Best Female Lead movies of 1980s

Actors : Bruce Davison, Gordon Hunt, Anthony Perkins, Kathleen Turner,
Directors : Ken Russell,

A mysterious woman, fashion designer by day, prostitute by night, and accused of murder, is hounded by two men: a married father of two, and a sexually repressed preacher.

Actors : Lainie Kazan, Ray Wise, John Cusack, Meredith Salenger,
Directors : Jeremy Kagan,

In the 1930s, a tomboyish girl runs away from her guardian to join her single father who is 2,000 miles away, because there was work there.

Actors : Karl Malden, Maureen Stapleton, Barbra Streisand, Richard Dreyfuss,
Directors : Martin Ritt,

A high-class call girl accused of murder fights for the right to stand trial rather than be declared mentally incompetent.

Actors : Amira Chemakhi, Sylvie Richez, Vincent Gauthier, Marie Rivière,
Directors : Éric Rohmer,

It's July, and Delphine has nowhere to go for the summer. She feels very bored and "empty", but this won't last; one day she accidently meets someone who seems to be totally made for her...

Actors : Mitsuko Baishô, Mieko Harada, Akira Terao, Toshie Negishi,

A collection of tales based upon the actual dreams of director Akira Kurosawa.

Actors : Jameson Parker, Christa Lang, Vernon Weddle, Kristy McNichol,
Directors : Samuel Fuller,

A trainer attempts to retrain a vicious dog that's been raised to attack black people.

Actors : Martin Hewitt, Brooke Shields, Don Murray, Shirley Knight,
Directors : Franco Zeffirelli,

A high school student's love for a 15-year-old girl is thwarted by parental disapproval, circumstance and accident.

Actors : Sam Neill, Margit Carstensen, Isabelle Adjani, Heinz Bennent,
Directors : Andrzej Zulawski,

A woman starts exhibiting increasingly disturbing behavior after asking her husband for a divorce. Suspicions of infidelity soon give way to something much more sinister.

Actors : Cinzia Monreale, Catriona MacColl, David Warbeck, Antoine Saint-John,
Directors : Lucio Fulci,

A young woman inherits an old hotel in Louisiana where, following a series of supernatural "accidents", she learns that the building was built over one of the entrances to Hell.

Actors : Susan Saiger, Paul Bartel, Robert Beltran, Mary Woronov,
Directors : Paul Bartel,

A relatively boring Los Angeles couple discovers a bizarre, if not murderous, way to get funding for opening a restaurant.

Actors : Lothar Chamski, Eberhard Auriga, Peggy Bussieck, Natja Brunckhorst,
Directors : Uli Edel,

This movie portrays the drug scene in Berlin in the 1970s, following tape recordings of Christiane F. 14-year-old Christiane lives with her mother and little sister in a typical multi-story...

Actors : Pamela Springsteen, Tony Higgins, Valerie Hartman, Renée Estevez,
Directors : Michael A. Simpson,

Angela, supposedly reformed and living under an assumed surname, is working at a summer camp. However, when the campers start misbehaving, she soon reverts to her old ways.

Actors : Anne Bancroft, Jean De Baer, Anthony Hopkins, Judi Dench,
Directors : David Hugh Jones,

True story of a transatlantic business correspondence about used books that developed into a close friendship.

Actors : Mark Sferrazza, Bill Chepil, Vic Noto, Mike Lackey,
Directors : James M. Muro,

A liquor store owner sells alcoholic beverages to homeless people, unaware of what the bottles actually contain: toxic brew.

Actors : Martha Plimpton, Swoosie Kurtz, Jane Fonda, Robert De Niro,
Directors : Martin Ritt,

A struggling widow falls in love with an illiterate short-order cook whom she teaches to read and write in her kitchen each night.

Actors : Paula E. Sheppard, Otto von Wernherr, Anne Carlisle, Susan Doukas,
Directors : Slava Tsukerman,

Invisible aliens in a tiny flying saucer come to Earth looking for heroin. They land on top of a New York apartment inhabited by a drug dealer and her female, androgynous, bisexual ...

Actors : Keith Gordon, Richard Bradford, Helen Slater, Christian Slater,
Directors : Matthew Robbins,

A Texas teenager cuts her hair short and becomes an outlaw martyr with her brother and friends.

Actors : Raul Julia, Diane Salinger, Jane Fonda, Jeff Bridges,
Directors : Sidney Lumet,

A washed up, alcoholic actress who is prone to blackouts wakes up next to a murdered man. Did she kill him and, if not, is she in danger?

Actors : Kelli Maroney, Karrie Emerson, Tony O'Dell, Russell Todd,
Directors : Jim Wynorski,

Eight teenagers are trapped after hours in a high tech shopping mall and pursued by three murderous security robots out of control.

Actors : Roseanne Barr, Meryl Streep, Linda Hunt, Ed Begley Jr.,
Directors : Susan Seidelman,

A cunning and resourceful housewife vows revenge on her husband when he begins an affair with a wealthy romance novelist.