverging tastes between the general public and the Academy. Here, we rank every Best Picture winner of the 1980s from worst to best, taking into account Rotten Tomatoes scores, critical reassessments, and the author’s own insights and opinions.

Set in 1948 Atlanta, “Driving Miss Daisy” tells the story of a wealthy Jewish widow, Daisy Werthan (played by Jessica Tandy), who insists on maintaining her independence until an accident forces her to reconsider. Her son, portrayed by Dan Aykroyd, hires Hoke Colburn (Morgan Freeman), a Black chauffeur, to assist her, much to Miss Daisy’s initial irritation. However, as they embark on numerous journeys together, Miss Daisy begins to warm up to Hoke. Through shared experiences of racism and antisemitism, they come to realize their similarities, ultimately forging a friendship that transcends the prejudice of their era.

In 1948 Atlanta, wealthy Jewish widow Daisy Werthan (Jessica Tandy) is determined to take care of herself until she crashes her car. Her son (Dan Aykroyd) hires a Black chauffeur, Hoke Colburn (Morgan Freeman), to drive her around, which doesn’t sit well with the stubborn Miss Daisy. After a few tense trips, Miss Daisy warms to Hoke, and after witnessing firsthand instances of racism and antisemitism, starts to see they’re not all that different after all. By the end, they’ve formed a friendship that defies the bigotry of the times.

“Driving Miss Daisy’s” 1989 best picture victory over “Born on the Fourth of July,” “Dead Poets Society,” “Field of Dreams,” and “My Left Foot” wouldn’t have aged well to begin with, as its portrayal of race relations in the segregated South plays like a cartoon. Yet, its win feels all the more egregious for having happened the same year that “Do the Right Thing,” Spike Lee’s landmark examination of modern day racial tensions, wasn’t even nominated. As was often the case, the Academy felt more comfortable dealing with racism as an issue of the past instead of the present. The film won additional prizes for Tandy in best actress, best adapted screenplay, and best makeup.

• Cast: Morgan Freeman, Jessica Tandy, Dan Aykroyd, Patti LuPone, Esther Rolle
• Director: Bruce Beresford
  
• Rating: PG
  
• Runtime: 99 minutes
  
• Year: 1989
• Where to watch: Prime Video, Apple TV
  

In 1913, Danish aristocrat Karen Blixen (Meryl Streep) moves to Kenya with her new husband, Baron Bror Blixen (Klaus Maria Brandauer). Thinking the Baron is going to invest her money in a dairy farm, Karen is shocked to learn that he’s bought a coffee plantation — one that is on too high an elevation to grow beans. She later learns that her new husband is unfaithful, leading her into the arms of big game hunter Denys Finch Hatton (Robert Redford), who eschews the aristocracy for a simpler life.

The 1985 best picture race looked all but decided in favor of “The Color Purple,” until Steven Spielberg wasn’t nominated for best director. With that film effectively out of the running (in fact, it lost all 11 of its nominations), voters chose “Out of Africa” in a lineup that also included “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” “Prizzi’s Honor,” and “Witness.” With its epic scope and radiant pictorial beauty, it’s practically catnip for the Academy. Yet Sydney Pollack’s laborious adaptation of Isak Dinesen’s (a pseudonym for the real Karen Blixen) book plays like cinematic serotonin, despite the performances by Streep and Redford. The film won additional trophies for best director, adapted screenplay, cinematography, art direction, sound, and original score.

• Cast: Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Michael Kitchen, Michael Gough
• Director: Sydney Pollack
  
• Rating: PG
  
• Runtime: 161 minutes
  
• Year: 1985
• Where to watch: Prime Video, Apple TV
  

After getting thrown off of a South African train for sitting in the whites-only section, Indian lawyer Mohandas Gandhi (Ben Kingsley) devotes his life to liberating his people from oppression. Gandhi leads a movement against the British Empire through nonviolent resistance, fighting back against laws that treat Indians as criminals in their own home. Slowly but surely, Gandhi gains enough popular support to gain India independence, and when he is assassinated, his funeral is attended by thousands of mourners. 

Even “Gandhi” director Richard Attenborough believed Steven Spielberg should’ve prevailed at the 1982 Oscars for “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial,” and popular opinion is on Attenborough’s side — though considering Attenborough eventually played John Hammond in Spielberg’s “Jurassic Park,” there were clearly no hard feelings. With its massive length, a cast of thousands, and meticulous period detail, the film felt massive against competitors like “Missing,” “Tootsie,” and “The Verdict.” Yet of the five best picture nominees, it’s probably the last to be put on for a movie night, despite an impressive performance by Kingsley as the slain civil rights leader. The film won eight prizes in total, including best director, best actor for Kingsley, best original screenplay, best cinematography, best art direction, best costume design, and best film editing.

• Cast: Ben Kingsley, Candice Bergen, Edward Fox, John Gielgud, Trevor Howard, John Mills, Martin Sheen
• Director: Richard Attenborough
  
• Rating: PG
  
• Runtime: 191 minutes
  
• Year: 1982
• Where to watch: Hulu, Prime Video, Apple TV
  

When hot shot car dealer Charlie Babbitt’s (Tom Cruise) estranged father dies, he travels back home to discover a long-lost older brother, Raymond (Dustin Hoffman). An autistic savant, Raymond has spent his entire life in a mental institution, and Charlie learns that the entirety of his father’s $3 million estate has been donated to his brother’s home. Intent on claiming that money for himself, Charlie and Raymond hit the road to Los Angeles in their dad’s 1949 Buick Roadmaster, with a pit stop in Las Vegas when Charlie discovers Raymond’s talent for counting cards.

It seems almost unbelievable today that an intimate character drama like “Rain Man” was the highest grossing movie worldwide of 1988, yet such was Cruise’s star power at the end of the decade. Its popularity made its best picture victory over “The Accidental Tourist,” “Dangerous Liaisons,” “Mississippi Burning,” and “Working Girl” seem almost inevitable, along with additional wins for Hoffman in best actor, Barry Levinson in best director, and best original screenplay. Suffice it to say, its portrayal of autistic people as “magical” beings raises a few eyebrows in the modern era, but it’s a credit to the performances and direction that the film rarely veers into hurtful stereotypes.

• Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise, Valeria Golino, Jerry Molen, Ralph Seymour, Bonnie Hunt
• Director: Barry Levinson
  
• Rating: R
  
• Runtime: 133 minutes
  
• Year: 1988
• Where to watch: Prime Video, Apple TV
  

Two British athletes train to run in the 1924 Paris Olympics. Devout Scott Christian Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson) sees running as a way to express God’s glory, and refuses to compete on the Sabbath. Jewish Cambridge student Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross) is determined to win in order to combat antisemitism, even if it puts a strain on his relationship with his fiancée, opera soprano Sybil Gordon (Alice Krige). With the help of trainer Sam Mussabini (Ian Holm), Abrahams improves his technique and competes alongside Liddell to bring the gold home. 

“Chariots of Fire” played as the David to the Goliath of “Reds,” which came in with 12 nominations. Despite winning best director, Warren Beatty’s historical epic came up short against the racing drama, which also beat out “Atlantic City,” “On Golden Pond,” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” Although it proceeds at the pace of a tortoise instead of a hare, the film’s feel-good story of triumph over adversity can still leave a lump in your throat (none other than Christopher Nolan lists it as a favorite). In addition to winning best original screenplay and costume design, it also took home a prize for Vangelis’ anachronistic, synthesized score, the main title of which became a chart topper that has been constantly reused.

• Cast: Ben Cross, Ian Charleson, Alice Krige, Dennis Christopher, Brad Davis, John Gielgud, Ian Holm
• Director: Hugh Hudson
  
• Rating: PG
  
• Runtime: 125 minutes
  
• Year: 1981
• Where to watch: Prime Video, Apple TV
  

In 1967, Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) drops out of college to serve in the Vietnam War. There, he finds himself caught between two warring factions fighting for control of the 25th Infantry Division, including hardened Staff Sergeant Barnes (Tom Berenger), whose face is covered in scars from his many battles; and Sergeant Elias (Willem Dafoe), who fraternizes with his cadets and views the Vietnamese people with compassion. The more time Chris spends fighting in Vietnam, the more disillusioned he becomes with America’s rationale for the war.

1986 was a good year for Oliver Stone, with both “Platoon” and “Salvador” earning Oscar nominations. Based on his own experiences as a young cadet in Vietnam, “Platoon” triumphed over “Children of a Lesser God,” “Hannah and Her Sisters,” “The Mission,” and “A Room with a View,” winning additional prizes for best director, best film editing, and best sound. Much like Stone’s later Vietnam dramas “Born on the Fourth of July” and “Heaven and Earth,” the film sympathizes with the young men who believed it was their duty to serve their country, only to return shattered by a war they never should’ve fought in the first place.

• Cast: Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, Charlie Sheen, Keith David, Forest Whitaker, Kevin Dillon, John C. McGinley, Johnny Depp
• Director: Oliver Stone
  
• Rating: R
  
• Runtime: 120 minutes
  
• Year: 1986
• Where to watch: Tubi, Pluto TV, Prime Video, Apple TV
  

Consumed by guilt over the accidental death of his older brother, troubled teen Conrad Jarrett (Timothy Hutton) attempts suicide. After spending time in a psychiatric hospital, he struggles reconnecting with family and friends. His supportive father, Calvin (Donald Sutherland), encourages him to see a psychiatrist, Dr. Berger (Judd Hirsch), who helps him overcome the demons that are haunting him. Yet repairing the relationship with his hostile mother Beth (Mary Tyler Moore) proves more daunting than anyone can anticipate.

At the Oscars, “Ordinary People” had the misfortune of winning best picture over Martin Scorsese’s “Raging Bull,” which has been heralded as one of the best movies of the decade. But on its own, Robert Redford’s domestic drama remains a deeply moving story of grief tearing a family apart, and the small steps we must take on the road towards self-forgiveness. If nothing else, it deserves recognition for essentially starting Redford’s Sundance Film Festival, spawning imitation dramas dealing with similar subjects. Also competing against “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” “The Elephant Man,” and “Tess,” “Ordinary People” also nabbed best director, supporting actor for Hutton, and adapted screenplay.

• Cast: Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, Judd Hirsch, Timothy Bottoms, Elizabeth McGovern, M. Emmet Walsh
• Director: Robert Redford
  
• Rating: R
  
• Runtime: 124 minutes
  
• Year: 1980
• Where to watch: Prime Video, MGM+, Apple TV

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After being arrested by the Red Army and declared a war criminal, Puyi (John Lone) looks back on his reign as the last emperor of China. Assuming the throne at the tender age of three, Puyi (played at various ages by Richard Vuu, Tijger Tsou, and Wu Tao) spends his childhood hidden within the Forbidden City, with thousands of servants catering to his every whim. After learning Western customs, Puyi grows into a playboy outside the kingdom walls. Unbeknownst to him, the People’s Republic of China is forming, eventually leading to his imprisonment and political rehabilitation.

Produced on a massive scale, Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Last Emperor” was a gargantuan contender at the Academy Awards against “Broadcast News,” “Fatal Attraction,” “Hope and Glory,” and “Moonstruck.” The first film to shoot inside the Forbidden City, it’s both a sweeping historical epic and an intimate character study, examining a man whose rise to power and sheltered life doomed him to forever exist outside of time. “The Last Emperor” won all nine of its nominations, including best picture, director, adapted screenplay, cinematography, art direction, costume design, film editing, sound, and original score.

• Cast: John Lone, Joan Chen, Peter O’Toole, Ying Ruocheng, Victor Wong, Ryuichi Sakamoto
• Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
• Rating: PG-13
• Runtime: 163 minutes
• Year: 1987
• Where to watch: Prime Video, HBO Max, Criterion Channel, Apple TV

After the death of her husband, wealthy widow Aurora Greenway (Shirley MacLaine) raises her daughter, Emma, on her own while fielding offers from various suitors. Emma (Debra Winger) grows up and marries Flap (Jeff Daniels), who her mother disapproves of, especially when he uproots her daughter to Iowa. When she suspects Flap is cheating, Emma starts an affair with Sam Burns (John Lithgow), a kind man in a loveless marriage. Aurora, meanwhile, starts dating her neighbor, Garrett Breedlove (Jack Nicholson), a playboy retired astronaut. When Emma is diagnosed with terminal cancer, her mother rushes to be by her side. 

“Terms of Endearment” became an unlikely box office success, coming in second only to “Return of the Jedi” as the highest grossing film of 1983. That’s pretty remarkable considering it’s a movie involving intense scenes about cancer, yet the magic trick of James L. Brooks’s feature debut is in how it manages to make us laugh and cry while staying true to its characters. In a lineup that included “The Big Chill,” “The Dresser,” “The Right Stuff,” and “Tender Mercies,” “Terms of Endearment” swept through the Oscars, winning best picture, director, actress for MacLaine, supporting actor for Nicholson, and adapted screenplay.

• Cast: Debra Winger, Shirley MacLaine, Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito, John Lithgow
• Director: James L. Brooks
  
• Rating: PG
  
• Runtime: 132 minutes
  
• Year: 1983
• Where to watch: Prime Video, Apple TV
  

After a failed suicide attempt, aging composer Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham) is confined to a mental institution, where he claims to have murdered Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce). Salieri recounts his intense rivalry with Mozart, who he resents for his remarkable (and to him, undeserved) talent. Believing God is spiting him for gifting a hedonist with an angelic ear, Salieri works to undermine Amadeus while secretly admiring his music. Eventually, Salieri devises a plan to ruin his rival while forcing him to produce one last great work. 

On the surface, Miloš Forman’s adaptation of Peter Shaffer’s play is as Oscar-baity as movies come. Yet “Amadeus” is surprisingly radical, portraying Mozart as a punk rock rebel clashing with the stuffy musical establishment. It’s also a rich and complex study of jealousy and obsession, telling the story of a great artist through the eyes of someone who recognizes yet envies his talent. With its lavish production value, “Amadeus” stood head and shoulders above the competition at the 1984 Oscars, winning eight prizes in total: best picture, director, actor for Abraham, adapted screenplay, art direction, costume design, sound, and makeup.  

• Cast: F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge, Simon Callow
• Director: Miloš Forman
  
• Rating: PG
  
• Runtime: 160 minutes
  
• Year: 1984
• Where to watch: Prime Video, Apple TV

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