Best Picture & Directing
Best Picture
Winner
Dances With Wolves
Jim Wilson, Kevin Costner, producers — epic Western about a Union soldier who befriends a Lakota Sioux tribe
Acting
Best Actor in a Leading Role
Winner
Jeremy Irons
Reversal of Fortune — as Claus von Bülow in his Oscar-winning trial drama
Best Actress in a Leading Role
Winner
Kathy Bates
Misery — as obsessed fan Annie Wilkes in Stephen King's thriller
Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Winner
Joe Pesci
Goodfellas — delivered one of the shortest acceptance speeches in Oscar history: "It was my privilege. Thank you."
Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Winner
Whoopi Goldberg
Ghost — as the fraudulent medium Oda Mae Brown; second Black woman to win a competitive acting Oscar
Writing
Best Original Screenplay
Alice— Woody Allen
Avalon— Barry Levinson
Metropolitan— Whit Stillman
Best Adapted Screenplay
Goodfellas— Nicholas Pileggi, Martin Scorsese
The Grifters— Donald Westlake
Craft & Technical
Best Foreign Language Film
Cyrano de Bergerac— France
Ju Dou— China
Open Doors— Italy
Best Documentary Feature
Winner
American Dream
Barbara Kopple, Arthur Cohn — about the Hormel meat-packing workers' strike in Austin, Minnesota
Berkeley in the Sixties— Mark Kitchell
Reversal of Fortune— not a documentary (see above)
Best Original Score
Home Alone— John Williams
Ghost— Maurice Jarre
Avalon— Randy Newman
Best Original Song
Winner
"Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)"
Dick Tracy — Stephen Sondheim
"Blaze of Glory"— Young Guns II, Jon Bon Jovi
"I'm Checkin' Out"— Postcards from the Edge
Best Cinematography
Goodfellas— Michael Ballhaus
The Godfather Part III— Gordon Willis
Best Film Editing
Ghost— Walter Murch
Goodfellas— Thelma Schoonmaker
Best Art Direction
Dances With Wolves— Jeffrey Beecroft; Lisa Dean
The Godfather Part III— Dean Tavoularis; Gary Fettis
Best Costume Design
Dick Tracy— Milena Canonero
Dances With Wolves— Elsa Zamparelli
Best Makeup
Crazy People— Ken Diaz, Greg Nelson
Edward Scissorhands— Ve Neill, Stan Winston
Best Visual Effects
Flatliners— Mark Vargo et al.
Predator 2— Joel Hynek et al.
Best Sound Mixing
Winner
Dances With Wolves
Jeffrey Perkins, Bill W. Benton, Greg Watkins, Russell Williams II
The Hunt for Red October— Richard Overton et al.
Total Recall— Nelson Stoll et al.
Best Sound Editing
Flatliners— Charles L. Campbell, Richard Franklin
Total Recall— Stephen H. Flick