Best Screenplays: 1980s

Best Adapted Screenplay:

1980: Ordinary People (Alvin Sargent)

Oscar winner: Ordinary People (Alvin Sargent)

1981: Prince of the City (Jay Presson Allen and Sidney Lumet)

Oscar winner: On Golden Pond (Ernest Thompson)

Was this nominated?: Yes

1982: The Verdict (David Mamet)

Oscar winner: Missing (Costa-Gavras and Donald Stewart)

Was this nominated?: Yes

1983: Terms of Endearment (James L. Brooks)

Oscar winner: Terms of Endearment (James L. Brooks)

1984: Once Upon a Time in America (Leonardo Benvenuti, Piero De Bernardi, Enrico Medioli, Franco Arcalli, Franco Ferrini, and Sergio Leone)

Oscar winner: Amadeus (Peter Shaffer)

Was this nominated?: No

1985: Kiss of the Spider Woman (Leonard Schrader)

Oscar winner: Out of Africa (Kurt Luedtke)

Was this nominated?: Yes

1986: A Room with a View (Ruth Prawer Jhabvala)

Oscar winner: A Room with a View (Ruth Prawer Jhabvala)

1987: Full Metal Jacket (Gustav Hasford, Michael Herr, and Stanley Kubrick)

Oscar winner: The Last Emperor (Bernardo Bertolucci and Mark Peploe)

Was this nominated?: Yes

1988: The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Jean-Claude Carriere and Philip Kaufman)

Oscar winner: Dangerous Liaisons (Christopher Hampton)

Was this nominated?: Yes

1989: Born on the Fourth of July (Ron Kovic and Oliver Stone)

Oscar winner: Driving Miss Daisy (Alfred Uhry)

Was this nominated?: Yes

Best Original Screenplay:

1980: The Big Red One [The Reconstruction] (Samuel Fuller)

Oscar winner: Melvin and Howard (Bo Goldman)

Was this nominated?: No

1981: Atlantic City (John Guare)

Oscar winner: Chariots of Fire (Colin Welland)

Was this nominated?: Yes

1982: Tootsie (Larry Gelbart, Murray Schisgal, and Don McGuire)

Oscar winner: Gandhi (John Briley)

Was this nominated?: Yes

1983: The Big Chill (Lawrence Kasdan and Barbara Benedek)

Oscar winner: Tender Mercies (Horton Foote)

Was this nominated?: Yes

1984: Broadway Danny Rose (Woody Allen)

Oscar winner: Places in the Heart (Robert Benton)

Was this nominated?: Yes

1985: The Purple Rose of Cairo (Woody Allen)

Oscar winner: Witness (William Kelley, Earl Wallace, and Pamela Wallace)

Was this nominated?: Yes

1986: Hannah and Her Sisters (Woody Allen)

Oscar winner: Hannah and Her Sisters (Woody Allen)

1987: Withnail & I (Bruce Robinson)

Oscar winner: Moonstruck (John Patrick Shanley)

Was this nominated?: No

1988: A Fish Called Wanda (John Cleese and Charles Crichton)

Oscar winner: Rain Man (Ronald Bass and Barry Morrow)

Was this nominated?: Yes

1989: Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee)

Oscar winner: Dead Poets Society (Tom Schulman)

Was this nominated?: Yes