Best Female Lead movies of 1980s

Actors : Jennifer Beals, Sunny Johnson, Michael Nouri, Lilia Skala,
Directors : Adrian Lyne,

A Pittsburgh woman with two jobs as a welder and an exotic dancer wants to get into ballet school.

Actors : Cher, Kurt Russell, Meryl Streep, Craig T. Nelson,
Directors : Mike Nichols,

A worker at a plutonium processing plant is purposefully contaminated, psychologically tortured and possibly murdered to prevent her from exposing worker safety violations at the plant.

Actors : Anthony Rapp, Elisabeth Shue, Maia Brewton, Keith Coogan,
Directors : Chris Columbus,

A babysitter must battle her way through the big city after being stranded there with the kids she's looking after.

Actors : Julia Roberts, Vincent D'Onofrio, Annabeth Gish, Lili Taylor,
Directors : Donald Petrie,

Three teenage girls come of age while working at a pizza parlor in the Connecticut town of Mystic.

Actors : Faye Dunaway, Diana Scarwid, Howard Da Silva, Steve Forrest,
Directors : Frank Perry,

The abusive and traumatic adoptive upbringing of Christina Crawford at the hands of her mother, screen queen Joan Crawford, is depicted.

Actors : Albert Finney, Carol Burnett, Aileen Quinn, Ann Reinking,
Directors : John Huston,

A young orphan girl's adventures in finding a family that will take her.

Actors : David Villalpando, Alicia del Lago, Ernesto Gómez Cruz, Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez,
Directors : Gregory Nava,

Peasants escaping mindless labor and a murderous Guatemalan government head to America in hopes for something better.

Actors : William Daniels, Brooke Shields, Christopher Atkins, Leo McKern,
Directors : Randal Kleiser,

In the Victorian period, two children are shipwrecked on a tropical island in the South Pacific. With no adults to guide them, the two make a simple life together, unaware that sexual maturity will eventually intervene.

Actors : Jarlath Conroy, Lori Cardille, Terry Alexander, Joseph Pilato,
Directors : George A. Romero,

A small group of military officers and scientists dwell in an underground bunker as the world above is overrun by zombies.

Actors : Elizabeth Hartman, Arthur Malet, Derek Jacobi, Dom DeLuise,
Directors : Don Bluth,

To save her ill son, a field mouse must seek the aid of a colony of rats, with whom she has a deeper link than she ever suspected.

Actors : Ally Sheedy, Steve Guttenberg, Austin Pendleton, Fisher Stevens,
Directors : John Badham,

Number 5 of a group of experimental robots in a lab is electrocuted, suddenly becomes intelligent, and escapes.

Actors : Betsy Palmer, Amy Steel, John Furey, Adrienne King,
Directors : Steve Miner,

Mrs. Voorhees is dead, and Camp Crystal Lake is shut down, but a camp next to the infamous place is stalked by an unknown assailant.

Actors : Christine Kaufmann, CCH Pounder, Marianne Sägebrecht, Jack Palance,
Directors : Percy Adlon,

A lonely German woman ends up in the most desolate motel on Earth and decides to make it brighter.

Actors : Maureen Stapleton, Meryl Streep, Jeff Daniels, Jack Nicholson,
Directors : Mike Nichols,

An autobiographical look at the breakup of Ephron's marriage to Carl "All the President's Men" Bernstein that was also a best-selling novel. The Ephron character, Rachel is a food writer at...

Actors : Antonio Banderas, Victoria Abril, Julieta Serrano, Loles León,
Directors : Pedro Almodóvar,

An unbalanced but alluring former mental patient takes a porn star prisoner in the hopes of convincing her to marry him.

Actors : Lorna Luft, Maxwell Caulfield, Maureen Teefy, Michelle Pfeiffer,
Directors : Patricia Birch,

An English student at a 1960s American high school has to prove himself to the leader of a girls' gang whose members can only date greasers.

Actors : Julia Roberts, Shirley MacLaine, Sally Field, Olympia Dukakis,
Directors : Herbert Ross,

A young beautician, newly arrived in a small Louisiana town, finds work at the local salon, where a small group of women share a close bond of friendship and welcome her into the fold.

Actors : Carolyn Choa, Jenny Howe, Alan Rickman, Juliet Stevenson,
Directors : Anthony Minghella,

A woman dealing with inconsolable grief over the death of her partner gets another chance when he returns to earth as a ghost.

Actors : Bette Midler, Barbara Hershey, John Heard, Spalding Gray,
Directors : Garry Marshall,

A privileged rich debutante and a cynical struggling entertainer share a turbulent, but strong childhood friendship over the years.

Actors : John MacKay, Rebecca Nelson, Martin Donovan, Adrienne Shelly,
Directors : Hal Hartley,

After being thrown away from home, Maria encounters a lady who complains of not having children. Almost getting raped, she ends up in an abandoned house, where she meets Matthew. When a baby is kidnapped Maria sets out to find the lady.