Awakenings

Awakenings
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Penny Marshall
Screenplay by	Steven Zaillian
Based on	Awakenings by Oliver Sacks
Produced by	Walter F. Parkes Lawrence Lasker
Starring	Robert De Niro Robin Williams John Heard Julie Kavner Penelope Ann Miller Max von Sydow
Cinematography	Miroslav Ondricek
Edited by	Battle Davis Jerry Greenberg
Music by	Randy Newman
Production company	Lasker/Parkes Productions
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date	December 17, 1990 (1990-12-17) (United States)
Running time	120 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$29 million[1]
Box office	$108.7 million

Awakenings is a 1990 American drama film directed by Penny Marshall. It was written by Steven Zaillian, who based his screenplay on Oliver Sacks's 1973 memoir, Awakenings. It tells the story of neurologist Dr. Malcolm Sayer (Robin Williams), based on Sacks, who discovers the beneficial effects of the drug L-DOPA in 1969. He administers it to catatonic patients who survived the 1919–1930 epidemic of encephalitis lethargica. Leonard Lowe (Robert De Niro) and the rest of the patients are awakened after decades, and have to deal with a new life in a new time. Julie Kavner, Ruth Nelson, John Heard, Penelope Ann Miller, Peter Stormare and Max von Sydow also star.

Awakenings was produced by Walter Parkes and Lawrence Lasker, who first encountered Sacks's book as undergraduates at Yale, and optioned it a few years later. The film was a critical and commercial success, earning $108.7 million on a $29 million budget, and was nominated for three Academy Awards.