Best Picture & Directing
Best Picture
Winner
Out of Africa
Sydney Pollack, producer — based on the autobiography of Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen)
Acting
Best Actor in a Leading Role
Winner
William Hurt
Kiss of the Spider Woman — as a flamboyant prisoner who escapes through movie fantasies
Best Actress in a Leading Role
Winner
Geraldine Page
The Trip to Bountiful — won on her eighth nomination
Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Winner
Don Ameche
Cocoon — won at age 77 for his breakdancing scene
Writing
Best Original Screenplay
Back to the Future— Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale
Brazil— Terry Gilliam, Tom Stoppard, Charles McKeown
The Official Story— Aída Bortnik, Luis Puenzo
Best Adapted Screenplay
The Color Purple— Menno Meyjes
Kiss of the Spider Woman— Leonard Schrader
Prizzi's Honor— Richard Condon, Janet Roach
Craft & Technical
Best Foreign Language Film
Angry Harvest— West Germany
Colonel Redl— Hungary
Three Men and a Cradle— France
Best Documentary Feature
Winner
Broken Rainbow
Maria Florio, Victoria Mudd — about the forced relocation of Navajo Nation members
Soldiers in Hiding— Japhet Asante
The Statue of Liberty— Ken Burns
Best Original Score
The Color Purple— Quincy Jones
Witness— Maurice Jarre
Agnes of God— Georges Delerue
Best Original Song
Winner
"Say You, Say Me"
White Nights — Lionel Richie
"Miss Celie's Blues (Sister)"— The Color Purple
"Surprise, Surprise"— A Chorus Line
Best Cinematography
The Color Purple— Allen Daviau
Ran— Takao Saitō, Masaharu Ueda, Asakazu Nakai
Best Film Editing
A Chorus Line— John Bloom
Out of Africa— Fredric Steinkamp, William Steinkamp, Pembroke Herring, Sheldon Kahn
Best Art Direction
Brazil— Norman Garwood, Maggie Gray
The Color Purple— J. Michael Riva, Bo Welch, Linda DeScenna
Best Costume Design
The Color Purple— Aggie Guerard Rodgers
Out of Africa— Milena Canonero
Best Makeup
The Color Purple— Ken Chase
Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins— Carl Fullerton
Best Visual Effects
Back to the Future— Kevin Pike, John Bell
Young Sherlock Holmes— Dennis Muren et al.
Best Sound Mixing
Winner
Out of Africa
Chris Jenkins, Gary Alexander, Larry Stensvold, Peter Handford
Back to the Future— Bill Varney et al.
A Chorus Line— Donald O. Mitchell et al.
Best Sound Editing
Ladyhawke— Bob Henderson, Alan Murray
Rambo: First Blood Part II— Frederick J. Brown