Is this déjà vu all over again? Just as the Academy had done the year before, in 1985 it gave eleven Oscar nominations each to two films, one of which was awarded seven gold trophies while the other went home empty-handed, tying the record losses of The Turning Point eight years earlier.

This time, however, the shocks came with the nominations themselves. Steven Spielberg failed to receive a Best Director nomination for The Color Purple, giving Sydney Pollack and Out of Africa a slight edge.

Based on the autobiography of Danish baroness and writer Karen Blixen aka Isak Dinesen, Out of Africa, was much admired at the time, but now seems a lushly produced albeit basically empty calorie film, magnificently scored by John Barry and beautiful to look at with a few memorable scenes. Nevertheless its popularity at the time can’t be denied and in addition to its Best Picture and Director Oscars, it won for Best Adapted Screenplay; Adapted Screenplay; Cinematography; Sound and Original Score. It had also been nominated for Best Actress Meryl Streep; Supporting Actor Klaus Maria Brandauer (the film’s greatest asset); Cinematography and Editing.

The film version of Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Color Purple, although much loved by many, was heavily criticized for Spielberg’s alleged softening of the characters and story. Not having read the book, I fall in the former category. The characters and situations may have been softened, but there is nothing “soft” about what remains. The Oscar nominated performances of Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey and Margaret Avery are unforgettable, and Danny Glover, Adolph Caesar and others aren’t exactly chopped liver either. The film’s eleven nominations, every one of them deserved, included those for Adapted Screenplay; Cinematography; Editing; Art Direction; Sound; Original Score and Song, “Miss Celie’s Blues”.

John Huston at age 79 received his fifteenth Oscar nomination, his fifth as Best Director for Prizzi’s Honor, a delicious black comedy about married assassins whose assignment, unbeknownst to each other, is to kill one another. Jack Nicholson, receiving his eight acting nomination and Kathleen Turner were the stars, but Huston’s daughter Anjelica steals the film as Nicholson’s discarded mistress, earning a Best Supporting Actress in the bargain. The film had also been nominated for Best Picture; Supporting Actor William Hickey; Adapted Screenplay; Editing and Costume Design.

Set in a South American prison and integrating a complex structure of flashback and fantasy sequences with the here and now, Hector Babenco’s Kiss of the Spider Woman features powerhouse performances by William Hurt who won an Oscar for his portrayal of a lonely gay man imprisoned for his homosexuality and Raul Julia who shockingly wasn’t nominated for his equally moving portrayal of the political prisoner with whom he shares a cell. Sonia Braga adds to the film’s star power playing the three women who haunt the men’s dreams, including the title character. The film’s four nominations, in addition to Hurt’s, were for Best Picture; Director and Adapted Screenplay.

An absorbing suspense film set against an unusual background, Pennsylvania’s Amish country, Peter Weir’s Witness stars Harrison Ford in his only Oscar nominated performance to date as the good cop who must protect child murder witness Lukas Haas and his mother, the lovely Kelly McGillis. An Oscar winner for Best Adapted Screenplay and Editing, the film was also nominated for Best Picture; Director; Cinematography; Art Direction and Score.

Beyond the Best Picture nominees, Oscar also liked Brazil; Ran; The Official Story; The Trip to Bountiful; Agnes of God; Cocoon; Back to the Future; The Purple Rose of Cairo; Murphy’s Romance; Runaway Train and A Chorus Line.

Monty Python’s Terry Gilliam cut Brazilfrom its original 142 minute running time to 132 minutes but refused to cut it any further for its U.S. release. Universal balked and refused to release it. A showing of the film was arranged by the L.A. Times’ Jack Matthews resulting in the L.A. Film Critics’ awarding it Best Picture, Director and Screenplay. A chagrined Universal hurriedly rushed the film into one downtown L.A. theatre qualifying it for Oscar consideration. The futuristic fantasy film was nominated for Best Original Screenplay and Art Direction.

The year after the setting of George Orwell’s classic 1984, and filmed under the title 1984 ½, Gilliam’s film is superior in every way to the two straight film versions of Orwell’s masterpiece. Jonathan Pryce, Michael Palin and Robert De Niro were the stars.

Akira Kurosawa’s Ran, his take on another classic, Shakespeare’s King Lear re-set in feudal Japan, was nominated for five Oscars including the Japanese master’s only nod for Best Director. It won for Best Costume Design.

Argentina won its first Oscar for Best Foreign Film with Luis Puenzo’s The Official Story about a conscience stricken teacher who searches for the truth about her adopted daughter’s past in the wake of Argentina’s “dirty war” of the 1970s and early 80s. Featuring a powerful performance from Norma Aleandro, the film was also nominated for Best Original Screenplay.

Receiving her eighth Oscar nomination, it was a foregone conclusion that veteran actress Geraldine Page would finally win an Oscar for Best Actress for Peter Masterson’s The Trip to Bountiful, based on a 1953 TV play that was subsequently a Broadway vehicle for Lillian Gish. Page plays a tender hearted old lady who takes a bus trip to the Texas town she had lived in many years ago. The film was simple yet eloquent and so was Page’s performance. The film was also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Page’s Broadway role of the worldly-wise nun in Agnes of God was played on screen by Anne Bancroft who received her fifth Oscar nomination for her performance. The film was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress Meg Tilly and Original Score.

Science fiction with an emphasis on comedy and romance was at the heart of Ron Howard’s Cocoon forwhich veteran actor Don Ameche received his Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Also nominated for Best Visual Effects, the film featured engaging performances as well from the likes of Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy, Wilford Brimley, Maureen Stapleton, Gwen Verdon and Jack Gilford.

Another science fiction film with an emphasis on comedy and romance, Robert Zemeckis’ Back to the Future won an Oscar for Best Sound Effects. It had also been nominated for Best Original Screenplay; Sound and Original Song “The Power of Love”.

Fantasy and romance were the main ingredients of Woody Allen’s latest comedy, The Purple Rose of Cairo,in which Jeff Daniels comes down off the screen of the local movie theatre to fall in love with Mia Farrow. The film was nominated for Best Original Screenplay.

Comedy was the key to Sally Field’s inter-generational romance with James Garner in Martin Ritt’s Murphy’s Romance for which Garner received his only Oscar nomination. The film was also nominated for Best Cinematography.

Jon Voight and Eric Roberts received Oscar nominations for their performances in Andrey Konchalovsky’s tense adventure film, Runway Train, which was also nominated for Best Editing.

Richard Attenborough’s film of the beloved Broadway musical A Chorus Line was a dismal affair which bore little resemblance to the stage version. It nevertheless received three Oscar nominations for Best Editing; Sound and the instantly forgettable Original Song “Surprise, Surprise”.

All films discussed have been released on DVD in the U.S.

Last week I no sooner mentioned that the Jack Lemmon film Mass Appeal had not been released on DVD when lo and behold Amazon released it without fanfare as part of its Universal Vault Series. Also new to DVD this week are the Blu-ray debuts of Smiles of a Summer Night and Twelve O’Clock High.