The Academy Awards Year 1974 was held at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, L.A. County Music Center, Los Angeles, California, USA on 2 April 1974

BEST PICTURE 1974 WINNER

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THE STING (1973)

Director : George Roy Hill
Writer : David S. Ward
Genre : Crime, Drama, Comedy
Main Cast : Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Shaw, Charles Durning, Ray Walston

Plot : Hoping that box-office lighting might strike twice, George Roy Hill again joined forces with Paul Newman and Robert Redford, who star as con men Henry Gondorff and Johnny Hooker in THE STING. In the Chicago of the 1930s, Johnny’s partner, Luther (Robert Earl Jones), is fatally wounded by a victim of one of their scams who turns out to be powerful syndicate boss Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw). Eager for revenge, Johnny takes a tip from his dying partner and seeks out mutual friend Gondorff, a consummate master of the long con. Gondorff rouses himself from his alcoholic inertia and agrees to help Johnny take down the despicable Lonnegan, conscripting an army of grifters ready to avenge their friend’s death. The labyrinthine plot, which is stuffed with false leads, red herrings, and a double-cross-a-minute, involves a fake bookie joint, a very persistent FBI agent, a bunch of corrupt cops, and one shifty dame. An extremely entertaining film, the Oscar-winning film transcends the genre through the superb acting of the three leads, the keen attention to the re-creation of period detail, and a fiendishly intricate script that cons audiences completely. The wonderful score, which became immensely popular, featured Marvin Hamlisch’s orchestral transcriptions of Scott Joplin’s piano rags; the film led to a revival of interest in the composer. The film is one of the most entertaining films of the 1970s and lives up to its hype on repeat viewings.

 

 

 

OTHER NOMINEES

TOUCH OF CLASS (1973)

Director : Melvin Frank
Writer : Melvin Frank (written by), Jack Rose (written by)
Genre : Comedy
Main Cast : George Segal, Glenda Jackson, Paul Sorvino, K Callan, Cec Linder

Plot : Producer/director Melvin Frank struck box-office gold when he teamed George Segal with Glenda Jackson in A Touch of Class. Segal plays married insurance executive Steve Blackburn, who can’t seem to avoid bumping into divorced fashion designer Vicki Allessio (Glenda Jackson) wherever he goes. Finally bowing to the inevitable, Steve and Vicki fall in love. He suggests a romantic rendezvous in Spain…but nothing, absolutely nothing, goes as planned. A comedy of errors ending on an unexpected note of pathos, A Touch of Class was nominated for four Academy Awards, and earned Glenda Jackson a Best Actress Oscar.

 

 

AMERICAN GRAFFITI (1973)

Director : George Lucas
Writer : George Lucas (written by), Gloria Katz (written by)
Genre : Comedy | Drama | Romance
Main Cast : Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith, Cindy Williams

Plot : Curt and Steve have gotten into a prestigious college, but Curt is having second thoughts on the night before they’re going to leave for the school. That night, Curt searches relentlessly for a spellbinding woman in a white T-Bird while Steve tries to patch things up with his girlfriend after suggesting they date other people while he’s away. Their two other friends John and Terry also have a wild night, John when he’s forced to chauffer a little girl and Terry when he borrows Steve’s car and picks up a girl but then has trouble living up to the expectations set by the car.

 

 

THE EXORCIST (1973)

Director : William Friedkin
Writer : William Peter Blatty (written for the screen by), William Peter Blatty (novel)
Genre : Drama | Horror | Thriller
Main Cast : Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Lee J. Cobb, Kitty Winn, Jack MacGowran

Plot : A movie actress taking up temporary residence in Washington D.C. has her troubles. The script for the movie she’s filming seems inadequate. Her ex, who is also the father of her adolescent daughter, Regan, neglects to call the girl on her birthday. And the attic has rats. Meanwhile, Father Karras, a priest and a psychiatrist, is losing his faith; and he’s dealing with a sick mother who needs medical care he hasn’t the money to provide. Another priest, the old and ailing Father Merrin, has just returned from Iraq with forebodings of evil. These three persons meet when the sweet and cheerful Regan turns foul-mouthed and violent. But her sickness is beyond the reach of a medical doctor or a psychiatrist. What Regan needs is an exorcist.

 

 

VISKNINGAR OCH ROP (1972)

Director : Ingmar Bergman
Writer : Ingmar Bergman (writer)
Genre : Drama | Romance
Main Cast : Harriet Andersson, Kari Sylwan, Ingrid Thulin, Liv Ullmann, Anders Ek

Plot : A family drama takes place in a mansion in the late 1800′s. Karin and Maria watch over their sister Agnes’ sickbed together with the servant Anna. Through flashbacks the lives of both sisters are described, which are full of lies, deceit, callousness, self despise, guilt and forbidden love. Agnes’ dramatic death cramp arouses only aversion in them. They both retreat in their own way from her when she grasps for their hands.

 

 

 

 

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM WINNER

LA NUIT AMÉRICAINE (1973)

Also Known As : Day for Night
Country : France | Italy
Director : François Truffaut
Writer : Jean-Louis Richard (writer), Suzanne Schiffman (writer)
Genre : Comedy | Drama
Main Cast : Jacqueline Bisset, Valentina Cortese, Dani, Alexandra Stewart, Jean-Pierre Aumont

Plot : A film company at work. Actors arrive and depart; liaisons develop. Julie, the beautiful but possibly unstable lead, is recovering from a breakdown, aided by an older physician, her new husband. Alphonse is insecure, he babbles. When his fiance exits with a stunt man, he threatens to quit. Julie must convince him to stay. Alexandre, a consummate pro on the set, runs back and forth to the airport hoping a certain young man will visit. Severine, no longer young, hits the bottle and covers blown lines with emotional outbursts. At the center is Ferrand, the writer director, who must make constant decisions, answer a stream of questions, and deliver the film on schedule.

 

 

OTHER NOMINEES

DER FUßGÄNGER (1973)

Also Known As : The Pedestrian
Country : Switzerland | West Germany | Israel
Director : Maximilian Schell
Writer : Dagmar Hirtz (writer), Maximilian Schell (writer)
Genre : Drama
Main Cast : Peggy Ashcroft, Gertrud Bald, Elisabeth Bergner, Lil Dagover, Käthe Haack

Plot : The Pedestrian (Der Fussganger) was the second filmed directorial effort of German actor Maximillian Schell. Billed third under Gustav Rudolf Sellner and Ruth Hausmeister, Schell plays Andreas Giese, a Krupp-like industrialist whose past suddenly returns to haunt him. A newspaper article reveals that Giese was responsible for the wartime destruction of a Greek village and the wholesale slaughter of the villagers. Whether or not Giese feels remorse for his actions is ultimately beside the point: his family is torn apart and his son kills himself as a result of the accusation.

 

 

L’INVITATION (1973)

Also Known As : The Invitation
Country : Switzerland | France
Director : Claude Goretta
Writer : Claude Goretta (writer), Michel Viala (writer)
Genre : Comedy
Main Cast : Jean-Luc Bideau, François Simon, Jean Champion, Corinne Coderey, Michel Robin

Plot : After the death of his mother, middle-aged insurance employee inherits her small cottage surrounded by a garden. Selling the cottage which is situated on unexploited ground near the center of a big city makes him a rich man and he buys a big house in the countryside. He takes some time off and decides to throw a big garden party at the house and invite all his colleagues from the office. Aided by alcohol, the guests gradually lose all their inhibitions and reveal personality traits and frustrations that they normally keep hidden.

 

 

TURKS FRUIT (1973)

Also Known As : Turkish Delight
Country : Netherlands
Director : Paul Verhoeven
Writer : Gerard Soeteman (writer), Jan Wolkers (novel)
Genre : Drama | Romance
Main Cast : Monique van de Ven, Rutger Hauer, Tonny Huurdeman, Wim van den Brink, Hans Boskamp

Plot : In Paul Verhoeven’s sexual psychodrama Turkish Delight – an adaptation of Jan Wolkers’ best-selling erotic novel – Rutger Hauer is Eric, an Amsterdam artist whose paintings and sculptures are all perverse. He spends his days wandering around the city and picking up young female lovers – whom he beds and then tosses aside mercilessly – and keeps an extensive scrapbook of mementos from his bedmates. Eric is deeply haunted, however, by a dysfunctional past relationship. He only fell in love on one occasion: with Olga (Verhoeven regular Monique Van de Ven), a mentally unstable woman dying of a brain tumor. The film received a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nomination in 1973 and became one of the most lucrative motion pictures ever generated by the Dutch film industry.

 

 

HA-BAYIT BERECHOV CHELOUCHE (1973)

Also Known As : The House on Chelouche Street
Country : Israel
Director : Moshé Mizrahi
Writer : Yerech Guber (writer), Moshé Mizrahi (writer)
Genre : Drama
Main Cast : Gila Almagor, Chaim Banai, Michal Bat-Adam, Rolf Brin, Ariel Forman

Plot : A moving Israeli drama about Sami, a poor 15-year-old immigrant coming of age in 1946 British-occupied Tel Aviv. Instead of attending school, he takes a job at a machine shop to help his widowed mother provide for the family. On his road to adulthood, he also has an affair with a woman 10 years older than him.