List of 1980s films based on actual events

This is a list of films and miniseries that are based on actual events. All films on this list are from American production unless indicated otherwise.

True story films gained popularity in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with the production of films based on actual events that first aired on CBS, ABC, and NBC.

1980

• A Rumor of War (1980) – war drama miniseries based on the 1977 autobiography by Philip Caputo about his service in the United States Marine Corps in the early years of American involvement in the Vietnam War
• A Time for Miracles (1980) – biographical drama television film chronicling the life story of America's first native born saint, Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton
• Act of Love (1980) – drama television film concerning a man performing euthanasia on his paralyzed brother, based on a true story
• Attica (1980) – prison drama television film depicting the events leading up to and during the 1971 Attica Correctional Facility riot and the aftermath
• Breaker Morant (1980) – Australian war drama film concerning the 1902 court martial of lieutenants Harry Morant, Peter Handcock and George Witton—one of the first war crime prosecutions in British military history
• Brubaker (1980) – prison drama film detailing Murton's uncovering of the 1967 prison scandal
• Burebista (1980) – Romanian biographical drama film about the life of the ancient Dacian king Burebista, depicting his battle to unify his nation and to resist Roman incursions
• Can't Stop the Music (1980) – musical comedy film about the 1970s disco group the Village People loosely based on the actual story of how the group formed
• Céleste (1980) – West German biographical drama film about the life of the French writer Marcel Proust as he lay in his bed from 1912 to 1922; the story is told through the eyes of his real life maid, Céleste Albaret
• Coal Miner's Daughter (1980) – biographical musical drama film following the story of country music singer Loretta Lynn from her early teen years in a poor family and getting married at 15 to her rise as one of the most influential country musicians
• The Coffin Affair (French: L'Affaire Coffin) (1980) – Canadian French-language crime drama film depicting a dramatization of the Coffin affair of 1953
• Concert at the End of Summer (Czech: Koncert na konci léta) (1980) – Czechoslovak historical biographical drama film depicting the life of Antonín Dvořák
• Death of a Princess (1980) – British biographical drama television film based on the true story of Princess Mishaal, a young Saudi Arabian princess and her lover who had been publicly executed for adultery
• The Diary of Anne Frank (1980) – biographical drama television film based on the writings from the diary kept by Anne Frank while she was in hiding for two years with her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands
• Egon Schiele: Excess and Punishment (German: Egon Schiele – Exzess und Bestrafung) (1980) – West German-Austrian-French biographical drama film based on the life of the Austrian artist Egon Schiele
• Eleftherios Venizelos (Greek: Ελευθέριος Βενιζέλος) (1980) – Greek biographical drama film about one of the most famous leaders of the Greek political scene of the 20th century, Eleftherios Venizelos
• The Elephant Man (1980) – biographical drama film about Joseph Merrick, a severely deformed man in late 19th-century London
• The Fiancee (German: Die Verlobte) (1980) – East German drama film about the resistance of the communist Hella Lindau and her fiancé Hermann Reimers against the Nazis
• Fighting Back: The Rocky Bleier Story (1980) – biographical sport drama television film about the life of Pittsburgh Steelers running back Rocky Bleier
• Flame Top (Finnish: Tulipää) (1980) – Finnish drama film depicting the life of the writer Algot Untola
• Gauguin the Savage (1980) – biographical drama television film depicting the life of the artist Paul Gauguin
• Gideon's Trumpet (1980) – historical drama television film depicting the historical events before and during the 1963 United States Supreme Court case of Gideon v. Wainwright that brought the right of an attorney to criminal defendants who could not afford it and did not meet special requirements to get one for free
• Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones (1980) – biographical drama miniseries about the Peoples Temple led by Jim Jones, and their 1978 mass suicide at Jonestown
• Haywire (1980) – biographical drama television film based on the memoir by Brooke Hayward
• Heart Beat (1980) – romantic drama film about seminal figures in the Beat Generation
• Heaven's Gate (1980) – Western epic drama film based on the Johnson County War revolving around a dispute between land barons and European immigrants in Wyoming in the 1890s
• Hide in Plain Sight (1980) – drama film based on an actual case from the files of New York attorney Salvatore R. Martoche who represented Tom Leonard, a real-life Buffalo, New York, victim who had sued to recover contact with his children estranged by the culpability of the new husband and government, soon realizing his own past is coming back to get him
• The Hunter (1980) – biographical action thriller film about bounty hunter Ralph "Papa" Thorson
• The Idolmaker (1980) – musical drama film loosely based on the life of rock promoter/producer Bob Marcucci who discovered, among others, Frankie Avalon and Fabian
• The Jayne Mansfield Story (1980) – biographical drama television film based on the life of Jayne Mansfield
• Joni (1980) – biographical drama film depicting the true story of Joni Eareckson Tada, a seventeen-year-old girl who becomes paralyzed after a diving accident
• The Lady Banker (French: La Banquière) (1980) – French comedy drama film about Emma Eckhert, a French woman from a modest background, who became a big sensation between 1914 and 1938 as a banker and the head of a financial paper specialized in public savings
• The Last Bell (Bengali: ছুটির ঘণ্টা) (1980) – Bangladeshi Bengali-language drama film based on the true story of a twelve-year-old school boy named Khokon in Bangladesh, who starved to death after the washroom he was in was mistakenly closed by the caretaker the day before the Muslim vacation Eid-ul-Azha started
• The Last Outlaw (1980) – Australian biographical drama miniseries based on the life of Ned Kelly
• The Legend of Alfred Packer (1980) – Western biographical film about Alferd Packer
• Lion of the Desert (1980) – American-Libyan epic historical war film about the Second Italo-Senussi War
• The Long Riders (1980) – Western crime drama film about the life and exploits of the Jesse James Gang
• The Man with the Carnation (Greek: Ο άνθρωπος με το γαρύφαλλο) (1980) – Greek drama film dealing with the arrest, trial and execution of the Greek Communist Nikos Belogiannis and his associates in 1951–1952
• Marilyn: The Untold Story (1980) – biographical drama television film about the life of the 1950s sex symbol-movie star, Marilyn Monroe
• The Mark of the Beast (Dutch: Het teken van het beest) (1980) – Dutch drama film based on the life of IJje Wijkstra who in 1929 murdered four police officers
• McVicar (1980) – British crime drama film based on the life of 1960s armed robber and later writer John McVicar
• Navajeros (1980) – Spanish-Mexican action drama film following the misadventures of the real life of José Joaquín Sánchez Frutos, aka "El Jaro"
• Nijinsky (1980) – biographical drama film exploring the later life and career of Vaslav Nijinsky
• The Ordeal of Dr. Mudd (1980) – historical drama television film revolving around the 1865 assassination of Abraham Lincoln
• Oppenheimer (1980) – biographical drama miniseries based on the life and career of American theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer
• Playing for Time (1980) – drama television film based on Fénelon's experience as a female prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp, where she and a group of classical musicians were spared in return for performing music for their captors
• Raging Bull (1980) – biographical sport drama film following the career former middleweight boxing champion Jake LaMotta, his rise and fall in the boxing scene, and his turbulent personal life beset by rage and jealousy
• Rape and Marriage: The Rideout Case (1980) – drama television film based on the true story of the trial of John Rideout, who was accused of raping his wife Greta in Oregon, 1978
• The Scarlett O'Hara War (1980) – drama television film about the search for the actress to play Scarlett O'Hara in the much anticipated film adaptation of Gone with the Wind (1939)
• The Sea Wolves (1980) – war drama film telling the true story of Operation Creek during the Second World War
• The Secret of Nikola Tesla (Serbo-Croatian: Tajna Nikole Tesle) (1980) – Yugoslav biographical drama film dramatizing events in the life of the Serbian-American engineer and inventor Nikola Tesla
• Solo Sunny (1980) – East German musical drama film inspired by German singer named Sanije Torka who was born of eastern European immigrant parents
• Sophia Loren: Her Own Story (1980) – biographical drama television film depicting a dramatization of the life of Italian actress Sophia Loren from her childhood in Naples to her international stardom
• Tom Horn (1980) – Western biographical drama film based on the writings of legendary lawman, outlaw, and gunfighter Tom Horn
• Where the Buffalo Roam (1980) – biographical comedy film depicting author Hunter S. Thompson's rise to fame in the 1970s and his relationship with Chicano attorney and activist Oscar "Zeta" Acosta
• The Youth of Peter the Great (Russian: Юность Петра) (1980) – Soviet biographical drama film based on the early life of Peter the Great

1981

• A Sense of Freedom (1981) – British crime drama film based on the autobiography of Glasgow gangster Jimmy Boyle, who was reputed to be Scotland's most violent man
• The Adventures of Nellie Bly (1981) – drama television film about 19th century journalist Nellie Bly and human rights crusader
• Agony (Russian: Агония) (1981) – Soviet biographical drama film based on the final year of Imperial Russia and the psychological portraits of Grigori Rasputin and the Imperial family
• Al Qadisiyya (Arabic: القادسية) (1981) – Egyptian-Iraqi drama film portraying the Battle of al-Qadisiyyah, in which the Islamic army of Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas (after the death beforehand of Al-Muthanna ibn Haritha) definitively ended the Sassanid Empire by defeating the Persian forces of Rostam Farrokhzad
• Angels of Iron (German: Engel aus Eisen) (1981) – West German crime drama film dramatizing the true story of a Berlin gang of thieves led by juvenile Werner Gladow during the time of the Berlin Blockade and Airlift
• Bad Blood (1981) – British-New Zealander thriller drama film based on the factual manhunt for mass-murderer Stanley Graham
• Bill (1981) – biographical drama television film based on the life of Bill Sackter
• Bitter Harvest (1981) – drama television film depicting the real-life story of a young farmer's efforts to find out what's killing his dairy herd and afflicting his infant son are hampered by the foot-dragging of state agriculture officials
• The Boat (German: Das Boot) (1981) – West German war drama film based on Lothar-Günther Buchheim's experiences aboard German submarine U-96
• The Boat Is Full (German: Das Boot ist voll) (1981) – Swiss war drama film depicting an account of the true story of six refugees entering Switzerland during World War Two, and the conflicted attitudes of the Swiss villagers and authorities towards Jewish refugees, political refugees, and deserters
• The Borgias (1981) – British historical drama miniseries telling the story of Rodrigo Borgia – the future Pope Alexander VI – and his family, including his son Cesare and daughter Lucrezia
• The Bunker (1981) – historical war television film depicting an account of the history of the Führerbunker in 1945, as well as the last days of German dictator Adolf Hitler
• The Bushido Blade (1981) – historical action drama film focusing on the true events surrounding the treaty Commodore Matthew Perry signed with the shogun of feudal Japan
• Chanel Solitaire (1981) – British-French-American historical drama film telling the story of the early life and rise to fame and fortune of French fashion designer Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel
• Chariots of Fire (1981) – British historical sport drama film based on the true story of two British athletes in the 1924 Olympics: Eric Liddell, a devout Scottish Christian who runs for the glory of God, and Harold Abrahams, an English Jew who runs to overcome prejudice
• Child Bride of Short Creek (1981) – drama television film loosely based upon the 1953 Short Creek raid that had occurred in Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah, United States, collectively known as "Short Creek," a community of members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a group that practices child marriage and polygamy
• The Children Nobody Wanted (1981) – drama television film based on the true story of child advocate Tom Butterfield, the youngest bachelor to become a legal foster parent in the state of Missouri, and his creation of the Butterfield Ranch
• Christiane F. (German: Christiane F. – Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo) (1981) – West German biographical drama film portraying the descent of Christiane Felscherinow, a bored and depressed 13-year-old growing up in mid-1970s West Berlin, to a 14-year-old heroin addict
• Circle of Power (1981) – thriller drama film based on the nonfiction book The Pit: A Group Encounter Defiled concerning Mind Dynamics (a.k.a. Leadership Dynamics and Holiday Magic)
• Death Hunt (1981) – Western action film depicting a fictionalized account of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) pursuit of a man named Albert Johnson
• Death of a Centerfold (1981) – biographical drama television film dramatizing the life and the murder of Playboy Playmate of the Year Dorothy Stratten
• Don't Look Back: The Story of Leroy 'Satchel' Paige (1981) – biographical sport drama film telling the story of Satchel Paige, star pitcher in the Negro Leagues, and later in the major leagues
• The Falcon (Serbian: Бановић Страхиња) (1981) – Yugoslav-West German adventure drama film based on Strahinja Banović, a hero of Serbian epic poetry
• The Flame Trees of Thika (1981) – British biographical drama miniseries dealing with the lives of British settlers in the town of Thika in Kenya's Central Province in 1913, when the country was a British colony, up to the start of World War One
• Gallipoli (1981) – Australian war drama film revolving around several young men from Western Australia who enlist in the Australian Army during the First World War who were sent to the peninsula of Gallipoli in the Ottoman Empire (in modern-day Turkey), where they took part in the Gallipoli campaign
• The Gangster Chronicles (1981) – crime drama miniseries about the lives of gangsters Bugsy Siegel, Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky
• The Girl with the Red Hair (Dutch: Het meisje met het rode haar) (1981) – Dutch drama film based on the biography of resistance fighter Hannie Schaft
• Grambling's White Tiger (1981) – sport drama television film about the true story of Jim Gregory, the first white quarterback of the Grambling Tigers at Grambling College, a historically black college, in 1962
• Hoodwink (1981) – Australian crime thriller film based on the true story of a well-publicised Australian con artist
• Inchon (1981) – American-South Korean epic war film about the Battle of Inchon, considered to be the turning point of the Korean War
• Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy (1981) – biographical drama television film focusing on the former First Lady's years in D.C., from working as a newspaper's "Inquiring Camera Girl" to meeting and being courted by Rep. Jack Kennedy to life on the campaign trail and into the White House
• The Killing of Randy Webster (1981) – drama television film based on a true story of a father's tireless investigation into the killing of his teenage son by Houston police in a stolen van chase, prompted by his inability to accept police claims that the boy was carrying a gun
• Kisapmata (1981) – Filipino psychological horror film chronicling the events leading up to the highly publicized familicide committed by Pablo Cabading, a retired policeman
• The Life and Times of David Lloyd George (1981) – biographical drama miniseries about David Lloyd George, the final Liberal prime minister of the UK
• Lili Marleen (1981) – West German romantic drama film recounting the love affair between a German singer who becomes the darling of the nation, based on Lale Andersen, and a Swiss conductor, based on Rolf Liebermann, who is active in saving his fellow Jews
• The Man Who Saw Tomorrow (1981) – biographical drama film about the predictions of French astrologer and physician Michel de Notredame (Nostradamus)
• The Marva Collins Story (1981) – biographical drama television film about the life of Chicago-based African-American teacher Marva Collins
• Mephisto (1981) – Hungarian-Austrian-West German historical drama film about a German stage actor (modeled on Gustaf Gründgens) who finds unexpected success and mixed blessings in the popularity of his performance in a Faustian play as the Nazis take power in pre-WWII Germany
• The Miracle of Kathy Miller (1981) – sport drama television film based on the real-life story of a Scottsdale, Arizona teenager who was critically injured in a 1977 car accident
• Miracle on Ice (1981) – sport drama television film about the United States men's national ice hockey team, led by head coach Herb Brooks, that won the gold medal
• Mommie Dearest (1981) – biographical psychological drama film following Christina Crawford's and her brother Christopher's upbringing under their adoptive mother, actress Joan Crawford, depicting her as abusive, controlling, and manipulative, prioritizing her Hollywood career over her family
• Murder in Texas (1981) – drama television film based on the true story of the death of Joan Robinson Hill
• Outlaw: The Saga of Gisli (Icelandic: Útlaginn) (1981) – Icelandic biographical drama film telling the story of a blood feud set in 10th-century Iceland
• The People vs. Jean Harris (1981) – crime drama television film about the trial of Jean Harris, the convicted murderer of Herman Tarnower
• Peter and Paul (1981) – Christian drama miniseries covering much of the Book of Acts in its Biblical re-telling of chapters 8 through 28, including the apostolic missionary journeys and interactions of Peter the Fisherman and Paul of Tarsus
• Priest of Love (1981) – British biographical romantic drama film about the life of D. H. Lawrence and his wife, Frieda
• Prince of the City (1981) – neo-noir crime drama film based on the life of Robert Leuci, called ‘Daniel Ciello’ in the film, an officer of the New York Police Department who chooses, for idealistic reasons, to expose corruption in the force
• Ragtime (1981) – drama film set in and around turn-of-the-century New York City, New Rochelle, and Atlantic City, and includes fictionalized references to actual people and events of the time
• Reds (1981) – epic historical drama film about the life and career of John Reed, the journalist and writer who chronicled the October Revolution in Russia in his 1919 book Ten Days That Shook the World
• Rise and Fall of Idi Amin (1981) – Kenyan-Nigerian-British biographical crime film detailing the controversial actions and atrocities of the former dictator of Uganda, Idi Amin Dada, during his violent rise to power in 1971 until his overthrow in 1979 as the result of the Uganda–Tanzania War
• The Search for Alexander the Great (1981) – British-American adventure miniseries about Alexander the Great
• Skokie (1981) – drama television film based on a real life controversy in Skokie, Illinois, involving the National Socialist Party of America
• St. Helens (1981) – adventure drama film centring on the events leading up to the cataclysmic 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington, with the story beginning on the day volcanic activity started on March 20, 1980, and ending on the day of the eruption, May 18, 1980
• Stand by Your Man (1981) – biographical drama miniseries based on the life of Tammy Wynette, the country music superstar, including her tumultuous marriage to fellow star George Jones
• Twenty Six Days from the Life of Dostoyevsky (Russian: Двадцать шесть дней из жизни Достоевского) (1981) – Soviet biographical romantic drama film about writer Fyodor Dostoevsky
• Tyagayya (Telugu: త్యాగయ్య) (1981) – Indian Telugu-language biographical drama film based on the life of Saint, Singer, and composer Tyagaraja
• The Wave (1981) – drama television film based on The Third Wave experiment put on by teacher Ron Jones to explain to his students how the German populace could accept the actions of the Nazi regime
• Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years (1981) – British biographical drama miniseries based on Winston Churchill's years in enforced exile from political position during the 1920s and 1930s
• Wrong Side of the Road (1981) – Australian biographical drama film showing 48 hours in the lives of members of the Aboriginal bands, No Fixed Address and Us Mob, including the racism, hostility and harassment they receive

1982

• A Square of Sky (German: Ein Stück Himmel) (1982) – West German biographical drama miniseries based on Janina David's childhood as a Jew in Wartime Poland
• A Woman Called Golda (1982) – biographical television film about Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir
• Angel (Greek: Άγγελος) (1982) – Greek drama film based on the love affair of 19-year-old sailor Christos Roussos and 22-year-old sailor Anestis Papadopoulos, a relationship that led to the murder of the latter on April 7, 1976, and the conviction of Christos, names in the film differ from reality
• Another Way (Hungarian: Egymásra nézve) (1982) – Hungarian historical biographical drama film about an affair between two women – based on a semi-autobiographical novella Another Love (Törvényen belül) by Erzsébet Galgóczi
• Antonieta (1982) – French-Mexican-Spanish biographical war drama film centring on the life of Antonieta Rivas Mercado, a Mexican writer who killed herself inside Paris' Notre Dame in 1931
• The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez (1982) – Western drama film about the life of Gregorio Cortez
• The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982) – musical comedy film based on a story by Larry L. King that was inspired by the real-life Chicken Ranch in La Grange, Texas
• Boy Meets Girl (Hebrew: בן לוקח בת) (1982) – Israeli biographical drama film depicting a semi-autobiographical account of Bat-Adams' own upbringing at a kibbutz boarding school
• Cavalleria rusticana (1982) – Italian musical drama film based on the opera of the same name – based on real events
• Coming Out of the Ice (1982) – biographical television film based on the life of Victor Herman, a Jewish-American who spent 18 years as a Soviet prisoner in the Gulags of Siberia
• The Elephant Man (1982) – biographical television film about the 19th-century English medical curiosity Joseph Merrick
• Endangered Species (1982) – science fiction horror film based on the then current headlines of cattle mutilations
• The Entity (1982) – supernatural horror film based on the 1974 case of Doris Bither, a woman who claimed to have been repeatedly sexually assaulted by an invisible entity, and who was observed by doctoral students at the University of California, Los Angeles
• The Executioner's Song (1982) – biographical crime drama television film about the final nine months of the life of Gary Gilmore, beginning with his release from prison at the age of 35 after serving 12 years for robbery in Indiana
• Fitzcarraldo (1982) – West German epic adventure film derived from the historic events of Peruvian rubber baron, Carlos Fitzcarrald
• Flight of the Eagle (Swedish: Ingenjör Andrées luftfärd) (1982) – Swedish biographical drama film depiciting the true story of S. A. Andrée's Arctic balloon expedition of 1897, an ill-fated effort to reach the North Pole in which all three expedition members perished
• Frances (1982) – biographical drama film about Frances Farmer, a troubled actress during the 1930s whose career suffered as a result of her mental illness
• Gandhi (1982) – epic biographical film based on the life of Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of an Indian independence movement against the British Empire during the 20th century
• The Grey Fox (1982) – Canadian biographical Western film based on the true story of Bill Miner, an American stagecoach robber who staged his first Canadian train robbery on 10 September 1904
• Heatwave (1982) – Australian drama film based on the murder of Juanita Nielsen
• I Remember Nelson (1982) – British historical miniseries portraying the relationship between Horatio Nelson and Emma Hamilton in the period leading up the Battle of Trafalgar
• I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can (1982) – biographical film about Barbara Gordon, whose addiction to and difficult withdrawal from Valium serves as the basis of the plot
• If You Could See What I Hear (1982) – Canadian biographical drama film about blind musician Tom Sullivan
• Inside the Third Reich (1982) – biographical drama television film dramatizing the life of Albert Speer, Adolf Hitler's young architect and one-time confidant, and his meteoric rise into the Nazi hierarchy
• Legend of a Fighter (Cantonese: 霍元甲) (1982) – Hong Kong martial arts film based on the story of Chinese martial artist Huo Yuanjia
• Little Gloria... Happy at Last (1982) – American-British biographical drama miniseries telling the story of the real-life heiress Gloria Vanderbilt and how her parents met and married
• Love Child (1982) – crime drama film based on the life of Terry Jean Moore, a young woman who was convicted of a crime at the age of 19 and gets pregnant in jail
• Love Is Forever (1982) – adventure drama film based on the experiences of Australian journalist John Everingham in Laos and Thailand
• Luz del Fuego (1982) – Brazilian drama film depicting a liberal and romantic narrative of the controversial Brazilian vedette and activist Dora Vivacqua, better known by her stage name Luz del Fuego
• Macbeth (1982) – Hungarian drama television film based on the play of the same name by William Shakespeare – the story is the account of Macbeth, King of Scotland, Macduff, and Duncan
• Madrasile Mon (Malayalam: മദ്രാസിൽ മോൺ) (1982) – Indian Malayalam-language crime film based on the Karikkan villa murder case of 1980
• Mae West (1982) – biographical drama television film about the life of the comedian actress and writer Mae West
• Marian Rose White (1982) – drama television film based on the life of Marian Rose White, a California woman who as a 9-year-old was committed to a state mental institution and spent much of her life confined there
• Marco Polo (1982) – American-Italian historical drama miniseries about Marco Polo, the 13th-century Venetian merchant and explorer
• Missing (1982) – biographical thriller drama film based on the disappearance of American journalist Charles Horman, in the aftermath of the United States-backed Chilean coup of 1973, which deposed the democratically elected socialist President Salvador Allende
• Nancy Astor (1982) – British biographical drama miniseries portraying the career of Nancy Astor, the American-born socialite and Conservative Party politician who pioneered the role of women in the House of Commons
• Night Crossing (1982) – American-British thriller drama film based on the true story of the Strelzyk and Wetzel families, who on September 16, 1979 attempted to escape from East Germany to West Germany in a homemade hot-air balloon during the Inner German border-era when immigration to West Germany was strictly prohibited by the East German government
• The Return of Martin Guerre (French: Le Retour de Martin Guerre) (1982) – French historical drama film based on a case of imposture in 16th century France, involving Martin Guerre
• The Roaring Forties (French: Les quarantièmes rugissants) (1982) – French drama film about the death of the British round the world yachtsman Donald Crowhurst in 1969
• The Royal Romance of Charles and Diana (1982) – biographical drama television film depicting the events leading to the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer
• Side by Side (1982) – biographical television film about the earlier years of the famed entertainment family
• Squizzy Taylor (1982) – Australian drama film based on the life of Melbourne gangster, Squizzy Taylor
• Variola Vera (Serbo-Croatian: Вариола вера) (1982) – Yugoslav historical drama film based on the 1972 Yugoslav smallpox outbreak
• We of the Never Never (1982) – Australian drama film based on the experiences of Jeannie Gunn in the Australian outback during the 1930s
• The White Rose (German: Die Weiße Rose) (1982) – West German historical drama film about the White Rose resistance to the Nazis led by university students in Munich in 1942–1943 whose members were caught and executed in February 1943, shortly after the German capitulation at Stalingrad
• Will: G. Gordon Liddy (1982) – biographical drama television film depicting the rise and fall of Watergate co-conspirator G. Gordon Liddy

1983

• Adam (1983) – crime drama television film portraying the story of the kidnapping and murder of Adam Walsh on July 27, 1981, along with the effects of this event on the marriage of John and Revé Walsh
• Adi Shankaracharya (Sanskrit: आदि शंकराचार्य) (1983) – Indian Sanskrit-language biographical drama film depicting the life and times of the Hindu philosopher, Adi Shankaracharya, who consolidated the doctrine of Advaita Vedanta (nondualism) in Hindu philosophy
• The Amorous Dentist (1983) – Australian crime drama television film about Sydney-based dentist Dr Louis Bertrand who fell in love with a patient's wife and killed her husband
• Antarctica (Japanese: 南極物語) (1983) – Japanese adventure drama film centring on the 1958 ill-fated Japanese scientific expedition to the South Pole, its dramatic rescue from the severe weather conditions on the return journey, the relationship between the scientists and their loyal and hard-working Sakhalin huskies, particularly the lead dogs Taro and Jiro, and the fates of the 15 dogs left behind to fend for themselves
• At First Sight (French: Coup de foudre) (1983) – French biographical drama film depicting the story of a Jewish refugee who marries a soldier to escape deportation to Germany; meanwhile a wealthy art student loses her first husband to a stray Resistance bullet
• Barefoot Gen (Japanese: はだしのゲン) (1983) – Japanese animated biographical war film depicting World War II in Japan from a child's point of view revolving around the events surrounding the bombing of Hiroshima
• Bill: On His Own (1983) – biographical drama television film about the life of Bill Sackter
• Choices of the Heart (1983) – drama television film based on the lives of the American Roman Catholic missionaries Jean Donovan, Dorothy Kazel, Maura Clarke, and Ita Ford, all of whom were murdered in El Salvador in 1980 during the Salvadoran Civil War
• The Cleopatras (1983) – British historical drama miniseries set in Ancient Egypt during the latter part of the Ptolemaic Dynasty with an emphasis on the Cleopatras
• Cross Creek (1983) – biographical romantic drama film based on the life of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings as written in her memoir
• Danton (1983) – French-Polish-West German biographical drama film depicting the last weeks of Georges Danton, one of the leaders of the French Revolution
• The Dean Case (1983) – Australian crime drama television film telling the story of George Dean, a Sydney-based ferry boat master, arrested in 1895 for attempting to poison his wife
• Dempsey (1983) – biographical sport drama television film based on the life of the heavyweight boxer Jack Dempsey
• Edith and Marcel (French: Édith et Marcel) (1983) – French biographical romantic drama film about the love affair between the singer Édith Piaf and the boxer Marcel Cerdan
• Fear (German: Angst) (1983) – Austrian horror film following a psychopath recently released from prison; loosely based on real-life mass murderer Werner Kniesek
• For Those I Loved (French: Au nom de tous les miens) (1983) – French war drama film about a Polish Jewish Holocaust survivor who emigrated to the United States in 1946
• Forbidden Relations (Hungarian: Visszaesők) (1983) – Hungarian romantic drama film based on a true story when a love affair develops between a half brother and half-sister
• Frida Still Life (Spanish: Frida, naturaleza viva) (1983) – Mexican biographical drama film about the life of Frida Kahlo
• Girls of the White Orchid (1983) – crime drama television film based on true events in the life of actor Tom Allard, whose girlfriend answered an advertisement for American singers to entertain in Japan and found herself trapped in a prostitution-slavery ring operated by the yakuza
• Grace Kelly (1983) – biographical drama television film about the actress who became a princess, Grace Kelly
• Heart Like a Wheel (1983) – biographical sport drama film based on the life of drag racing driver Shirley Muldowney
• Hostage (1983) – Australian crime thriller film about an abused wife who learns in horror that her sadistic German-born husband is actually a fanatical neo-Nazi – based on the true story of Christine Maresch
• Kennedy (1983) – American-British biographical drama miniseries about the 1961–1963 presidency of John F. Kennedy
• Living Proof: The Hank Williams Jr. Story (1983) – biographical drama television film based on Hank Williams Jr.'s life, under his mother's thumb, competing with the ghost of one of the most famous singers in C&W music history, and aspiring to rise above it all
• Martin Luther, Heretic (1983) – American-British biographical drama film depicting Martin Luther's life from 1506 to 1522 – from the beginning of Luther's monastic vocation to his return from exile at the Wartburg in 1522
• Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (Japanese: 戦場のメリークリスマス) (1983) – Japanese war drama film based on the experiences of Sir Laurens van der Post as a prisoner of war in Japan during World War II
• Mother Mary (Russian: Мать Мария) (1983) – Soviet biographical drama film loosely based on real life events of poet Maria Skobtsova
• Murder in Coweta County (1983) – crime drama television film based on actual events of a murder in Coweta County in April 1948 committed in Coweta County in the U.S. state of Georgia
• Never Cry Wolf (1983) – adventure drama film depicting a fictional account of the author's subjective experience observing wolves in subarctic Canada
• Number 10 (1983) – British historical drama miniseries depicting the personal and political lives of seven British Prime Ministers, ranging from the 1780s to the 1920s, during their occupancy of 10 Downing Street
• Phar Lap (1983) – Australian family sport drama film about the racehorse Phar Lap
• Policewoman Centerfold (1983) – drama television film loosely based on the story of police officer Barbara Schantz who posed for Playboy magazine in 1982
• Qiu Jin (Mandarin: 秋瑾) (1983) – Chinese biographical drama film based on the real life of Qiu Jin, focusing on her efforts in the 1900s to overthrow the corruption Qing Empire
• Quarterback Princess (1983) – sport drama television film about Tami Maida who had the courage and determination to fight to play on her high school football team
• Razia Sultan (Hindi: रजिया सुल्तान) (1983) – Indian Hindi-language historical biographical film based on the life of Razia Sultan, the only female Sultan of Delhi and her speculated love affair with the Abyssinian slave, Jamal-ud-Din Yakut
• Red Monarch (1983) – British comedy drama film depicting Soviet politics and the interplay between Stalin and his lieutenants, particularly Beria, during the last years of Stalin's rule
• Reilly, Ace of Spies (1983) – British crime drama miniseries dramatizing the life of Sidney Reilly, a Russian-born adventurer who became one of the greatest spies ever to work for the United Kingdom and the British Empire
• Rembetiko (Greek: Ρεμπέτικο) (1983) – Greek biographical drama film based on the life of rebetiko singer Marika Ninou
• The Right Stuff (1983) – epic historical drama film following the Navy, Marine, and Air Force test pilots who were involved in aeronautical research at Edwards Air Force Base, California, as well as the Mercury Seven, the seven military pilots who were selected to be the astronauts for Project Mercury, the first human spaceflight by the United States
• Rita Hayworth: The Love Goddess (1983) – biographical drama television film dealing with real events in the life of actress Rita Hayworth from 1931 to 1952
• Running Brave (1983) – Canadian biographical sport drama film based on the story of Billy Mills, a member or the Oglala Sioux tribe located in South Dakota
• Sadat (1983) – biographical drama miniseries based on the life and death of the late 3rd President of Egypt, Anwar Sadat
• The Scarlet and the Black (1983) – American-Italian-British historical war drama television film telling the story of Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, a real-life Irish Catholic priest who saved thousands of Jews and escaped Allied POWs in Rome
• Semyon Dezhnev (Russian: Семён Дежнёв) (1983) – Soviet adventure film about the Russian traveler Semyon Dezhnev, who discovered new Siberian lands, sailed from the Stone Belt to the east of the Eurasian continent and discovered the strait between Asia and North America
• Silkwood (1983) – biographical drama film detailing the life of Karen Silkwood, a nuclear whistle-blower and a labor union activist who investigated alleged wrongdoing at the Kerr-McGee plutonium plant where she worked
• Spring Symphony (German: Frühlingssinfonie) (1983) – West German historical drama film portraying the life of the pianist Clara Wieck and her relationship with the composer Robert Schumann
• Star 80 (1983) – biographical drama film based on the story of Canadian Playboy model Dorothy Stratten, who was murdered by her husband Paul Snider in 1980
• The Story of Piera (Italian: Storia di Piera) (1983) – Italian biographical drama film about the incestuous relationship of a mother and daughter – based on the autobiography of Italian theater actress Piera Degli Esposti
• Summerspell (1983) – biographical drama film following family celebrations and tensions on Independence Day in Texas 1948
• The Terry Fox Story (1983) – American-Canadian biographical sport drama television film about Canadian amputee and runner Terry Fox
• Uncommon Valor (1983) – action war film about a former U.S. Marine colonel who puts together a rag-tag team to rescue his son, who he believes is among those still held in Laos after the Vietnam War – based on a true story
• Undercover (1983) – Australian historical comedy film about the rise of Berlei, a popular Australian brand of women's lingerie, famous for its bras and girdles
• Wagner (1983) – biographical drama miniseries based on the life of Richard Wagner
• Who Will Love My Children? (1983) – biographical drama television film based on the life of Lucile Fray who was diagnosed with cancer in 1952 and wanted to find suitable homes for her ten children, since she felt her husband could not properly care for them
• Winter 1960 (French: Hiver 60) (1983) – Belgian drama film depicting the huge strike in Belgium in Winter 1960–61 against the government of Gaston Eyskens who wanted to improve the public finances with drastic measures of austerity which meant social regression for the people
• Without a Trace (1983) – mystery drama film partly based on the disappearance of Etan Patz
• Zille and Me (German: Zille und ick) (1983) – East German musical drama film loosely based on the life of famous german social-critical painter Heinrich Zille

1984

• A Proper Scandal (Italian: Uno scandalo perbene) (1984) – Italian crime drama film about the Bruneri-Canella case
• Amadeus (1984) – historical biographical drama film depicting a fictionalized story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart from the time he left Salzburg
• Amy (1984) – British biographical drama television film portraying the life of the pioneering British pilot Amy Johnson in the years leading up to her disappearance in 1941
• Annie's Coming Out (1984) – Australian drama film telling the story of Anne McDonald's early life in a government institution for people with severe disabilities and her subsequent release, as well as her therapist's attempts to communicate with her through the discredited method of facilitated communication
• Another Country (1984) – British historical romantic drama film loosely based on the life of the spy and double agent Guy Burgess, exploring his homosexuality and exposure to Marxism, while examining the hypocrisy and snobbery of the English public school system
• Attack on Fear (1984) – crime drama television film about married journalists who run a small town newspaper and expose corruption and cultism at a once respected rehab center
• The Bear (1984) – biographical drama film following the life of Paul "Bear" Bryant, head coach of the University of Alabama football team, who died in 1983
• Booker (1984) – biographical drama family television film following the early life of civil rights activist Booker T. Washington
• The Bounty (1984) – British epic historical drama film telling the story of the mutiny on the HMS Bounty
• The Burning Bed (1984) – biographical crime drama television film about battered housewife Francine Hughes
• Camila (1984) – Argentine romantic drama film based on the story of the 19th-century Argentine socialite Camila O'Gorman
• Champions (1984) – British sport drama film based on the true story of jockey Bob Champion
• Claretta (1984) – Italian historical drama film about the life and death of Claretta Petacci, the mistress of Benito Mussolini
• Country (1984) – drama film following the trials and tribulations of a rural family as they struggle to hold on to their farm during the trying economic times experienced by family farms in 1980s America
• The Cowra Breakout (1984) – Australian action war drama miniseries focusing on the friendship between an Australian soldier and Japanese prisoner
• Diary for My Children (Hungarian: Napló gyermekeimnek) (1984) – Hungarian biographical drama film telling the story of a girl returning from Soviet Union to her native Hungary to live with her Stalinist aunt – a semi-autobiographical story
• Down on Us (1984) – biographical drama film about 1960s rock stars Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix
• Dreams of the City (Arabic: أحلام المدينة) (1984) – Syrian biographical drama film about a boy forced to flee his native Quneitra to Damascus in the turbulent 1950s – based on a true story
• Eureka Stockade (1984) – Australian drama miniseries based on the battle of Eureka Stockade
• Fatal Vision (1984) – crime drama miniseries recounting the celebrated case of Jeffrey R. MacDonald, the former Green Beret physician who was convicted of murdering his pregnant wife and their two small children
• Flight 90: Disaster on the Potomac (1984) – drama television film about Air Florida Flight 90 that crashed into the Potomac River in 1982
• Forbidden (1984) – romantic war drama film inspired by the life of Maria von Maltzan, a countess who hides her Jewish boyfriend in her apartment in World War II
• Freud (1984) – biographical historical drama miniseries based on the life and times of Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud
• George Washington (1984) – biographical historical drama miniseries chronicling the life of George Washington, the first President of the United States from the age of 11 to the age of 51
• Heartsounds (1984) – drama television film about writer Martha Weinman Lear's husband who suffered many heart attacks
• The Jesse Owens Story (1984) – biographical drama miniseries about the black athlete Jesse Owens
• John Wycliffe: The Morning Star (1984) – biographical drama film about the life and teachings of John Wycliffe
• Kalia (Punjabi: ਕਾਲੀਆ) (1984) – Pakistani musical action drama film dedicated to the dutiful jawans of the law enforcement agencies of Pakistan
• Kamalolmolk (Persian: کمال‌الملک) (1984) – Iranian historical drama film about the life and work of famous Iranian painter Mohammad Ghaffari, better known as Kamal-ol-molk
• The Killing Fields (1984) – British biographical drama film about the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, which is based on the experiences of two journalists: Cambodian Dith Pran and American Sydney Schanberg
• The Last Winter (1984) – American-Israeli war drama film telling the story of two women seeking leads to their missing husbands after the end of the Yom Kippur War – based on a true story
• Lev Tolstoy (Russian: Лев Толстой) (1984) – Soviet biographical drama film about the life and death of the great Russian writer Lev Tolstoy
• The Man from Majorca (Swedish: Mannen från Mallorca) (1984) – Swedish crime thriller film inspired by the Geijer affair
• Mesrine (1984) – French biographical crime drama film based on the life of Jacques Mesrine, focusing on the eighteen months following his escape from La Santé Prison in May 1978 until his death in November 1979
• The Miracle Continues (1984) – biographical drama television film based on the life of the blind and deaf Helen Keller
• Mrs. Soffel (1984) – romantic drama film based on the story of condemned brothers Jack and Ed Biddle, who escaped prison with the aid of Kate Soffel, the warden's wife
• Nadia (1984) – American-Yugoslav sport drama television film about Olympic gymnast Nadia Comăneci
• One Hundred Days in Palermo (Italian: Cento giorni a Palermo) (1984) – Italian biographical crime drama film telling about the last hundred days in the life of the Italian "Generale dei Carabinieri" and anti-mafia highest authority Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa as prefect of Palermo, the capital of the Italian island of Sicily
• Papa Mama Bye bye (Japanese: パパママバイバイ) (1984) – Japanese animated drama film centring on the 1977 Yokohama F-4 crash
• Pengkhianatan G30S/PKI (1984) – Indonesian propaganda drama film based on the 30 September Movement (Gerakan 30 September, or G30S) coup in 1965
• Pope John Paul II (1984) – biographical drama television film based on the life of Karol Wojtyła, from his early days as an activist in Poland to his installation as Pope John Paul II
• Sakharov (1984) – biographical drama television film about Russian physicist & dissident Andrei Sakharov
• Sam's Son (1984) – biographical drama film loosely based on Michael Landon's early life
• Samson and Delilah (1984) – Christian adventure drama film depicting the biblical story of Samson and Delilah
• The Schippan Mystery (1984) – Australian crime drama television film about the murder of Bertha Schippan in 1902
• The Secret Diary of Sigmund Freud (1984) – biographical comedy film about young Sigmund Freud's work with hypnosis
• Secret Honor (1984) – historical drama film about Richard Nixon
• The Story of Nampoo (Thai: น้ำพุ) (1984) – Thai drama film focusing around Nampoo, the son of the writer Suwanni Sukhontha, and his struggles with drug addiction, which eventually lead to his death
• The Three of Us (Italian: Noi tre) (1984) – Italian historical comedy film about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• Victims for Victims: The Theresa Saldana Story (1984) – biographical drama television film depicting the true story of the brutal attack on actress Theresa Saldana by a deranged stalker
• Walls (1984) – Canadian drama film depicting a dramatization of the British Columbia Penitentiary hostage incident of 1975
• Where Others Keep Silent (German: Wo andere schweigen) (1984) – East German biographical drama film depicting ten days in the life of socialist politician Clara Zetkin
• Who Killed Hannah Jane? (1984) – Australian crime drama television film based on the murder of Hannah Jane Peden

1985

• 1918 (1985) – drama film adapted by Horton Foote from his own play, about a small Texas town in the height of the United States involvement in World War I and the influenza epidemic sweeping the world
• A Bunny's Tale (1985) – comedy drama television film based on American feminist icon and journalist Gloria Steinem's experiences working as a Playboy Bunny in 1963
• A Thousand Skies (1985) – Australian adventure drama miniseries about the life of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith
• Anzacs (1985) – Australian historical war miniseries following the lives of a group of young Australian men who enlist in the 8th Battalion (Australia) of the First Australian Imperial Force in 1914, fighting first at Gallipoli in 1915, and then on the Western Front for the remainder of the war
• Archer (1985) – Australian Western drama television film about the true story of Archer, the first horse to win the Melbourne Cup and his 17-year-old strapper, Dave Power
• The Assisi Underground (1985) – American-Italian historical war drama film based on a true-life account by Father Rufino Niccacci of events surrounding the Assisi Network, an effort to hide 300 Jews in the town of Assisi, Italy during World War II
• The Atlanta Child Murders (1985) – mystery crime drama miniseries dramatizing the "Atlanta child murders" in which 29 African American children were murdered in Atlanta from summer 1979 through spring 1981
• Badge of the Assassin (1985) – drama television film based on the true story that took place in Harlem during 1971 – a true-crime account from the former district attorney and New York Times bestselling author Robert K. Tanenbaum and Philip Rosenberg
• Burke & Wills (1985) – Australian adventure drama film based on the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition across Australia
• Canada's Sweetheart: The Saga of Hal C. Banks (1985) – Canadian biographical drama film about Hal C. Banks, a controversial American labour union leader who came to Canada in 1949 to lead a sectarian fight between rival shipping unions
• Children of the Night (1985) – drama television film depicting the story of Dr. Lois Lee, following her work among young prostitutes in Hollywood and the organization Children of the Night that she founded as a result
• Christopher Columbus (1985) – American-Italian adventure drama miniseries telling the story of the life of Christopher Columbus
• Colonel Redl (German: Oberst Redl; Hungarian: Redl ezredes) (1985) – Hungarian-West German-Austrian biographical drama film following the rise of Alfred Redl, an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Empire
• Confessions of a Serial Killer (1985) – horror film detailing a serial killer (based on Henry Lee Lucas) who, after being arrested, confesses to the murders of over 200 women
• Dance with a Stranger (1985) – British biographical crime drama film telling the story of Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain
• Deadly Intentions (1985) – crime thriller television film about a young woman's attempt at escape with her child from her abusive sadist husband, based on a true story
• Displaced Persons (1985) – Australian drama television film about refugees arriving in Australia in 1945
• The Doctor and the Devils (1985) – British historical horror film based upon the true story of Burke and Hare, who in 1828 Edinburgh, Scotland, murdered at least 16 people and sold their bodies for anatomical dissection
• The Dream (Dutch: De Dream) (1985) – Dutch historical drama film based on a true story from the turn of the 20th century, in which three brothers, all of them left-wing activists, were imprisoned for a crime they did not commit, partly assisted by false evidence given by the victims, one of whom is the embittered ex-lover of one of the brothers
• Dreamchild (1985) – British comedy drama film depicting a fictionalised account of Alice Liddell, the child who inspired Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
• The Dunera Boys (1985) – Australian war drama miniseries based on the Dunera incident
• Eleni (1985) – war drama film based on the memoir of Nicholas Gage looking back to the effect of the 1940s Greek Civil War in Lia – the remote Greek village of Gage's upbringing in the northwestern Greek region of Epirus; and in particular, the murder of his mother by communist guerrillas of the Democratic Army of Greece (ΔΣΕ)
• The Emerald Forest (1985) – British adventure drama film telling the story of an American boy who is adopted into an indigenous tribe in the Amazon jungle, allegedly based on a true story
• Eoudong (Korean: 어우동) (1985) – South Korean drama film set in Korea's Joseon Dynasty, during the reign of King Seonngjong, when strict Confucianism forced women to follow the male dominant society
• The Falcon and the Snowman (1985) – spy drama film telling the true story of two young American men, Christopher Boyce and Andrew Daulton Lee, who sold US security secrets to the Soviet Union
• First Steps (1985) – biographical drama television film about Jerrold S. Petrofsky's research about using external electric stimulations to enable paralyzed people to use their frozen muscles
• God Rot Tunbridge Wells! (1985) – British musical drama television film about the life and musical career of the German composer George Frideric Handel
• Heart of a Champion: The Ray Mancini Story (1985) – biographical sport drama television film detailing the life of Ray Mancini, a World Boxing Association world lightweight champion boxer from 1982 to 1984, Hollywood actor and a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame
• Hell Train (French: Train d'enfer) (1985) – French crime drama film about a fight on a train triggered by racial tension and the consequences in the locality as a result – based on a true story
• In the Shadow of Kilimanjaro (1985) – British-Kenyan adventure horror film based on true events of Chacma baboons on a murderous rampage, killing humans and animals alike, due to a severe drought in Kenya in 1984
• Izzy and Moe (1985) – comedy crime television film depicting a fictional account of two actual Prohibition-era policemen, Izzy Einstein and Moe Smith, and their adventures in tracking down illegal bars and gangsters
• Jenny's War (1985) – war drama miniseries set during World War II following a woman who launches a rescue of her Royal Air Force pilot son, who was shot down over Germany in 1941, based on a true story
• John and Yoko: A Love Story (1985) – biographical drama television film chronicling the lives of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, beginning just before they met in 1966 and concluding with Lennon's murder in 1980
• King David (1985) – Christian epic drama film about the life of David, the second King of the Kingdom of Israel
• Love Lives On (1985) – drama television film based on the true story of a 15-year-old drug addicted girl who must choose between continuing her pregnancy or undergoing treatment for her fast-growing cancer
• Malice in Wonderland (1985) – biographical drama television film based on real life stories of powerful Hollywood gossip columnists Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons, once friends and later rivals
• Mamma Ebe (1985) – drama film based on the story of a woman brought to trial on charges of moral plagiarism and witchcraft
• Marie (1985) – biographical drama film about Marie Ragghianti, former head of the Tennessee Board of Pardons and Paroles, who was removed from office in 1977 after refusing to release prisoners on whose behalf bribes had been paid to aides to Governor Ray Blanton
• Mask (1985) – biographical drama film based on the life and early death of Roy L. "Rocky" Dennis, a boy who had craniodiaphyseal dysplasia, an extremely rare genetic disorder known commonly as lionitis due to the disfiguring cranial enlargements that it causes
• Mata Hari (1985) – drama film portraying Mata Hari as an innocent woman manipulated by the secret services of Germany and France into providing intelligence, at first unwittingly and unwillingly, and later driven by the nonpartisan desire to save live
• Mesmerized (1985) – drama film loosely based upon the Pimlico Mystery
• Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (Japanese: 三島：四章からなる生涯) (1985) – American-Japanese biographical drama film based on the life and work of Japanese writer Yukio Mishima
• Mussolini and I (1985) – biographical drama television film chronicling the strained relationship between Italy's fascist dictator Benito Mussolini and his son-in-law and foreign minister, Count Galeazzo Ciano, based on Ciano's diaries
• Mussolini: The Untold Story (1985) – American-Cinema of the United Kingdom biographical drama miniseries following the rise, rule, and downfall of the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini
• My American Cousin (1985) – Canadian biographical drama film based on Sandy Wilson's own childhood
• My Wicked, Wicked Ways: The Legend of Errol Flynn (1985) – biographical drama television film about the life of Errol Flynn
• Out of Africa (1985) – epic romantic drama film recounting the events of the seventeen years when Karen Blixen made her home in Kenya, then called British East Africa
• Out of the Darkness (1985) – crime thriller television film about the pursuit of the serial killer David Berkowitz by New York City detective Ed Zigo
• Poems of Asolo (Italian: Poemi Asolani) (1985) – Italian biographical film about the Italian music composer Gian Francesco Malipiero
• The Red Countess (Hungarian: A vörös grófnő) (1985) – Hungarian biographical drama film telling the story of Katinka Andrássy who ,as a member of one of the country's most prestigious aristocratic families, agreed to marry the left-wing politician Mihály Károlyi
• The Repenter (Italian: Il pentito) (1985) – Italian crime drama film loosely based on actual events involving, among others, pentito Tommaso Buscetta, judge Giovanni Falcone and banker Michele Sindona
• Right to Kill? (1985) – crime drama television film based on a true story of two teens living in Wyoming, Richard Jahnke and Deborah Jahnke, who were charged for the killing of their psychotically abusive father, Richard Jahnke, Sr.
• Robert Kennedy and His Times (1985) – drama miniseries based on the 1978 Robert F. Kennedy biography of the same name by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
• Samuel Lount (1985) – Canadian biographical drama film about Samuel Lount, an organizer of the rebellion who was ultimately convicted of treason and executed in 1838
• Sofia Kovalevskaya (Russian: Софья Ковалевская) (1985) – Soviet biographical miniseries based on a true story of mathematician and scientist Sofia Kovalevskaya
• Sri Raghavendrar (Tamil: ஸ்ரீ ராகவேந்திரர்) (1985) – Indian Tamil-language drama film depicting the life of Sri Raghavendra, from Birth until his Mahasamadhi
• Sweet Dreams (1985) – biographical drama film telling the story of country music singer Patsy Cline
• Sylvia (1985) – New Zealander biographical drama film about New Zealand educator Sylvia Ashton-Warner, inspired by two of her books
• The Time to Live and the Time to Die (Mandarin: 童年往事) (1985) – Taiwanese biographical drama film inspired by Hou Hsiao-hsien's own experience of growing up in Fengshan, Kaohsiung city
• Wallenberg: A Hero's Story (1985) – biographical drama television film about Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who was instrumental in saving thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Holocaust
• Wills & Burke (1985) – Australian biographical black comedy film about the Burke and Wills expedition
• Zhuge Liang (Mandarin: 諸葛亮) (1985) – Chinese biographical drama miniseries based on the life of Zhuge Liang, a chancellor (or prime minister) of the state of Shu Han in the Three Kingdoms period
• Zina (1985) – British biographical drama film telling a story of a twentieth century Antigone, Zinaida Volkova, daughter of Leon Trotsky

1986

• A Case of Deadly Force (1986) – drama television film about a 1975 cover-up of an unjustified shooting of a black man by two white members of the Boston Tactical Unit - based on a true story
• A Fortunate Life (1986) – Australian biographical historical drama miniseries depicting Albert Facey's early life in Western Australia, his experiences as a private during the Gallipoli campaign of World War I and his return to civilian life after the war
• A Winner Never Quits (1986) – family biographical drama television film based on the true story of baseball player Pete Gray, the first one-armed man ever to play major league baseball, hired in 1943 as a "freak attraction" and wartime morale-booster by the Memphis Chicks, Class-A minor league ball club
• Act of Vengeance (1986) – biographical crime drama television film about the corruption that occurred during the United Mine Workers' presidential elections in 1969
• Alex: The Life of a Child (1986) – biographical drama television film about the life and death of Alexandra Deford from cystic fibrosis
• Amorosa (1986) – Swedish biographical drama film based on the life of writer Agnes von Krusenstjerna, detailing her sexually charged and often turbulent relationship with David Sprengel
• Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna (1986) – American-Austrian-Italian biographical drama television film loosely based on the story of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia
• At Close Range (1986) – neo-noir crime drama film based on the real life rural Pennsylvania crime family led by Bruce Johnston Sr. which operated during the 1960s and '70s
• Barefoot Gen 2 (Japanese: はだしのゲン2) (1986) – Japanese war drama film based three years after the Hiroshima bombing, a teenager helps a group of orphans to survive and find their new life
• Boundaries of Time: Caspar David Friedrich (German: Caspar David Friedrich. Grenzen der Zeit) (1986) – West German biographical drama film about the painter Caspar David Friedrich and set immediately after his death, portraying him through his family and friends
• The Boy in Blue (1986) – Canadian biographical sport drama film based on the life of Ned Hanlan, the late-19th century Canadian sculler and world champion
• Call Me Mr. Brown (1986) – Australian crime film based on the 1971 Qantas bomb hoax
• Caravaggio (1986) – British historical drama film depicting a fictionalised retelling of the life of Baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio
• Castaway (1986) – British biographical drama film telling of Lucy Irvine's experiences of staying for a year with writer Gerald Kingsland on the isolated island of Tuin, between New Guinea and Australia
• The Climb (1986) – Canadian-British adventure drama film depicting a dramatization of mountaineer Hermann Buhl's 1953 attempt to climb Nanga Parbat
• Comrades (1986) – British historical drama film depicting the story of the Tolpuddle Martyrs, who were arrested and transported to Australia in 1834 for trying to improve their conditions by forming an early form of trade union
• The Deliberate Stranger (1986) – crime thriller miniseries about American serial killer Ted Bundy
• The Delta Force (1986) – action drama film based on the real life U.S. Army Delta Force unit
• Dreams of Gold: The Mel Fisher Story (1986) – drama television film based on the actual adventures of Treasure Hunter Mel Fisher
• Dream West (1986) – biographical Western drama miniseries based on the life of 19th century explorer and politician John C. Frémont
• Easy Prey (1986) – Canadian historical biographical drama television film reenacting the true story of Australian serial killer Christopher Wilder, also known as "the Beauty Queen Killer", and his kidnapping of victim Tina Marie Risico, a sixteen-year-old girl
• The George McKenna Story (1986) – biographical drama television film involving the events at George Washington Preparatory High School in South Los Angeles
• George Washington II: The Forging of a Nation (1986) – historical biographical drama television film chronicling the life of George Washington, the first President of the United States
• God's Outlaw (1986) – British historical biographical drama film depicting the historical figure of William Tyndale and his struggles with the authorities in the time of Henry VIII for translating the Bible into English
• Gone to Texas (1986) – biographical drama television film about Sam Houston's years as Governor of Tennessee through his involvement in the Texas Revolution
• Heartburn (1986) – comedy romantic drama film based on Nora Ephron's marriage to Carl Bernstein
• Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) – psychological crime drama film loosely based on convicted real life serial killers Henry Lee Lucas and Ottis Toole
• Hoosiers (1986) – sport drama film inspired by the Milan High School team who won the 1954 state championship
• Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling (1986) – biographical comedy drama film paralleling many incidents and experiences in Richard Pryor's life
• Just Us (1986) – Australian romantic crime film based on the life of Gabrielle Carey and how she made the 'mistake' of falling in love with Terry Haley, a prison inmate at Parramatta Gaol
• The Killer is Still Among Us (Italian: L'assassino è ancora tra noi) (1986) – Italian crime horror film loosely based on the crimes of the Italian serial killer known as "the Monster of Florence"
• Lady Jane (1986) – British historical romantic drama film telling the story of Lady Jane Grey, her marriage to Lord Guildford Dudley, and her reign as the "Nine Days' Queen" following the death of Edward VI of England
• The Last Days of Frank and Jesse James (1986) – biographical Western drama television film depicting the various fortunes and misfortunes of the outlaws and bank robbers Frank and Jesse James
• The Last Days of Patton (1986) – biographical drama television film portraying the last few months of General George S. Patton's life
• Liberty (1986) – historical drama television film depicting a largely fictionalized account of the construction of the Statue of Liberty
• Lord Mountbatten: The Last Viceroy (1986) – British biographical drama miniseries depicting Lord Mountbatten's time as Supreme Commander, South-East Asia in the Second World War, and then as Viceroy of India shortly after the war in the days leading up to Indian independence
• The Man in the Black Cape (Portuguese: O Homem da Capa Preta) (1986) – Brazilian crime drama film portraying the life of Tenório Cavalcanti, a Duque de Caxias politician who used to carry a machine gun dubbed "Lurdinha" with him
• The Mission (1986) – British historical drama film about the experiences of a Jesuit missionary in 18th-century South America
• The Moro Affair (Italian: Il caso Moro) (1986) – Italian crime drama film about the kidnapping of Aldo Moro in 1978
• Murrow (1986) – American-British biographical drama television film following the life of legendary news reporter Edward R. Murrow; from his radio broadcasts from the rooftops of London during the Blitz to his TV documentary series "See It Now" and his confrontations with the Senator from Wisconsin that helped put an end to the witch-hunts
• Nazi Hunter: The Beate Klarsfeld Story (1986) – biographical drama television film telling the true story on the life of Beate Klarsfeld, a German who documented the actions that took place during the Holocaust
• Night of the Pencils (Spanish: La noche de los lápices) (1986) – Argentine historical drama film based on the actual events recorded in history as the "Night of the pencils" (La noche de los lápices), telling the story of seven students who, after protesting for lower bus fares for students in the city of La Plata, were abducted in September 1976, during Argentina's last dictatorship (1976 - 1983), and subsequently disappeared
• Nobody's Child (1986) – drama television film based on the autobiographical account of the same title by Marie Balter who was sent to a mental institution aged sixteen
• On Wings of Fire (1986) – Indian historical biographical drama film recounting the history of Zoroastrianism and prophet Zarathushtra, covering a period of 3500 years of the Zoroastrians and the Parsees of India
• Palay Khan (Hindi: पलय खान) (1986) – Indian Hindi-language action thriller film about the life of Palay Khan
• Peter the Great (1986) – biographical historical drama miniseries chronicling the life of Peter I of Russia; from childhood in 1682 to the Great Northern War against Sweden during the 1700s
• The Professor (Italian: Il camorrista) (1986) – Italian neo-noir crime drama film based on the true story of the Italian crime boss Raffaele Cutolo
• River's Edge (1986) – crime drama film partially based on the 1981 murder of Marcy Renee Conrad in Milpitas, California
• Romanza final (1986) – Spanish biographical drama film about opera singer Julián Gayarre
• Rosa Luxemburg (1986) – West German biographical historical drama film telling the story of Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht, and Leo Jogiches who formed a revolutionary German party, the Spartacists
• Salvador (1986) – war drama film telling the story of an American journalist covering the Salvadoran Civil War who becomes entangled with both the FMLN and the right-wing military dictatorship while trying to rescue his girlfriend and her children
• Samaritan: The Mitch Snyder Story (1986) – drama television film about Mitch Snyder, a Washington crusader for the homeless, who took his case to Congress
• The Sea and Poison (Japanese: 海と毒薬) (1986) – Japanese drama film telling the true story of downed American pilots in World War II who are vivisected by Japanese surgeons in medical experiments at Unit 731
• Second Serve (1986) – biographical sport drama television film about retired eye surgeon, professional tennis player, and transgender woman Renée Richards
• Shaka Zulu (1986) – South African action drama miniseries focusing on the rise of the Zulu, and their leader, Shaka, his wars, and the British administration
• Sid and Nancy (1986) – British biographical drama film portraying the life of Sid Vicious, bassist of the punk rock band the Sex Pistols, and his destructive relationship with girlfriend Nancy Spungen
• Stalin's Disciples (Hebrew: ילדי סטאלין) (1986) – Israeli biographical drama film satirizing the utopian ideology of the Israeli kibbutz
• Stammheim (1986) – West German crime drama film telling the story of the trial in the court of Stammheim Prison of the left-wing Baader-Meinhof Group
• Tandra Paparayudu (Telugu: తాండ్ర పాపారాయుడు) (1986) – Indian Telugu-language biographical war film based on the life of 18th century warrior Tandra Paparayudu, the General of Bobbili, and General Bussy
• Thérèse (1986) – French biographical drama film about the life of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux
• Welcome in Vienna (German: Wohin und zurück - Teil 3: Welcome in Vienna) (1986) – Austrian drama film loosely based on Georg Stefan Troller’s life as a Viennese Jew who fled Europe as a teenager, emigrated to the United States, and returned to Europe during World War II as an American soldier
• With My Hot Tears (German: Mit meinen heißen Tränen) (1986) – West German-Austrian-Swiss biographical drama film depicting the final years of the life of 19th century Austrian composer Franz Schubert
• The Wolf at the Door (Danish: Oviri; French: Gauguin, le loup dans le soleil) (1986) – Danish-French biographical drama film based on real life events of French artist Paul Gauguin, who was married to a Danish woman and lived in Copenhagen in the 1880s
• Women of Valor (1986) – war drama television film about a group of American Army nurses that are captured by the Japanese in April 1942 and put in a prisoner-of-war camp in Bataan

1987

• 84 Charing Cross Road (1987) – British-American biographical romantic drama film based on the long-distance friendship that develops between American writer Helene Hanff and English bookseller Frank Doel through letters exchanged from 1949 to 1968
• A Place to Call Home (1987) – Australian-American drama television film about Liz Gavin and her eleven children, who relocate from Houston, Texas, to Australia
• A Winter Tan (1987) – Canadian drama film about Maryse Holder, the ill-fated feminist author who met an untimely death in Acapulco
• After the Promise (1987) – drama television film about Elmer Jackson, a carpenter in a small Californian town in the 1930s, struggling to bring up 4 young boys after the death of his wife, who is horrified when the government places the boys into various foster homes and institutions, where they are subjected to abuse, based on a true story
• The Alamo: 13 Days to Glory (1987) – Western adventure miniseries about the 1836 Battle of the Alamo
• Balweg (1987) – Filipino biographical action drama film inspired by the life of Catholic priest turned communist rebel Conrado Balweg
• The Betty Ford Story (1987) – biographical drama television film based on the life of the former first lady, Betty Ford
• Blonde Dolly (1987) – Dutch thriller drama film about the real-life Hague prostitute, Sebilla Alida Johanna Niemans, better known as "Blonde Dolly" who co-finances the purchase of a Vermeer painting
• Brother André (French: Le Frère André) – Canadian biographical drama film centring on the life of André Bessette, a Roman Catholic lay brother who was widely credited with many miraculous healings, centring in particular on his interaction with his niece Marie-Esther following a Eucharistic Congress in 1910
• Captain James Cook (1987) – Australian-French historical biographical drama miniseries about the life of James Cook, a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy
• Cry Freedom (1987) – British-Zimbabwean epic biographical drama film centring on the real-life events involving South African activist Steve Biko and his friend Donald Woods, who initially finds him too radical, and attempts to understand his way of life
• Echoes in the Darkness (1987) – drama film detailing the lurid tale of the murder of Pennsylvania's Upper Merion Area High School English teacher Susan Reinert and her two children in 1979
• El Lute: Run for Your Life (Spanish: El Lute: camina o revienta) (1987) – Spanish biographical drama film based on the memoirs of Eleuterio Sánchez, "El Lute", a young convicted murderer who became legendary in Spain for his jail escape in the 1960s
• Empire of the Sun (1987) – epic war film based on J. G. Ballard's semi-autobiographical 1984 novel of the same name, telling of a young English boy struggling to survive under Japanese occupation of China during World War II
• Escape from Sobibor (1987) – British war drama television film telling the story of the mass escape from the Nazi extermination camp at Sobibor, the most successful uprising by Jewish prisoners of German extermination camps (uprisings also took place at Auschwitz-Birkenau and Treblinka)
• Family Sins (1987) – crime drama television film based on the true story of a father whose troubled son, Bryan, is arrested for voluntary manslaughter after the drowning of his spoiled younger brother
• Farewell Moscow (Italian: Mosca addio) (1987) – Italian biographical drama film based on the life of Russian Jew Ida Nudel
• Fight for Life (1987) – drama television film based on a true story of a family's fight for the life of their 6-year-old daughter who suffers from epileptic convulsions
• Ford: The Man and the Machine (1987) – Canadian-American biographical drama television film about the life and career of Henry Ford
• Full Metal Jacket (1987) – war drama film following a platoon of U.S. Marines through their boot camp training in Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina
• Gaby: A True Story (1987) – biographical romantic drama film chronicling the life of Gaby Brimmer, the child of Austrian Jewish refugees living in Mexico, who is born with cerebral palsy
• Good Morning, Vietnam (1987) – war comedy film loosely based on the experiences of AFRS radio DJ Adrian Cronauer
• Hachikō Monogatari (Japanese: ハチ公物語) (1987) – Japanese biographical drama film depicting the true story of Hachikō, a loyal Akita dog who continued to wait for his owner, Professor Hidesaburō Ueno, to return from work for nine years following Ueno's death
• Hamburger Hill (1987) – war drama film set during the Battle of Hamburger Hill, a May 1969 assault during the Vietnam War by the U.S. Army's 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division, on a ridge of Dong Ap Bia near the Laotian border in central Vietnam
• Hip Hip Hurrah! (1987) – (Swedish: Hip hip hurra!) (1987) – Danish-Norwegian-Swedish biographical drama film presenting the general background of the Skagen Painters and everything that attracted them to gather in Skagen but it is P.S. Krøyer (Stellan Skarsgård) who is the centre of attraction
• The Impossible Spy (1987) – biographical drama television film based on the true story of an Israeli civilian spy, Eli Cohen, who was recruited into Israel's secret intelligence agency (the Mossad) in the 1960s to become a spy in Damascus
• In Love and War (1987) – war thriller film based on the true story of James Stockdale and Sybil Stockdale
• In the Mood (1987) – comedy film based on the true story of Sonny Wisecarver
• La Bamba (1987) – biographical drama film following the life and short-lived musical career of Mexican-American Chicano rock and roll star Ritchie Valens
• The Last Emperor (Italian: L'ultimo imperatore) (1987) – British-Italian epic biographical drama film about the life of Puyi, the final Emperor of China
• Kids like these (1987) - drama television film about life of Emily Perl Kingsley and her son with Down syndrome - Jason (in movie as "Alex"), in early 1980s, when official medical policy about these kids was to be institutionalized, as "mongoloids" - where she, by her relentless efforts succeed to introduce completely new treatment for kids with special needs, turning upside-down official medical textbooks attitude toward treatment of such kids
• LBJ: The Early Years (1987) – drama television film depicting the pre-presidential life of Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th president of the United States
• The Lighthorsemen (1987) – Australian war drama film about the men of a World War I light horse unit involved in Sinai and Palestine campaign's 1917 Battle of Beersheeba
• Lionheart (1987) – historical adventure film loosely based on the historical Children's Crusade
• Love Sins (Italian: D'Annunzio) (1987) – Italian biographical drama film focusing on Decadentism, that developed in France and Italy in the late 19th century and tells about Gabriele d'Annunzio, a renowned poet
• Macu, The Policeman's Woman (Spanish: Macu, la mujer del policía) (1987) – Venezuelan drama film based on the true story of a jealous policeman and his young wife living in a shanty-town in South America
• The Man Who Broke 1,000 Chains (1987) – biographical drama film recounting Robert Elliott Burns' imprisonment on a chain gang in Georgia in the 1920s, his subsequent escape to New Jersey, and the furor that developed
• Matewan (1987) – historical drama film dramatizing the events of the Battle of Matewan, a coal miners' strike in 1920 in Matewan, a small town in the hills of West Virginia
• Murder Ordained (1987) – crime drama television film based on actual events that occurred in Emporia, Kansas, in 1983, telling the story of State trooper John Rule, who investigates what appears to be a traffic accident resulting in the death of a local minister's wife
• Nancy Wake (1987) – Australian war drama miniseries about the exploits of New Zealand born Australian Nancy Wake during World War II as a female British Special Operations Executive agent based on Russell Braddon's 1956 book Nancy Wake: The Story of a Very Brave Woman
• Nayakan (Tamil: நாயக்கன்) (1987) – Indian Tamil-language epic crime film loosely based on the life of the Bombay underworld don Varadarajan Mudaliar and the American film The Godfather
• The Petrov Affair (1987) – drama miniseries based on the defection of Vladimir Petrov
• Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story (1987) – biographical drama television film chronicling the life of Barbara Hutton, a wealthy but troubled American socialite
• Prick Up Your Ears (1987) – British biographical drama film about the playwright Joe Orton and his lover Kenneth Halliwell
• Promised Land (1987) – drama film that follows two high school acquaintances, Hancock, a basketball star, and Danny, a geek turned drifter, after they graduate - based on a true story
• Race for the Bomb (French: La Course à la bombe) (1987) – Canadian-French war drama miniseries about the Manhattan Project, starting from the initial stages of scientific discovery that led to the creation of the atomic bomb, discovery of the Ulam-Teller thermonuclear weapons design and ending with the beginning of the arms race
• The Sicilian (1987) – epic historical crime film about Salvatore Giuliano, the infamous bandit who tried to liberate early 1950s Sicily from Italian rule
• Shinran: Path to Purity (Japanese: 親鸞　白い道) (1987) – Japanese drama film following the life and struggles of the Jodo Shinshu founder, Shinran, during the tumultuous Heian era
• Theofilos (Greek: Θεόφιλος) (1987) – Greek biographical drama film based on the life of the Greek painter Theofilos Hatzimichail
• The Untouchables (1987) – crime drama film loosely based on the experiences of Eliot Ness, who was a federal agent in the Bureau of Prohibition, as he fought crime in Chicago in the late 1920s and early 1930s with the help of a special team of agents handpicked for their incorruptibility, nicknamed The Untouchables
• Waiting for the Moon (1987) – internationally co-produced drama film depicting Gertrude Stein and her lover and assistant Alice B. Toklas meeting Pablo Picasso and his lover Fernande Olivier, as well as the authors Ernest Hemingway and Guillaume Apollinaire
• Walker (1987) – American-Mexican Western biographical drama film based on the life story of William Walker, the American filibuster who invaded and made himself president of Nicaragua
• Weeds (1987) – drama film about Lee Umstetter, a prison inmate who writes a play that catches the attention of a visiting reporter
• White Mischief (1987) – British crime drama film dramatizing the events of the Happy Valley murder case in Kenya in 1941, wherein Sir Henry “Jock” Delves Broughton was tried for the murder of Josslyn Hay, 22nd Earl of Erroll
• Why? (Czech: Proč?) – Czechoslovak sport drama film dealing with the hooliganism in Czechoslovakia, particularly with the fans of football club Sparta from Prague, whose supporters were the pioneers of the football fan riots in Czechoslovakia, starting with hooligan actions already in the 1960s, like breaking the trains in which they travelled when they went on Sparta's away games
• Yohwa Eoeuludong (Korean: 요화 어을우동) (1987) – South Korean drama film about the incredible life of Joseon-era kisaeng writer, artist and poet Uhwudong

1988

• A Dangerous Life (1988) – Australian crime drama film about the journey and the love affair of an American foreign correspondent set during the final years of Ferdinand Marcos' dictatorship in the Philippines, from the assassination of Benigno Aquino Jr. in 1983 to the People Power Revolution in 1986, as well as other key events that led to the ouster of Marcos
• A Man for All Seasons (1988) – biographical drama television film based on the life of Sir Thomas More
• A Stoning in Fulham County (1988) – crime drama television film based on the true story of the murder of an Amish baby by a group of reckless teens in Indiana in 1979
• A World Apart (1988) – drama film based on the lives of Shawn Slovo's parents, Ruth First and Joe Slovo
• The Accused (1988) – legal drama film loosely based on the 1983 gang rape of Cheryl Araujo in New Bedford, Massachusetts
• Alega Gang: Public Enemy No.1 of Cebu (1988) – Filipino action crime film depicting an account of the life of Ulysses "Boboy" Alega, and his descent into crime
• And the Violins Stopped Playing (Polish: I Skrzypce Przestały Grać) (1988) – American-Polish historical drama film about an actual group of Romani people who were forced to flee from persecution by the Nazi regime at the height of the Porajmos, during World War II
• Appointment in Liverpool (Italian: Appuntamento a Liverpool) (1988) – Italian drama film loosely based on the Heysel Stadium disaster
• Apprentice to Murder (1988) – mystery thriller film loosely based on the true story of the 1928 Nelson Rehmeyer “Hex Hollow” murder case in York, Pennsylvania
• The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank (1988) – historical war drama television film about Miep Gies' experience keeping Anne Frank and her family hidden and safe inside the secret annex, as the Nazis turn Amsterdam upside-down
• Aviya's Summer (Hebrew: הקיץ של אביה ) (1988) – Israeli biographical drama film based on Gila Almagor's childhood
• Bat*21 (1988) – war drama film dramatizing the rescue of a U.S. air navigator shot down behind enemy lines in Vietnam during the Vietnam War
• Bird (1988) – biographical musical drama film about jazz saxophonist Charlie "Bird" Parker
• Bloodsport (1988) – martial arts sport action film centring on Frank Dux, a United States Army Captain and ninjutsu practitioner, who competes in an underground full-contact martial arts tournament called the Kumite in Hong Kong
• Bloody Wednesday (1988) – crime thriller film based on the events of the San Ysidro McDonald's massacre
• Buster (1988) – British romantic crime drama film based on events from the Great Train Robbery
• But I'm Still the King (Spanish: Pero sigo siendo el rey) (1988) – Mexican musical drama film portraying the life of Mexican singer-songwriter José Alfredo Jiménez
• Camille Claudel (1988) – French biographical drama film about the life of 19th-century sculptor Camille Claudel
• Camp de Thiaroye (1988) – Senegalese war drama film documenting the events leading up to the Thiaroye massacre, as well as the massacre itself
• Christabel (1988) – British biographical drama miniseries based on the memoirs of Christabel Bielenberg, an English woman married to a German lawyer during World War II
• Dadah Is Death (1988) – Australian drama television film based on the Barlow and Chambers execution in Malaysia in 1986
• David (1988) – biographical drama television film dramatizing the true story of a child named David Rothenberg who was burned by his father
• Dead Ringers (1988) – psychological thriller film based on the lives of Stewart and Cyril Marcus, identical twin gynaecologists who practiced together in New York City
• The Deceivers (1988) – American-British-Indian adventure crime drama film about the Thuggee movement in India during the period of British rule during the 19th-century
• Diary of King Yeonsan (Korean: 연산일기) (1988) – South Korean historical drama film based on the life of Yeonsangun of Joseon, who was the subject of director Shin Sang-ok's award-winning Prince Yeonsan (1961)
• Don Bosco (1988) – Italian biographical drama film depicting real life events of Roman Catholic priest John Bosco
• Eight Men Out (1988) – sport drama film dramatizing the Major League Baseball's Black Sox Scandal, in which eight members of the Chicago White Sox conspired with gamblers to intentionally lose the 1919 World Series
• El Lute II: Tomorrow I'll be Free (Spanish: El Lute II: mañana seré libre) (1988) – Spanish biographical drama film based on the memoirs of Eleuterio Sánchez, “El Lute”, a delinquent who became notorious in Spain for his jail escapes in the 60's
• The Everlasting Secret Family (1988) – Australian romantic drama film about a secret society of gay men, based on the life of a prominent Australian Politician
• Evil Angels (1988) – Australian biographical drama film chronicling the case of Azaria Chamberlain, a nine-week-old baby girl who disappeared from a campground near Uluru in August 1980, and the struggle of her parents, Michael Chamberlain and Lindy Chamberlain, to prove their innocence to a public convinced that they were complicit in her death
• Fallada: The Last Chapter (German: Fallada – letztes Kapitel) (1988) – East German biographical drama film about the life of Hans Fallada
• The Four Minute Mile (1988) – Australian-British biographical drama miniseries about the race to run the four-minute mile, focusing on the rivalry between Roger Bannister and John Landy
• Gorillas in the Mist (1988) – biographical drama film about Dian Fossey, a scientist who came to Africa to study the vanishing mountain gorillas, and later fought to protect them
• Grave of the Fireflies (Japanese: 火垂るの墓) (1988) – Japanese animated war drama film based on Akiyuki Nosaka's experiences before, during, and after the firebombing of Kobe in 1945
• The Great Escape II: The Untold Story (1988) – action adventure drama television film telling the story of a special task force sent to hunt down the culprits responsible for carrying out the orders to murder 50 of the 76 escapees from Stalag Luft III
• Hanna's War (1988) – biographical war film detailing the true story of Hannah Szenes
• Haunted Summer (1988) – biographical romantic drama film depicting a fictionalization of the summer of 1816 in which authors Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, and Mary Shelley, together with Lord Byron's ex-lover and his doctor, John William Polidori, spent in the isolated Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva
• In the Line of Duty: The F.B.I. Murders (1988) – action crime drama television film about the 1986 FBI Miami shootout that occurred on April 11, 1986
• Inherit the Wind (1988) – historical legal drama television film fictionalizing the 1925 Scopes "Monkey" Trial as a means of discussing the 1950s McCarthy trials
• Jack the Ripper (1988) – British-American crime drama miniseries based on the notorious Jack the Ripper murder spree in Victorian London
• Jesse (1988) – drama television film about a nurse in a small town that has no doctor who is arrested for practicing medicine without a licence, based on the true story of Patricia Coda, a Death Valley, California, nurse
• Judgment in Berlin (1988) – drama film based on the Cold War true story of three East Berlin men who hijack a plane to escape to the West
• The King Chronicle (1988) – Canadian biographical drama miniseries depicting the life and career of the eccentric and enduring Prime Minister of Canada, William Lyon Mackenzie King
• Kumander Dante (1988) – Filipino biographical action film about the co-founder of the New People's Army, the militant arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines, Bernabe "Kumander Dante" Buscayno
• Liberace: Behind the Music (1988) – Canadian-American biographical drama television film based on the life and death of Władziu Valentino Liberace, who went from a humble working-class background to become a famous American pianist and vocalist
• Lincoln (1988) – historical drama miniseries covering the period from Lincoln's election as President of the United States to the time of his assassination
• Lorenzo Ruiz: The Saint... A Filipino (1988) – Filipino biographical drama film about the life and martyrdom of Saint Lorenzo Ruiz, the first canonized saint of the Philippines
• The Loves of Kafka (Spanish: Los Amores de Kafka) (1988) – Argentine biographical romantic drama film about Franz Kafka and Milena Jesenská
• Malarek (1988) – Canadian action drama film centring on Victor Malarek, as a newly hired junior reporter in Montreal, Quebec, investigating unsafe and inhumane conditions in the province's juvenile detention system, interspersed with flashbacks to Malarek's own troubled youth when he spent some time in the very same system
• Melba (1988) – Australian biographical drama miniseries about opera soprano Nellie Melba
• Mississippi Burning (1988) – crime thriller film loosely based on the 1964 murder investigation of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner in Mississippi
• Moonzund (Russian: Моонзунд) (1988) – Soviet war drama film based on the Battle of Moon Sound which took place during World War I
• The Murder of Mary Phagan (1988) – historical crime drama miniseries dramatizing the true story of Leo Frank, a factory manager who was convicted of the murder a 13-year-old girl, a factory worker named Mary Phagan, in Atlanta in 1913
• Murder One (1988) – biographical crime drama film based on the 1973 Alday Murders
• Onassis: The Richest Man in the World (1988) – American-Spanish biographical drama television film based on the life of Aristotle Onassis, a Greek who rose to become one of the world's wealthiest men, detailing his rise to power and unhappy marriages
• One Way Ticket (Spanish: Un pasaje de Ida) (1988) – Dominican drama film retelling of the Regina Express tragedy, in which 22 Dominican stowaways died from suffocation in an attempt of illegal travel in September 1981
• Painted Faces (Cantonese: 七小福) (1988) – Hong Kong biographical drama film focusing on Master Yu and his methods on bringing up his protégés
• Pancho Barnes (1988) – biographical drama television film about the pioneering female aviator, Florence Lowe "Pancho" Barnes
• Patty Hearst (1988) – biographical crime drama film depicting the kidnapping of student Patty Hearst by the Symbionese Liberation Army, her transformation into an active follower of the SLA after a long-lasting imprisonment and process of purported brainwashing, and her final arrest after a series of armed robberies
• Prisoner of Rio (1988) – biographical drama film depicting the flight of the Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs to Brazil and the attempts of Scotland Yard detectives to re-capture him
• The Rainbow Warrior Conspiracy (1988) – Australian-New Zealander thriller miniseries based on the Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior
• The Riddle of the Stinson (1987) – Australian disaster drama television film about the 1937 Airlines of Australia Stinson crash at Lamington, Queensland, Australia and the rescue of its survivors by local Queenslander Bernard O'Reilly
• Rowing with the Wind (Spanish: Remando al viento) (1988) – Spanish mystery drama film about the summer of 1816 in which authors Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, and Mary Shelley spent time together
• Running on Empty (1988) – crime drama film about a counterculture couple, loosely modeled after Weather Underground leaders Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, on the run from the FBI, and how one of their sons starts to break out of this fugitive lifestyle
• The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988) – horror film loosely based on the non-fiction book of the same name by ethnobotanist Wade Davis, wherein Davis recounted his experiences in Haiti investigating the story of Clairvius Narcisse, who was allegedly poisoned, buried alive, and revived with a herbal brew which produced what was called a zombie
• Shattered Innocence (1988) – drama television film about an eighteen year old former Kansas high school cheerleader who moves to L.A. to become a porn actress, and is drugged with cocaine before committing suicide at age twenty, based on real-life accounts of the late Shauna Grant
• Shootdown (1988) – drama television film depicting the story of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 which was shot down by a Soviet Sukhoi Su-15 interceptor
• Stand and Deliver (1988) – biographical drama film based on the true story of a high school mathematics teacher, Jaime Escalante
• Story of Women (French: Une affaire de femmes) (1988) – French historical drama film based on the true story of Marie-Louise Giraud, guillotined on 30 July 1943 for having performed 27 abortions in the Cherbourg area
• Stradivari (1988) – Italian biographical drama film depicting real life events of luthier Antonio Stradivari
• Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1988) – experimental biographical film that portrays the last 17 years of singer Karen Carpenter's life, as she struggled with anorexia
• The Taking of Flight 847: The Uli Derickson Story (1988) – drama television film based on the actual hijacking of TWA Flight 847 as seen through the eyes of flight purser Uli Derickson, the chief flight attendant
• Talk Radio (1988) – drama thriller film partially based on the assassination of Denver radio host Alan Berg in 1984
• Three Seats for the 26th (French: Trois places pour le 26) (1988) – French biographical drama film about the life of Yves Montand
• Tjoet Nja' Dhien (1988) – Indonesian war drama film based on the life's story of female Acehnese guerrilla leader Cut Nyak Dhien, focusing on the six-year period between her second husband, Teuku Umar's death and her capture by the Dutch colonial army
• To Heal a Nation (1988) – drama television film telling the true story of Jan Scruggs, a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War
• Too Young the Hero (1988) – historical war drama television film telling the true story of a 12-year-old boy (Calvin Graham) who forges his mother's signature to join the United States Navy during World War II
• Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988) – biographical comedy drama film recounting Preston Tucker's story and his attempt to produce and market the Tucker 48, which was met with scandal between the Big Three automobile manufacturers and accusations of stock fraud from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
• Tumbledown (1988) – British biographical war drama television film centring on the experiences of Robert Lawrence MC, an officer of the Scots Guards during the Falklands War of 1982
• Via Panisperna Boys (Italian: I ragazzi di via Panisperna) (1988) – Italian biographical drama film telling the enthusiasms, fears, joys and disappointments of the (private and professional) life of a well-known group of young men fond of physics and mathematics, who just made history as the Via Panisperna boys
• The Woman He Loved (1988) – British romantic drama television film about the abdication of Edward VIII
• Young Guns (1988) – Western action drama film retelling the adventures of Billy the Kid during the Lincoln County War, which took place in New Mexico in 1877–78
• Young Toscanini (Italian: Il giovane Toscanini) (1988) – Italian-French biographical drama film depicting the early career and romances of the conductor Arturo Toscanini in Rio de Janeiro in 1886

1989

• 84C MoPic (1989) – war drama film about a Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol (LRRP) mission during the Vietnam War
• 300 Miles to Heaven (Polish: 300 mil do nieba) (1989) – Polish biographical drama film based on the true story of the Zieliński brothers, two teenagers who escaped from Communist Poland in 1985
• A City of Sadness (Mandarin: 悲情城市) (1989) – Taiwanese historical drama film telling the story of a family embroiled in the "White Terror" that was wrought on the Taiwanese people by the Kuomintang government (KMT) after their arrival from mainland China in the late 1940s, during which thousands of Taiwanese and recent emigres from the Mainland were rounded up, shot, and/or sent to prison
• A Cry for Help: The Tracey Thurman Story (1989) – crime drama television film based on the 1985 ruling Thurman v. City of Torrington
• A Sign Days (Japanese: Aサインデイズ) (1989) – Japanese biographical drama film about the influx of American soldiers to Okinawa during the Vietnam War
• Billy the Kid (1989) – Western drama television film about famed gunman Billy the Kid
• Blaze (1989) – comedy drama film depicting the fictionalized story of the latter years of Earl Long, a flamboyant Governor of Louisiana, brother of assassinated governor and U.S. Senator Huey P. Long and uncle of longtime U.S. Senator Russell Long
• Bomber Harris (1989) – biographical drama television film based on the life of Arthur Harris, who was Commander-in-chief of RAF Bomber Command during the Second World War
• Born on the Fourth of July (1989) – biographical anti-war film depicting the life of Ron Kovic over a 20-year period, detailing his childhood, his military service and paralysis during the Vietnam War, and his transition to anti-war activism
• Casualties of War (1989) – war drama film based on the events of the 1966 incident on Hill 192 during the Vietnam War
• Chattahoochee (1989) – biographical drama film based on the real-life experiences of Chris Calhoun in a Florida state mental institution
• Cold Light of Day (1989) – British horror film based on the crimes of serial killer Dennis Nilsen, depicting a fictionalized account of his various murders leading up to his apprehension by authorities
• Communion (1989) – science fiction horror film based on the experiences of Whitley Strieber, who experiences "lost time" and terrifying flashbacks, which hypnosis undertaken by Budd Hopkins later links to an alleged encounter with aliens
• Cornflower Blue (German: Kornblumenblau) (1989) – Polish drama film based on a true story of a Polish musician who survived in Auschwitz-Birkenau because of accordion talent
• Countdown to War (1989) – historical war television film recounting the events that occurred between 15 March 1939, when the German army commanded by Adolf Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia and created the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and 3 September 1939, the date when France and United Kingdom declared war on Germany
• Cross of Fire (1989) – biographical drama miniseries based on the rape and murder of Madge Oberholtzer by D. C. Stephenson, a highly successful leader of the Indiana branch of Ku Klux Klan
• Darlings of the Gods (1989) – Australian biographical drama miniseries about the 1948 trip to Australia by Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh and the Old Vic Company, where Olivier and Leigh met Peter Finch
• Death of a Tea Master (Japanese: 千利休 本覺坊遺文) (1989) – Japanese biographical drama film based on real life events of Sen no Rikyū, particularly the events surrounding his ritual suicide
• Donator (1989) – Yugoslav biographical war drama film about Erich Šlomović, a Jewish art collector and his experiences during World War II
• Double Exposure: The Story of Margaret Bourke-White (1989) – biographical drama television film about the life of photographer Margaret Bourke-White
• Drugstore Cowboy (1989) – crime drama film about a pharmacy-robbing dope fiend and his crew who pop pills and evade the law, based on an autobiographical novel by James Fogle
• Everybody's Baby: The Rescue of Jessica McClure (1989) – biographical drama television film based on the true story of the rescue of 18-month-old Jessica McClure from a well
• Fat Man and Little Boy (1989) – epic historical war drama film following the Manhattan Project, the secret Allied endeavor to develop the first nuclear weapons during World War II
• The Favorite (1989) – Swiss-American historical drama film based on the unsubstantiated story of Aimée du Buc de Rivéry that takes place at the dawn of the 19th century
• The Final Days (1989) – biographical crime drama television film following the events in the Nixon White House after the Washington Post's Watergate revelations
• Fire and Rain (1989) – drama disaster television film based on the Delta Air Lines Flight 191 plane crash at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport on August 2, 1985
• Francesco (1989) – historical drama film about the life of St. Francis of Assisi
• Glory (1989) – historical war drama film about the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, one of the Union Army's earliest African-American regiments in the American Civil War
• Goldeneye (1989) – British biographical drama television film about the life of the author Ian Fleming
• Goodnight, Sweet Marilyn (1989) – biographical drama film about the death of Marilyn Monroe
• Great Balls of Fire! (1989) – biographical drama film depicting the early career of Jerry Lee Lewis, from his rise to rock-and-roll stardom to his controversial marriage to his 13-year-old cousin that led to his downfall
• Henry V (1989) – historical biographical drama film based on the play of the same name by William Shakespeare telling the story of King Henry V of England, focusing on events immediately before and after the Battle of Agincourt during the Hundred Years' War
• The Heroes (1989) – British-Australian war drama miniseries about Operation Jaywick, a World War II special forces raid on Japanese shipping in Singapore harbour by the Australian Z Special Unit
• The Hijacking of the Achille Lauro (1989) – drama television film focusing on the action and emotional impact of the 1985 terrorist incident that took the life of Leon Klinghoffer
• I Know My First Name Is Steven (1989) – crime drama miniseries about kidnap victim Steven Stayner
• The Karen Carpenter Story (1989) – biographical drama television film about singer Karen Carpenter and the brother-and-sister pop music duo of which she was a part, The Carpenters
• Kuduz (1989) – Yugoslav drama film based on the true story of the outlaw Junuz Kečo
• Lean on Me (1989) – biographical drama film based on the story of Joe Louis Clark, a real life inner city high school principal in Paterson, New Jersey, whose school is in danger of being placed into receivership of the New Jersey state government unless students improve their test scores on the New Jersey Minimum Basic Skills Test
• My Left Foot (1989) – biographical drama film about Christy Brown, an Irish man born with cerebral palsy, who could control only his left foot
• The Littlest Victims (1989) – biographical drama television film depicting a true account of the life of pioneering AIDS doctor James Oleske
• Looking for Langston (1989) – British biographical drama film about high-society gay men during the Harlem Renaissance in New York
• Love and Hate: The Story of Colin and JoAnn Thatcher (1989) – Canadian drama miniseries dramatizing the story of Colin Thatcher, a former Canadian politician who was convicted in 1984 of the murder of his ex-wife JoAnn following their divorce
• Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story (1989) – biographical war drama television film about Simon Wiesenthal, from his imprisonment in a Nazi Concentration Camp, to his liberation and his rise to become one of the leading Nazi hunters in the world, bringing such criminals to justice as Adolf Eichmann and Klaus Barbie
• Paganini (1989) – biographical drama film based on the life and career of composer and virtuoso violinist Niccolò Paganini
• Passion and Paradise (1989) – crime drama television film about the murder of Harry Oakes
• Pedro I el Cruel (1989) – Spanish biographical drama miniseries about the life of Peter I of Castile
• Pestalozzi's Mountain (German: Pestalozzis Berg) (1989) – East German-Swiss biographical drama film about the life of Swiss educator Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi
• The Preppie Murder (1989) – crime drama television film based on the events of the murder of Jennifer Levin committed by Robert Chambers, nicknamed the "Preppie Killer"
• Resurrected (1989) – British war drama film based on the story of the British soldier Philip Williams
• Rikyu (Japanese: 利休) (1989) – historical drama film about the 16th century master of the Japanese tea ceremony, Sen no Rikyū
• Roe vs. Wade (1989) – biographical drama television film about the landmark 1973 United States Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade
• Romero (1989) – biographical crime drama film depicting the story of Salvadoran Archbishop Óscar Romero, who organized peaceful protests against the violent military regime, eventually at the cost of his own life
• The Ryan White Story (1989) – biographical drama television film based on the true story of the American teenager Ryan White, who became a national poster child for HIV/AIDS in the United States, after being expelled from middle school because of his infection
• Save and Protect (Russian: Спаси и сохрани) (1989) – Soviet historical drama film depicting the decline of a childlike woman as she engages in adultery and falls into crippling debt
• Scandal (1989) – British historical drama film depicting a fictionalised account of the Profumo affair that rocked the government of British prime minister Harold Macmillan
• The Seventh Continent (German: Der siebente Kontinent) (1989) – Austrian drama film chronicling the last years of an Austrian family, which consists of Georg, an engineer; his wife Anna, an optician; and their young daughter - based on a news article about a family who committed suicide in the same manner
• Small Sacrifices (1989) – historical crime drama television film about Diane Downs and the murder and attempted murder of her three children
• Triumph of the Spirit (1989) – biographical drama film inspired by true events, set in the German POW camp at Auschwitz during the Holocaust and detailing how the Jewish Greek boxer Salamo Arouch was forced to fight other internees to the death for the SS guards' entertainment
• Unconquered (1989) – drama television film based on the struggles of Richmond Flowers, Sr., the Alabama attorney general who opposed many of Governor George Wallace's segregationist policies in the 1960s, and his son, star athlete Richmond Flowers, Jr.
• Winter of '54: Father Pierre (French: Hiver 54, l'abbé Pierre) (1989) – French biographical drama film recounting the efforts by a parish priest, Father Pierre, to gain assistance from the government for the homeless, who after World War II were living in poverty and suffering from one of the coldest winters on record
• Wired (1989) – biographical drama film about comedian and actor John Belushi

References

External links

• History at the Movies: Historical and Period Films
• Internet Movie Database list
• Films based on historical events and people

1. List of films based on actual events
2. List of 1990s films based on actual events
3. List of 2010s films based on actual events
4. List of 1970s films based on actual events
5. List of 1950s films based on actual events
6. List of 1960s films based on actual events
7. List of 2020s films based on actual events
8. List of 1940s films based on actual events
9. List of 2007 films based on actual events
10. List of 2008 films based on actual events
11. List of 2009 films based on actual events
12. List of 2000s films based on actual events
13. List of 2005 films based on actual events
14. List of 2000 films based on actual events
15. List of films based on actual events (before 1940)
16. List of 2002 films based on actual events
17. List of 2001 films based on actual events
18. List of 2003 films based on actual events
19. List of 2004 films based on actual events
20. List of 2006 films based on actual events