# What is the best Best Picture winner of the 1980s?

> Ten films took the top Oscar in the 1980s, and hindsight has been kinder to some than to others. Sweeping epics, quiet family dramas and one road movie now share the same shelf.

*By YPB Team · Published October 31, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-best-best-picture-winner-of-the-1980s*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Amadeus** — score 1000/1000
   Miloš Forman's 1984 drama about Mozart seen through the jealous eyes of rival composer Antonio Salieri.
2. **Platoon** — score 874/1000
   Oliver Stone's 1986 Vietnam War drama drawn from his own tour of duty as an infantryman.
3. **Out of Africa** — score 485/1000
   Sydney Pollack's 1985 romance with Meryl Streep as Karen Blixen and Robert Redford on a Kenyan coffee farm.
4. **Gandhi** — score 324/1000
   Richard Attenborough's 1982 epic biopic with Ben Kingsley as Mahatma Gandhi, winner of eight Oscars.
5. **Driving Miss Daisy** — score 324/1000
   The 1989 comedy-drama about a Southern widow and her chauffeur, played by Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman.
6. **Ordinary People** — score 324/1000
   Robert Redford's 1980 directing debut about a grieving suburban family, which won Best Picture over Raging Bull.
7. **Chariots of Fire** — score 324/1000
   The 1981 British drama about two runners at the 1924 Paris Olympics, famous for Vangelis's synth score.
8. **Rain Man** — score 221/1000
   Barry Levinson's 1988 road movie with Dustin Hoffman as an autistic savant and Tom Cruise as his brother.
9. **The Last Emperor** — score 221/1000
   Bernardo Bertolucci's 1987 epic about Puyi, China's last emperor, the first Western film shot inside the Forbidden City.
10. **Terms of Endearment** — score 221/1000
   James L. Brooks's 1983 mother-daughter tearjerker starring Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger and Jack Nicholson.

Tags: movies, 80s, classics, awards, oscars