The Academy Awards Year 1970 was held at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, L.A. County Music Center, Los Angeles, California, USA on 7 April 1970.

BEST PICTURE 1970 WINNER

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MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969)
Director : John Schlesinger
Writer : Waldo Salt (screenplay) & James Leo Herlihy (novel)
Genre : Drama
Main Cast : Jon Voight, Dustin Hoffman, Sylvia Miles, John McGiver, Brenda Vaccaro, Barnard Hughes

Plot : Texas greenhorn Joe Buck arrives in New York for the first time. Preening himself as a real ‘hustler’, he finds that he is the one getting ‘hustled’ until he teams up with a down-and-out but resilient outcast named Ratso Rizzo. The initial ‘country cousin meets city cousin’ relationship deepens. In their efforts to bilk a hostile world rebuffing them at every turn, the pair progress from partners in shady business to comrades.

 

 

 

OTHER NOMINEES

BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969)

Director : George Roy Hill
Writer : William Goldman
Genre : Adventure, Crime, Drama, Western
Main Cast : Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katharine Ross, Strother Martin, Henry Jones

Plot : Butch and Sundance are the two leaders of the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang. Butch is all ideas, Sundance is all action and skill. The west is becoming civilized and when Butch and Sundance rob a train once too often, a special posse begins trailing them no matter where they run. Over rock, through towns, across rivers, the group is always just behind them. When they finally escape through sheer luck, Butch has another idea, “Let’s go to Bolivia”. Based on the exploits of the historical characters.

 

 

ANNE OF THE THOUSAND DAYS (1969)

Director : Charles Jarrot
Writer : Maxwell Anderson (play) & Bridget Boland (writer)
Genre : Drama, History
Main Cast : Richard Burton, Geneviève Bujold, Irene Papas, Anthony Quayle, John Colicos

Plot : The story of beautiful and ambitious Anne Boleyn who becomes the second wife of King Henry VIII. Anne refuses at first but later when she accept the King proposal, she becomes the most powerful, wealthiest and full of vengeance woman in the country. But when Anne fails to give birth to the son her husband so desperately wants, her world slowly begin to collapse.

 

 

 

HELLO, DOLLY! (1969)

Director : Gene Kelly
Writer : Ernest Lehman (writer) & Michael Stewart (stage musical)
Genre : Romance, Comedy, Musical, Family
Main Cast : Barbra Streisand, Walter Matthau, Michael Crawford, Marianne McAndrew, Danny Lockin

Plot : Film adaptation of the beloved Broadway musical. Concerns itself with Dolly Levi, a New York-based matchmaker who merrily arranges things… like furniture and daffodils and lives. A widow, she has found herself in love with a “half-a-millionaire” Yonkers merchant named Horace Vandergelder. So she proceeds to weave a web of romantic complications involving him, his two clerks, a pretty milliner and her assistant. Eventually, of course, all is sorted out, and everyone ends up with the right person.

 

 

Z (1969)

Director : Costa-Gavras
Writer : Vasilis Vasilikos (novel), Jorge Semprún (writer)
Genre : Drama, History, Mystery, Thriller
Main Cast : Yves Montand, Irene Papas, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Jacques Perrin, Charles Denner, François Périer

Plot : Costa-Gavras chronicles the overthrow of the democratic government in Greece. When a liberal politician is murdered in an attack during a peace demonstration, the right wing established figures in the military and the police try and hide not only their parts in it, but try to cover up the murder as well. The magistrate must act as a detective in order to go through the cover up. While historically accurate, it is told as a combination mystery and thriller.

 

 

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM 1970

WINNER
Z (1969)

Country : Algeria
Director : Costa-Gavras
Writer : Vasilis Vasilikos (novel), Jorge Semprún (writer)
Genre : Drama, History, Mystery, Thriller
Main Cast : Yves Montand, Irene Papas, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Jacques Perrin, Charles Denner, François Périer

Plot : A thriller based on Vassili Vassilikos’ true story set in a Mediterranean country under a totalitarian regime. The plot follows the efforts of an investigating magistrate to find the killers of the popular leader of an opposition party.

 

 

 

 

OTHER NOMINEES
BITKA NA NERETVI (1969)

Also Known As : The Battle of The Neretva
Country : Yugoslavia
Director : Veljko Bulajic
Writer : Stevan Bulajic (writer), Veljko Bulajic (writer)
Genre : Drama, History, Mystery, Thriller
Main Cast : Yul Brynner, Hardy Krüger, Franco Nero, Sylva Koscina, Orson Welles, Curd Jürgens

Plot : In the beginning of 1943. by Hitler’s personal order, German generals started executing the “Weiss” plan for the destruction of Partisan units. Pushed by far more powerful enemy, the Partisans, with Supreme Headquarters, 4500 wounded and typhus patients, have found themselves surrounded in Neretva valley. Only one bridge remained, with heavy enemy forces waiting on the other side, preparing for massacre on wounded fighters and helpless people. Tito ordered to destroy the bridge. Surprised, enemy transfered his forces to the other side, predicting that Partisans will attempt the suicidal break through. But, during only one night, Partisans managed to build a provisional bridge near the destroyed one and cross to the other side, tricking the enemy.

 

BRATYA KARAMAZOVY (1969)

Also Known As : The Brothers Karamazov
Country : Soviet Union
Director : Kirill Lavrov, Ivan Pyryev
Writer : Fyodor Dostoyevsky (novel), Ivan Pyryev (writer)
Genre : Drama
Main Cast : Mikhail Ulyanov, Lionella Pyryeva, Kirill Lavrov, Andrei Miagkov, Mark Prudkin, Svetlana Korkoshko

Plot : Two brothers from an upper-class family express their desires in different ways. Dmitry relies on intuition and emotions, while his brother Ivan embraces intellect and reason. Their father is a whining, egotistical hedonist who bemoans the passing into a new era but does nothing to adapt to the changing times. All three men are unable to compromise, hiding behind either the church or the state to interpret how to solve their problems.

 

 

MA NUIT CHEZ MAUD (1969)

Also Known As : My Night At Maud’s
Country : France
Director : Eric Rohmer
Writer : Eric Rohmer (writer)
Genre : Drama
Main Cast : Jean-Louis Trintignant, Françoise Fabian, Marie-Christine Barrault, Antoine Vitez, Léonide Kogan, Guy Léger

Plot : The “my” in My Night At Maud’s belongs to the protagonist played by Jean-Louis Trintignant, a Catholic engineer whose struggle with his faith is renewed when he falls instantly in love with a woman he’s never met (Marie-Christine Barrault) while attending mass. A chance meeting with an amoral old friend (Antoine Vitez) the same night places him in a potentially compromising situation when he’s forced to spend the night with Vitez’s alluring acquaintance Maude (Françoise Fabian), a sophisticated woman who challenges Trintignant’s belief through intellectual and fleshly means.

 

 

Ã…DALEN ’31 (1969)

Also Known As : Adalen 31
Country : Sweden
Director : Bo Widerberg
Writer : Bo Widerberg (writer)
Genre : Drama, Romance
Main Cast : Peter Schildt, Kerstin Tidelius, Roland Hedlund, Stefan Feierbach, Martin Widerberg, Marie De Geer

Plot : The title refers to the 1931 worker’s strike against the Adalen paper mill in Northern Sweden. As the strikers debate whether or not to use violence in pressing their complaint, the daughter of the factory owner (Marie De Geer) is impregnated by the son of a worker (Peter Schildt). The strike is “resolved” in a bloody confrontation between the laborers and government troops, resulting in the death of the boy–and, on a greater scale, the collapse of Sweden’s Conservative Government. The girl ultimately opts for an abortion, which partially explains why Adalen 31 was originally given an “X” rating by the then-conservative Motion Picture Association of America.