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Reception

In 1985, the film was nominated for eleven Academy Awards, including a last rare double nomination for Best Actor ^[2] – Hulce and Abraham were each nominated for their portrayals of Mozart and Salieri. The movie won eight Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Abraham), Best Director (Forman), Costume Design (Theodor Pištěk), Adapted Screenplay (Shaffer), Art Direction (Patrizia von Brandenstein), Best Makeup, and Best Sound. The film was nominated for but did not win Oscars for Best Cinematography and Best Editing. Amadeus and The English Patient are the only two Best Picture winners to never enter the weekend box office top 5 after rankings began being recorded in 1982.^[3][4] Amadeus peaked at #6 during its 8th weekend in theaters. Both films were produced by Saul Zaentz.

The movie was nominated for six Golden Globes (Hulce and Abraham were nominated together) and won four, including awards to Forman, Abraham, Shaffer, and Golden Globe Award for Best Picture - Drama. Jeffrey Jones was nominated for Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture Drama. Forman also received the Directors Guild of America Award for his work.

In his essay collection The Relativity of Wrong, Isaac Asimov praised Abraham's depiction of Salieri and voiced his support for Abraham to receive the Oscar. Abraham won the award for his portrayal of Salieri, just as Ian McKellen won a Tony Award for his portrayal of Salieri in the 1980 Broadway theatre production.

At the end of the Oscar ceremony, Laurence Olivier came on stage to present the Oscar for Best Picture. As Olivier thanked the Academy for inviting him, he was already opening the envelope. Instead of announcing the nominees, he simply read, "The winner is ‘Amadeus’." An AMPAS official quickly went onstage to confirm Olivier's announcement and signaled that all was well. Producer Saul Zaentz mentioned the other nominees in his acceptance speech: The Killing Fields, A Passage to India, Places in the Heart and A Soldier's Story. Maurice Jarre won the award for best original music score for his scoring of A Passage to India. In his acceptance speech for the award, Jarre remarked "I was lucky Mozart was not eligible this year".^[5]

The film had an effect on popular music and continues to influence writers and musicians. One well-known example is "Rock Me Amadeus," by Austrian pop artist Falco, which was a hit in 1985. American rock band Fall Out Boy released a bonus track entitled "From Now On We Are Enemies," which features lyrics that act as a conversation between Salieri and Mozart. Finnish metal band Children of Bodom uses Salieri's quote, "From now on, we are enemies... you and I..." as the introduction to their song "Warheart." The album Beyond Abilities by progressive metal band Warmen uses quotations from the film, and includes a track entitled "Salieri Strikes Back." Warmen's later album Accept the Fact also uses a quote from Amadeus, and has a song called "Return of Salieri."

Abraham appears in the 1993 film Last Action Hero. The young boy, Danny, tells Arnold Schwarzenegger not to trust Abraham, because, "He killed Mozart!" Schwarzenegger asks, "In a movie?" Danny responds, "Amadeus! It won eight Oscars!"

Amadeus has been parodied several times, including in episodes of Family Guy ("It Takes a Village Idiot, and I Married One"), The Simpsons ("Margical History Tour"), Freakazoid, Mr. Show, 30 Rock ("Succession"), and How I Met Your Mother ("The Best Burger in New York").

American Film Institute recognition

• 1998 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies #53