1985 in film

Events

• 3 December - Roger Moore steps down from the role of James Bond after twelve years and seven films. He is replaced by Timothy Dalton.
• The Academy Award for Best Picture was won by Out Of Africa, while the highest grossing film was Back to the Future.
• Bliss wins AFI Award for best Movie (Australia).

Top grossing films (U.S.)

Awards (1986)

Academy Awards:

Best Picture: Out of Africa - Universal

Best Director: Sydney Pollack - Out of Africa

Best Actor: William Hurt - Kiss of the Spider Woman

Best Actress: Geraldine Page - The Trip to Bountiful

Best Supporting Actor: Don Ameche - Cocoon

Best Supporting Actress: Anjelica Huston - Prizzi's Honor

Best Foreign Language Film: The Official Story (La historia oficial), directed by Luis Puenzo, Argentina

Honorary Award for Lifetime Achievement James Stewart

Golden Globe Awards:

Drama:

Best Picture: Out of Africa

Best Actor: Jon Voight - Runaway Train

Best Actress: Whoopi Goldberg - The Color Purple

Musical or comedy:

Best Picture: Prizzi's Honor

Best Actor: Jack Nicholson - Prizzi's Honor

Best Actress: Kathleen Turner - Prizzi's Honor

Other

Best Director: John Huston - Prizzi's Honor

Best Foreign Language Film: The Official Story (La historia oficial), Argentina

Palme d'Or (Cannes Film Festival):

When Father Was Away on Business (Otac na službenom putu), directed by Emir Kusturica, Yugoslavia

Golden Lion (Venice Film Festival):

Vagabond (Sans toit ni loi), directed by Agnès Varda, France / U.K.

Golden Bear (Berlin Film Festival):

Die Frau und der Fremde (The Woman and the Stranger), directed by Rainer Simon, East Germany

Wetherby, directed by David Hare, United Kingdom

Razzie Awards

Worst Picture: Rambo: First Blood Part II

Worst Director: Sylvester Stallone - Rocky IV

Worst Actor: Sylvester Stallone - Rambo: First Blood Part II and Rocky IV

Worst Actress: Linda Blair - Night Patrol, Savage Island and Savage Streets

Worst Supporting Actor: Rob Lowe - St. Elmo's Fire

Worst Supporting Actress: Brigitte Nielsen - Rocky IV

Worst New Star: Brigitte Nielsen - Red Sonja and Rocky IV

Films released in 1985

• 28 Up

A-C

• The Adventures of a Two-Minute Werewolf
• The Adventures of Mark Twain
• After Hours, directed by Martin Scorsese; starring Griffin Dunne and Rosanna Arquette
• Agnes of God, directed by Norman Jewison; starring Jane Fonda, Anne Bancroft, Meg Tilly
• Alamo Bay, directed by Louis Malle, starring Ed Harris and Amy Madigan
• American Flyers, starring Kevin Costner
• American Ninja
• Angry Harvest, starring Armin Mueller-Stahl
• The Annihilators
• The Assam Garden, starring Deborah Kerr and Madhur Jaffrey
• Avenging Angel

• Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend, starring Sean Young and William Katt
• Back to the Future, directed by Robert Zemeckis, starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd - the first of Back to the Future trilogy
• Bad Medicine, starring Steve Guttenberg
• Better Off Dead, starring John Cusack
• Black Arrow, starring Oliver Reed
• The Black Cauldron
• The Boys Next Door, starring Maxwell Caulfield and Charlie Sheen
• Brazil, directed by Terry Gilliam, starring Jonathan Pryce and Robert De Niro
• The Breakfast Club, directed by John Hughes, starring Emilio Estevez, Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, Anthony Michael Hall, Paul Gleason
• Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo
• Brewster's Millions, starring Richard Pryor and John Candy
• Butterfly and Flowers (Peesua lae dokmai)

• Cat's Eye, starring Drew Barrymore, James Woods, Robert Hays
• The Care Bears Movie
• Certain Fury
• Chicken with Vinegar (Poulet au Vinaigre), directed by Claude Chabrol
• A Chorus Line, directed by Richard Attenborough, starring Michael Douglas and Alyson Reed
• Clue, starring Tim Curry, Eileen Brennan, Michael McKean, Lesley Ann Warren, Christopher Lloyd, Madeline Kahn, Martin Mull
• The Coca-Cola Kid, starring Eric Roberts and Greta Scacchi
• Cocaine Wars
• Cocoon, directed by Ron Howard; starring Don Ameche, Wilford Brimley, Hume Cronyn, Steve Guttenberg, Barret Oliver, Maureen Stapleton, Jessica Tandy
• Code of Silence, directed by Andrew Davis; starring Chuck Norris and Molly Hagan
• Code of Vengeance
• Colonel Redl, directed by Istvan Szabo, starring Klaus Maria Brandauer
• The Color Purple, directed by Steven Spielberg; starring Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover, Margaret Avery, Adolph Caesar, Rae Dawn Chong, Oprah Winfrey
• Come and See (Idi i smotri)
• Commando, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rae Dawn Chong, Alyssa Milano
• Compromising Positions, starring Susan Sarandon and Raúl Juliá
• Crazy Construction starring Tim Allen
• Creature
• Crimewave

D-F

• Dance with a Stranger, directed by Mike Newell, starring Rupert Everett and Miranda Richardson
• Day of the Dead, directed by George A. Romero - the final part of Romero's zombie trilogy
• Death in a French Garden (Péril en la demeure)
• Death Wish 3, starring Charles Bronson
• Defense of the Realm
• Desperately Seeking Susan - directed by Susan Seidelman, starring Rosanna Arquette, Madonna and Aidan Quinn
• The Devastator
• Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart, directed by Wayne Wang
• The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission

• The Emerald Forest, directed by John Boorman
• Enemy Mine, directed by Wolfgang Petersen; starring Dennis Quaid and Louis Gossett, Jr.
• Ewoks: The Battle for Endor
• Explorers - directed by Joe Dante, starring Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix

• The Falcon and the Snowman, directed by John Schlesinger, starring Timothy Hutton and Sean Penn
• Fandango, starring Kevin Costner
• Fever Pitch, directed by Richard Brooks, starring Ryan O'Neal, Giancarlo Giannini, Chad Everett, Catherine Hicks
• Final Justice, starring Joe Don Baker
• Fire Festival
• Flesh & Blood, starring Rutger Hauer and Jennifer Jason Leigh
• Fletch, starring Chevy Chase
• Follow That Bird, feature film based on Sesame Street, starring Big Bird, Dave Thomas, Joe Flaherty
• Fool for Love, directed by Robert Altman, starring Sam Shepard and Kim Basinger
• Fran
• Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning
• Fright Night, starring William Ragsdale, Chris Sarandon, Roddy McDowall, Amanda Bearse

G-H

• Ghoulies
• Girls Just Want to Have Fun, starring Sarah Jessica Parker and Helen Hunt
• The Goonies - directed by Richard Donner, starring Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, Jeff Cohen, Corey Feldman, Jonathan Ke Quan, Martha Plimpton
• Gymkata, starring Kurt Thomas

• Hail Mary, directed by Jean-Luc Godard
• Heaven Help Us, starring Andrew McCarthy and Mary Stuart Masterson
• Here Come the Littles
• The Home and the World (Ghare Baire), directed by Satyajit Ray

I-K

• Insignificance, directed by Nicolas Roeg, starring Theresa Russell, Tony Curtis, Gary Busey
• Into the Night, starring Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Pfeiffer
• Invasion U.S.A., starring Chuck Norris

• Jagged Edge, directed by Richard Marquand, starring Glenn Close, Jeff Bridges, Robert Loggia, Peter Coyote
• The Jewel of the Nile, directed by Lewis Teague, starring Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, Danny DeVito
• Joshua Then and Now
• The Journey of Natty Gann, starring Meredith Salenger and John Cusack
• Just One of the Guys, starring Joyce Hyser

• King David, starring Richard Gere
• King Solomon's Mines, starring Richard Chamberlain and Sharon Stone
• Kiss of the Spider Woman, directed by Hector Babenco, starring William Hurt, Raúl Juliá, Sonia Braga

L-N

• Ladyhawke, starring Matthew Broderick, Michelle Pfeiffer and Rutger Hauer
• The Last Dragon
• Latino
• Legend, directed by Ridley Scott, starring Tom Cruise, Mia Sara and Tim Curry
• The Legend of Billie Jean, starring Helen Slater
• Letter to Brezhnev
• Lost In America, directed by and starring Albert Brooks with Julie Hagerty

• Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, starring Mel Gibson and Tina Turner
• The Malibu Bikini Shop
• Man Hunt
• The Man with One Red Shoe, starring Tom Hanks
• Mask, directed by Peter Bogdanovich, starring Eric Stoltz, Cher and Sam Elliott
• Maxie, starring Glenn Close, Mandy Patinkin and Valerie Curtin
• The Mean Season, starring Kurt Russell
• Mirch Masala
• Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, directed by Paul Schrader
• Missing in Action 2: The Beginning
• Murphy's Romance, starring Sally Field, James Garner, Brian Kerwin and Corey Haim
• My Beautiful Laundrette, directed by Stephen Frears, starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Gordon Warnecke
• My Life as a Dog (Mitt liv som hund), directed by Lasse Halstrom - Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film
• My Science Project

• Naked Vengeance
• National Lampoon's European Vacation, starring Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo
• A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge
• Nine Deaths of the Ninja

O-Q

• The Official Story (La historia oficial) - Academy and Golden Globe Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
• Once Bitten, starring Lauren Hutton and Jim Carrey in his first major role.
• One Magic Christmas
• Ordeal by Innocence, starring Donald Sutherland and Christopher Plummer
• Out of Africa directed by Sydney Pollack; starring Meryl Streep, Robert Redford and Klaus Maria Brandauer; Academy and Golden Globe (drama) Awards
• Out of Control

• Pale Rider, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood with Michael Moriarty and Carrie Snodgress
• The Peanut Butter Solution
• Pee-wee's Big Adventure, directed by Tim Burton, starring Paul Reubens
• Perfect, directed by James Bridges, starring John Travolta and Jamie Lee Curtis
• Phenomena
• Plenty, starring Meryl Streep, Sam Neill, Tracey Ullman, and Sting
• Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment, starring Steve Guttenberg, George Gaynes, Colleen Camp and Bubba Smith
• Police Story (Ging chat goo si), directed by and starring Jackie Chan
• Porky's Revenge
• Private Resort, starring Johnny Depp, Rob Morrow and Andrew Dice Clay
• Prizzi's Honor, directed by John Huston; starring Jack Nicholson, Kathleen Turner, Anjelica Huston and William Hickey; Golden Globe Award for Best Picture (Musical or Comedy)
• The Protector
• The Purple Rose of Cairo, directed by Woody Allen, starring Mia Farrow and Jeff Daniels

• The Quiet Earth

R-S

• Radioactive Dreams
• Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer
• Rambo: First Blood Part II, starring Sylvester Stallone
• Ran, directed by Akira Kurosawa, starring Tatsuya Nakadai and Mieko Harada
• Re-Animator
• Real Genius, starring Val Kilmer
• Red Sonja, starring Brigitte Nielsen, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sandahl Bergman
• Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins, starring Fred Ward, Kate Mulgrew and Joel Grey
• Rendez-vous, starring Juliette Binoche and Jean-Louis Trintignant
• Restless Natives
• Return of the Living Dead
• Return to Oz
• Revolution, directed by Hugh Hudson, starring Al Pacino, Donald Sutherland and Nastassja Kinski
• Rocky IV, starring Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Dolph Lundgren, Carl Weathers, Brigitte Nielsen and Burt Young
• A Room with a View, directed by James Ivory, starring Maggie Smith and Helena Bonham Carter
• Runaway Train, starring Jon Voight, Eric Roberts and Rebecca De Mornay
• Rustlers' Rhapsody, starring Tom Berenger, Marilu Henner, Sela Ward and Andy Griffith

• Santa Claus: The Movie, starring Dudley Moore
• Scorpio Nights
• Secret Admirer, starring C. Thomas Howell
• The Secret of the Sword
• Sesame Street Presents Follow That Bird
• The Shooting Party, starring James Mason and John Gielgud
• Silver Bullet, starring Gary Busey, Corey Haim, Megan Follows and Everett McGill
• Silverado, directed by Lawrence Kasdan, starring Kevin Kline, Scott Glenn, Danny Glover and Kevin Costner
• The Slugger's Wife, directed by Hal Ashby, starring Michael O'Keefe and Rebecca De Mornay
• Smooth Talk, starring Laura Dern and Treat Williams
• Spies Like Us, starring Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase
• St. Elmo's Fire, directed by Joel Schumacher; starring Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy and Mare Winningham
• Starchaser: The Legend of Orin
• Stick, directed by and starring Burt Reynolds with Candice Bergen, Charles Durning and George Segal
• Subway, directed by Luc Besson, starring Isabelle Adjani and Christopher Lambert
• Summer Rental, directed by Carl Reiner, starring John Candy, Rip Torn and Richard Crenna
• The Sure Thing, directed by Rob Reiner, starring John Cusack, Daphne Zuniga and Nicollette Sheridan
• Sweet Dreams, a biopic of Patsy Cline starring Jessica Lange and Ed Harris

T-V

• Target, starring Gene Hackman and Matt Dillon
• Teen Wolf, starring Michael J. Fox
• That Was Then... This Is Now, starring Emilio Estevez
• That's Dancing!
• To Live and Die in L.A., directed by William Friedkin, starring William Petersen and Willem Dafoe
• Transylvania 6-5000, starring Jeff Goldblum, Ed Begley, Jr. and Geena Davis
• The Trip to Bountiful, starring Geraldine Page, John Heard and Rebecca De Mornay
• Trouble in Mind, starring Kris Kristofferson, Genevieve Bujold and Keith Carradine
• Tuff Turf
• Turk 182!, starring Timothy Hutton, Robert Urich and Kim Cattrall
• Turtle Diary, starring Glenda Jackson and Ben Kingsley
• Twice in a Lifetime, starring Gene Hackman, Ellen Burstyn, Ann-Margret and Amy Madigan

• Vagabond (Sans toit ni loi), directed by Agnes Varda - Golden Lion award
• Vampire Hunter D
• A View to a Kill, starring Roger Moore as James Bond with Christopher Walken, Tanya Roberts and Grace Jones
• Vision Quest, starring Matthew Modine and Linda Fiorentino
• Volunteers, starring Tom Hanks, John Candy and Rita Wilson

W-Z

• Water
• Wetherby, directed by David Hare, starring Vanessa Redgrave and Ian Holm - Golden Bear award
• Weird Science, directed by John Hughes, starring Kelly LeBrock, Anthony Michael Hall and Ilan Mitchell-Smith
• Wild Geese II
• Wheels Of Fire
• When Father Was Away on Business (Otac na službenom putu) - Palme d'Or award
• White Nights, directed by Taylor Hackford, starring Mikhail Baryshnikov, Gregory Hines and Helen Mirren
• Witness, directed by Peter Weir, starring Harrison Ford, Kelly McGillis and Lukas Haas
• The Woman and the Stranger (Die Frau und der Fremde) - Golden Bear award

• Year of the Dragon, directed by Michael Cimino, starring Mickey Rourke and John Lone
• Young Sherlock Holmes, directed by Barry Levinson, starring Nicholas Rowe, Alan Cox and Anthony Higgins

• A Zed and Two Noughts, directed by Peter Greenaway

Births

• January 18 - Sidney Thomas, actor
• February 7 - Tina Majorino, American actress
• March 13 - Emile Hirsch, American actor
• March 15 - Eva Amurri, American actress
• March 15 - Kellan Lutz, American actor
• March 26 - Keira Knightley, British actress
• April 16 - Rhiana Griffith, actress
• May 10 - Odette Yustman, American actress
• May 28 - Carey Mulligan, English actress
• May 29 - Blake Foster, actor
• June 24 - Kyle Searles, actor
• July 2 -Ashley Tisdale, American actress and singer
• July 18 - Chace Crawford, American actor
• September 16 - Madeline Zima, American actress
• October 11 - Michelle Trachtenberg, American actress
• November 30 - Kaley Cuoco, American actress
• December 3 - Amanda Seyfried, American actress and singer
• December 5 - Frankie Muniz, American actor
• December 10 - Raven-Symone, American actress and singer

Deaths

• February 20 - Clarence Nash, voice actor
• March 21 - Michael Redgrave, actor, father of actresses Vanessa Redgrave & Lynn Redgrave
• April 23 - Kent Smith, actor
• May 16 - Margaret Hamilton, actress, Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz
• May 22 - Wolfgang Reitherman, director, 101 Dalmatians
• August 8 - Louise Brooks, actress
• August 13 - Gale Sondergaard, actress
• August 28 - Ruth Gordon, actress / writer
• September 27 - Lloyd Nolan, actor
• October 2 - Rock Hudson, actor
• October 10 - Yul Brynner, actor
• October 10 - Orson Welles, actor / director
• November 1 - Phil Silvers, actor
• November 15 - Dimitar Panov, actor / director
• December 12 - Anne Baxter, actress
• December 26 - Margarete Schön, actress

Film debuts

• Sean Astin - The Goonies
• Josh Brolin - The Goonies
• Linda Fiorentino - Vision Quest
• Whoopi Goldberg - The Color Purple
• Ethan Hawke - Explorers
• Danny Nucci - Explorers
• LL Cool J - Krush Groove
• Viggo Mortensen - Witness
• Brigitte Nielsen - Red Sonja
• River Phoenix - Explorers
• Billy Zane - Back to the Future
• Christian Slater - The Legend of Billie Jean
• Yeardley Smith - Heaven Help Us
• Blair Underwood - Krush Groove
• Oprah Winfrey - The Color Purple
• Miranda Richardson - Dance with a Stranger
• Stephen Fry - The Good Father
• John Leguizamo - Mixed Blood
• Rob Morrow - Private Resort
• Patrick Dempsey; Heaven Help Us
• Elias Koteas - One Magic Christmas
• Stanley Tucci - Prizzi's Honor
• Kyra Sedgwick
• Danny Trejo - Runaway Train
• Tom Lister, Jr. - Runaway Train
• Joan Allen - Compromising Positions