Best Films – 1983

Cinematographer Carroll Ballard’s second directorial effort (following The Black Stallion in 1979), Never Cry Wolf is a stunningly beautiful meditation on nature and on life itself. Based on the true story of Canadian researcher Farley Mowat, this semi-documentary tells the story of a scientist who is sent to the far north to study the “dangerous” behavior of wolves. While struggling to survive in that inhospitable environment, the scientist discovers that wolves actually play a positive role in the local ecosystem. However, he also realizes that there is indeed one species that does pose a real danger to life in the Arctic: humans. Sadly, Never Cry Wolf remains as pertinent at the beginning of the 21st century as it was more than two decades ago – if not more so.

FILM
Never Cry Wolf
Coup de foudre / Entre Nous
Educating Rita
Hanna K.
The Hunger
Octopussy
Pra Frente, Brasil / Forward, Brazil
The Right Stuff
Silkwood
Under Fire

DIRECTOR
Carroll Ballard (Never Cry Wolf)
John Badham (WarGames)
Terry Bedford (Slayground)
Lewis Gilbert (Educating Rita)
John Glen (Octopussy)
Philip Kaufman (The Right Stuff)
Diane Kurys (Coup de foudre / Entre Nous)
Michael Mann (The Keep)
Mike Nichols (Silkwood)
Tony Scott (The Hunger)

ACTOR
Antônio Fagundes (Pra Frente, Brasil / Forward, Brazil)
Tom Conti (Reuben, Reuben)
Nicholas Gledhill (Careful, He Might Hear You)
Matthew Modine (Streamers)
Nick Nolte (Under Fire)
Al Pacino (Scarface)

ACTRESS
Marília Pêra (Bar Esperança / Bar Esperanza)
Julie Christie (Heat and Dust)
Jill Clayburgh (Hanna K.)
Catherine Deneuve (The Hunger)
Natália do Valle (Pra Frente, Brasil / Forward, Brazil)
Isabelle Huppert (Coup de foudre / Entre Nous)
Shirley MacLaine (Terms of Endearment)
Miou Miou (Coup de foudre / Entre Nous)
Meryl Streep (Silkwood)
Debra Winger (Terms of Endearment)

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Jerry Lewis (King of Comedy)
Dan Aykroyd (Twilight Zone: The Movie)
Steven Bauer (Scarface)
Malcolm Douglas (Educating Rita)
Ed Harris (The Right Stuff)
Ed Harris (Under Fire)
Thom Hoffman (De Vierde man / The Fourth Man)
Piotr Lysak (Eine Liebe in Deutschland / A Love in Germany)
Guy Marchand (Coup de foudre / Entre Nous)
Wojciech Pszoniak (Danton)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (Scarface)
Sílvia Bandeira (Bar Esperança / Bar Esperanza)
Marie-Christine Barrault (Eine Liebe in Deutschland / A Love in Germany)
Lucy Lee Flippen (Flashdance)
Amy Irving (Yentl)
Kelly McGillis (Reuben, Reuben)
Michelle Pfeiffer (Scarface)
Mary Jo Rachany (The Right Stuff)
Elizabeth Savalla (Pra Frente, Brasil / Forward, Brazil)
Alfre Woodard (Cross Creek)

SCREENPLAY
Willy Russell (Educating Rita)
Ivan Davis & Michael Thomas (The Hunger)
Nora Ephron & Alice Arlen (Silkwood)
Julius J. Epstein (Reuben, Reuben)
Roberto Farias (Pra Frente, Brasil / Forward, Brazil)
Ralph Furmaniak, Sam Hamm & Richard Kletter (Never Cry Wolf)
Philip Kaufman (The Right Stuff)
Diane Kurys (Coup de foudre / Entre Nous)
Ron Shelton & Clayton Frohman (Under Fire)
Franco Solinas & Costa-Gavras (Hannah K.)

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Hiro Narita (Never Cry Wolf)
Jan De Bont (De Vierde man / The Fourth Man)
Caleb Deschanel (The Right Stuff)
Stephen Goldblatt (The Hunger)
Walter Lassally (Heat and Dust)
Philippe Rousselot (La Lune dans le caniveau / The Moon in the Gutter)
John Seale (Careful, He Might Hear You)
Stephen Smith & Herb Wagreich (Slayground)
Alex Thomson (The Keep)
Frank Watts (Educating Rita)

ORIGINAL SCORE
David Hentschel (Educating Rita)
Bill Conti (The Right Stuff)
Ray Cook (Careful, He Might Hear You)
Jerry Goldsmith (Under Fire)
Michael Rubini & Denny Jaeger (The Hunger)
Colin Towns (Slayground)
Gabriel Yared (La Lune dans le caniveau / The Moon in the Gutter)