|Clint Eastwood – Unforgiven Neil Jordan – The Crying Game James Ivory – Howards End Robert Altman – The Player Martin Brest – Scent of a Woman |- | valign="top" | Al Pacino – Scent of a Woman as Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade Robert Downey Jr. – Chaplin as Charlie Chaplin Clint Eastwood – Unforgiven as William "Will" Munny Stephen Rea – The Crying Game as Fergus Denzel Washington – Malcolm X as Malcolm X | valign="top" | Emma Thompson – Howards End as Margaret Schlegel Catherine Deneuve – Indochine as Éliane Devries Mary McDonnell – Passion Fish as May-Alice Culhane Michelle Pfeiffer – Love Field as Lurene Hallett Susan Sarandon – Lorenzo's Oil as Michaela Odone |- | valign="top" | Gene Hackman – Unforgiven as Little Bill Daggett Jaye Davidson – The Crying Game as Dil Jack Nicholson – A Few Good Men as Colonel Nathan R. Jessup Al Pacino – Glengarry Glen Ross as Ricky Roma David Paymer – Mr. Saturday Night as Stan Young | valign="top" | Marisa Tomei – My Cousin Vinny as Mona Lisa Vito Judy Davis – Husbands and Wives as Sally Wainwright Joan Plowright – Enchanted April as Mrs. Fisher Vanessa Redgrave – Howards End as Ruth Wilcox Miranda Richardson – Damage as Ingrid Fleming |- | valign="top" | The Crying Game – Neil Jordan Husbands and Wives – Woody Allen Lorenzo's Oil – George Miller and Nick Enright Passion Fish – John Sayles Unforgiven – David Webb Peoples | valign="top" | Howards End – Ruth Prawer Jhabvala based on the novel by E.M. Forster Enchanted April – Peter Barnes based on the novel by Elizabeth von Arnim The Player – Michael Tolkin based on his novel A River Runs Through It – Richard Friedenberg based upon the story by Norman Maclean Scent of a Woman – Bo Goldman based on the previous film Profumo di donna by Ruggero Maccari and Dino Risi and the novel Il Buio E Il Miele by Giovanni Arpino |- | valign="top" |Indochine (France) in French – Régis Wargnier, director Close to Eden (Russia) in Russian – Nikita Mikhalkov, director Daens (Belgium) in Dutch – Stijn Coninx, director Schtonk! (Germany) in German – Helmut Dietl, director | valign="top" |The Panama Deception – Barbara Trent and David Kasper Changing Our Minds: The Story of Dr. Evelyn Hooker – David Haugland Fires of Kuwait – Sally Dundas The Liberators: Fighting