Brickman left TV and began to concentrate on feature films. In 1973, he joined Allen in co-writing "Sleeper", the film which advanced Allen's directing career. After a lull, Brickman and Allen worked on "Annie Hall" (1977), for which they shared the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The pair also fashioned a valentine to NYC with "Manhattan" (1979). Both features established Allen's credentials as a cinematic analyst of modern urban society. Brickman went his own way writing and directing "Simon" (1980), which starred his former partner from The Tarriers, Alan Arkin, as a man brainwashed to think he's come from another planet. The film met with a limited release (and frequently turns up on cable). Brickman's next effort, "Lovesick" (1983), was given a far greater release by Warner Bros. Starring Dudley Moore as a psychiatrist obsessed with his patient (Elizabeth McGovern) and communicating with the spirit of Freud (Alec Guinness), the love story-cum-urban neurosis was not a box office success either. Brickman fared better with critics, but not necessarily with the box office in 1986 with "The Manhattan Project", a well-meaning anti-nuclear riff in which young Christopher Collet steals plutonium to build his own reactor. The film is frequently shown on TV where it has built a large following. Brickman wrote the screenplay for the 1991 Bette Midler vehicle "For the Boys", a box office disaster about a USO singer and a comic who team and find success. Helmed by Mark Rydell, the film is generally entertaining, but something of a throwback to 1950s films, but it features a strong central performance by Midler. Rydell also directed Brickman's screenplay for the Richard Gere-Sharon Stone melodrama "Intersection" (1994). Brickman resumed working with Woody Allen after 15 years with "Manhattan Murder Mystery" (1993), a pleasantly diverting caper that also marked Allen's reteaming with Diane Keaton.