Rain Man is a 1988 American road comedy-drama film directed by Barry Levinson and written by Barry Morrow and Ronald Bass.
 It tells the story of an abrasive, selfish young wheeler-dealer, Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise), who discovers that his estranged father has died and bequeathed all of his multimillion-dollar estate to his other son, Raymond (Dustin Hoffman), an autistic savant, of whose existence Charlie was unaware.
 Charlie is left with only his father's car and collection of rose bushes.
 In addition to the two leads, Valeria Golino stars as Charlie's girlfriend, Susanna.
The following is an overview of events in 1988 in film, including the highest-grossing films, award ceremonies and festivals, a list of films released and notable deaths. "
Rain Man" was awarded the Academy Award for Best Picture, marking one of the few instances where the top-grossing film of the year was also the winner of such an award that year.
This is a list of presenters of Best Picture Academy Award.
 Each year, the Academy Award for Best Picture is presented by one or more artists on behalf of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
 Since 1973, Best Picture is the final award presented during the annual ceremonies, as this award represents a culmination of all factors that contribute to cinematic excellence.
 Past presenters have included noted producers, directors, actors, and actresses.
 In recent ceremonies, presenters of Best Picture have tended to be previous Academy Award winners themselves.
 The individual who has presented the most times is Jack Nicholson (eight times), followed by Audrey Hepburn (four times).
Rob Marshall (born October 17, 1960) is an American theater director, film director, and choreographer.
 His most noted work is the 2002 Academy Award for Best Picture winner "Chicago", for which he won a Directors Guild of America Award, as well as Academy Award, BAFTA, and Golden Globe nominations for Best Director.
 A five-time Tony Award nominee, he also won a Primetime Emmy Award for his choreography in the TV movie "Annie" (1999).
American actor Dustin Hoffman began his career by appearing in an episode of "Naked City" in 1961.
 His first theatrical performance was 1961's "A Cook for Mr. General" as Ridzinski.
 Following several guest appearances on television, he starred in the 1966 play "Eh?
"; his performance garnered him both a Theatre World Award and Drama Desk Award.
 Hoffman made his film debut in 1967 when he appeared in the comedy "The Tiger Makes Out".
 In the same year, his breakthrough role as Benjamin "Ben" Braddock, the title character in Mike Nichols' comedy-drama "The Graduate", led to Hoffman achieving star status and his first Academy Award nomination.
 He then acted in the play "Jimmy Shine" as the eponymous character and the comedy film "Madigan's Millions" (both 1968).
 In 1969, he starred alongside Jon Voight in the Academy Award for Best Picture winner "Midnight Cowboy", which Hoffman was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor a second time.
Jeremy Jack Thomas, CBE (born 26 July 1949) is a British film producer, founder and chairman of Recorded Picture Company.
 He produced Bernardo Bertolucci's "The Last Emperor", which won the 1988 Academy Award for Best Picture.
 In 2006 he received a European Film Award for Outstanding European Achievement in World Cinema.
 His father was director Ralph Thomas (director of many of the "Doctor" films), while his uncle Gerald Thomas directed all of the films in the Carry on franchise.
Crossfire is a 1947 film noir drama film which deals with the theme of anti-Semitism, as did that year's Academy Award for Best Picture winner, "Gentleman's Agreement".
 The film was directed by Edward Dmytryk and the screenplay was written by John Paxton, based on the 1945 novel "The Brick Foxhole" by screenwriter and director Richard Brooks.
 The film features Robert Mitchum, Robert Young, Robert Ryan and Gloria Grahame.
 It received five Academy Award nominations, including Ryan for Best Supporting Actor and Gloria Grahame for Best Supporting Actress.
 It was the first B movie to receive a best picture nomination.
The Academy Award for Best Film Editing is one of the annual awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).
 Nominations for this award are closely correlated with the Academy Award for Best Picture.
 For 33 consecutive years, 1981 to 2013, every Best Picture winner had also been nominated for the Film Editing Oscar, and about two thirds of the Best Picture winners have also won for Film Editing.
 Only the principal, "above the line" editor(s) as listed in the film's credits are named on the award; additional editors, supervising editors, etc. are not currently eligible.
 The nominations for this Academy Award are determined by a ballot of the voting members of the Editing Branch of the Academy; there were 220 members of the Editing Branch in 2012.
 The members may vote for up to five of the eligible films in the order of their preference; the five films with the largest vote totals are selected as nominees.
 The Academy Award itself is selected from the nominated films by a subsequent ballot of all active and life members of the Academy.
 This process is essentially the reverse of that of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA); nominations for the BAFTA Award for Best Editing are done by a general ballot of Academy voters, and the winner is selected by members of the editing chapter.
The year 1962 in film involved some very significant events, with "Lawrence of Arabia" the year's top-grossing film as well as winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Tom Cruise is an American actor and producer who made his film debut with a minor role in the 1981 romantic drama "Endless Love".
 Two years later he made his breakthrough by starring in the romantic comedy "Risky Business" (1983), which garnered Cruise his first nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.
 In 1986, Cruise played a fighter pilot in the Tony Scott-directed action drama "Top Gun" (the highest-grossing film that year), and also starred opposite Paul Newman in the Martin Scorsese-directed drama "The Color of Money".
 Two years later he played opposite Dustin Hoffman in the Academy Award for Best Picture-winning drama "Rain Man" (1988), and also appeared in the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture-winning romantic drama "Cocktail" (1988).
 In doing so Cruise became the first and only person as of 2014 to star in a Best Picture Oscar winner and a Worst Picture Razzie winner in the same year.
 His next role was as anti-war activist Ron Kovic in the drama adaptation of Kovic's memoir of the same name, "Born on the Fourth of July" (1989).
 For his performance Cruise received the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama and his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Question: Who directed the 1988 Academy Award Best Picture winner that was also the top-grossing film of 1988?
Answer: Barry Levinson