The Academy Awards Year 1976 was held at Los Angeles, California, USA on 12 March 1976

BEST PICTURE 1976 WINNER

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ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST (1975)

Director : Milos Forman
Writer : Lawrence Hauben (screenplay) and Bo Goldman (screenplay)
Genre : Drama
Main Cast : Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd, Peter Brocco, Dean R. Brooks, Alonzo Brown

Plot : McMurphy, a man with several assault convictions to his name, finds himself in jail once again. This time, the charge is statutory rape when it turns out that his girlfriend had lied about being eighteen, and was, in fact, fifteen (or, as McMurphy puts it, “fifteen going on thirty-five”). Rather than spend his time in jail, he convinces the guards that he’s crazy enough to need psychiatric care and is sent to a hospital. He fits in frighteningly well, and his different point of view actually begins to cause some of the patients to progress. Nurse Ratched becomes his personal cross to bear as his resistance to the hospital routine gets on her nerves.

 

 

 

OTHER NOMINEES

BARRY LYNDON (1975)

Director : Stanley Kubrick
Writer : Stanley Kubrick (written for the screen by), William Makepeace Thackeray (novel)
Genre : Drama | Romance | War
Main Cast : Ryan O’Neal, Marisa Berenson, Patrick Magee, Hardy Krüger, Steven Berkoff

Plot : In the Eighteenth Century, in a small village in Ireland, Redmond Barry is a young farm boy in love of his cousin Nora Brady. When Nora engages to the British Captain John Quin, Barry challenges him for a duel of pistols. He wins and escapes to Dublin, but is robbed on the road. Without any other alternative, Barry joins the British Army to fight in the Seven Years War. He deserts and is forced to join the Prussian Army, saving the life of his captain and becoming his protégé and spy of the Irish gambler Chevalier de Balibari. He helps Chevalier and becomes his associate until he decides to marry the wealthy Lady Lyndon. They move to England and Barry, in his obsession of nobility, dilapidates her fortune and makes a dangerous and revengeful enemy.

 

 

DOG DAY AFTERNOON (1975)

Director : Sidney Lumet
Writer : P.F. Kluge (article) and Thomas Moore (article)
Genre : Crime | Drama | Thriller
Main Cast : Al Pacino, John Cazale, Charles Durning, Chris Sarandon, Sully Boyar

Plot : Based upon a real-life story that happened in the early seventies in which the Chase Manhattan Bank in Flatbush, Brooklyn, was held siege by a gay bank robber determined to steal enough money for his male lover to undergo a sex change operation. On a hot summer afternoon, the First Savings Bank of Brooklyn is held up by Sonny and Sal, two down-and-out characters. Although the bank manager and female tellers agree not to interfere with the robbery, Sonny finds that there’s actually nothing much to steal, as most of the cash has been picked up for the day. Sonny then gets an unexpected phone call from Police Captain Moretti, who tells him the place is surrounded by the city’s entire police force. Having few options under the circumstances, Sonny nervously bargains with Moretti, demanding safe escort to the airport and a plane out of the country in return for the bank employees’ safety.

 

 

JAWS (1975)

Director : Steven Spielberg
Writer : Peter Benchley (screenplay) and Carl Gottlieb (screenplay)
Genre : Thriller
Main Cast : Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton

Plot : The peaceful community of Amity island is being terrorised. There is something in the sea that is attacking swimmers. They can no longer enjoy the sea and the sun as they used to, and the spreading fear is affecting the numbers of tourists that are normally attracted to this island. After many attempts the great white shark won’t go away and sheriff Brody, with friends Hooper and Quint decide to go after the shark and kill it.

 

 

NASHVILLE (1975)

Director : Robert Altman
Writer : Joan Tewkesbury (written by)
Genre : Drama | Music
Main Cast : Ned Beatty, Karen Black, Keith Carradine, David Arkin, Barbara Baxley

Plot : In the wake of JFK’s assassination, under the shadow of the Vietnam war, an independent presidential candidate is running, bold and cheap, under the banner of the Replacement Party: their unbelievable platform includes banning lawyers from Congress and re-writing the national anthem. This uncanny Perot-like figure is never seen, but his campaign wagon blares out rambling, pre-recorded speeches as it lumbers through the film unnoticed. The backdrop is Music City, the characters a myriad and hero- less cross-section of America. The lone foreigner is an insufferable reporter from BBC whose aimless monologues provide satirical counterpoint to the film’s deadpan delivery.

 

 

 

 

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM WINNER

DERSU UZALA (1975)

Also Known As : Derusu Uzara
Country : Soviet Union | Japan
Director : Akira Kurosawa
Writer : Vladimir Arsenyev (book), Akira Kurosawa (writer)
Genre : Adventure | Drama
Main Cast : Maksim Munzuk, Yuri Solomin, Svetlana Danilchenko, Dmitri Korshikov, Suimenkul Chokmorov

Plot : In 1902, a Russian army expedition is assigned to explore Siberia under the command of Captain Vladimir Arseniev. He befriends the Goldi (Nanai) hunter Dersu Uzala and invites him to guide the explorers through the stark forest up to Khanka Lake. Along their journey, Arseniev discovers that Dersu Uzala is a man with a beautiful soul and they become close friends. When his assignment ends, Dersu Uzala says goodbye to Arseniev. In 1907, Captain Arseniev is assigned for another expedition to the Ussuri River; when he meets Dersu Uzala in the forest, the lonely hunter joins his team and guides the group. However, he is older and has problems with his vision and Captain Arseniev invites Dersu Uzala to live with his family in Khabarovsk City. But the old man does not adapt to the urban lifestyle and decides to return to the forest. In 1910, Captain Arseniev is called to Korfovskaïa to identify the body of a man that has his calling card and might be Dersu Uzala

 

 

OTHER NOMINEES

SANDAKAN HACHIBANSHOKAN BOHKYO (1974)

Also Known As : Sandakan 8
Country : Japan
Director : Kei Kumai
Writer : Tomoko Yamazaki (nonfiction book), Sakae Hirosawa (screenplay)
Genre : Drama | History | War
Main Cast : Komaki Kurihara, Yôko Takahashi, Kinuyo Tanaka, Takiko Mizunoe, Eiko Mizuhara

Plot : The very long but very worthwhile Sandakan No. 8 is set in mid-20th-century Japan. A crusading female journalist makes the acquaintance of an elderly woman who years earlier had been shipped against her will to Borneo. As a young girl, she had been sold into prostitution by her impoverished family. The friendship between the old woman and the young journalist is the heart of the story, and we use that word in its every sense. Nominated for an Academy Award, Sandakan No. 8 was a winner at the Berlin Film Festival and won many Japanese prizes. Originally released in the US without a rating, the film has since been classified “R”.

 

 

ACTAS DE MARUSIA (1976)

Also Known As : Letters from Marusia
Country : Mexico
Director : Miguel Littin
Writer : Miguel Littin (writer), Patricio Manns (story)
Genre : Drama | Thriller
Main Cast : Armando Acosta, Arturo Beristáin, Diana Bracho, José B. Carles, Patricio Castillo

Plot : Originally Actas De Marusia, this Mexican film re-creates a dark chapter in the history of Chile. The scene is a small Chilean mining town in 1907. Suffering under the despotic rule of the British mine owners, the workers stage a revolt. The government’s solution is to utterly destroy the town rather than allow the rebellion to spread. Letters from Marusia was adapted from a novel by Patricio Manns, which in turn was based on eyewitness accounts of the 1907 massacre.

 

 

PROFUMO DI DONNA (1974)

Also Known As : Scent Of A Woman
Country : Italy
Director : Dino Risi
Writer : Giovanni Arpino (novel), Ruggero Maccari (writer)
Genre : Comedy | Drama
Main Cast : Vittorio Gassman, Alessandro Momo, Agostina Belli, Moira Orfei, Franco Ricci

Plot : An army cadet accompanies an irascible, blind captain on a week-long trip from Turin to Naples. The captain, Fausto, who wants no pity, brooks no disagreement, and charges into every situation, nicknames the youth Cuccio (“Babyfat”), and spends the next few days ordering him about and generally behaving badly in public. In Rome, Fausto summons a priest to ask for his blessing; in Naples, where Fausto joins a blind lieutenant for drinking and revelry, the two soldiers talk quietly and seriously about “going through with it.” Also in Naples is Sara, in love with Fausto, but treated cruelly by him. What do the blind soldiers plan? Can Sara soften Fausto’s hardened heart?

 

 

ZIEMIA OBIECANA (1975)

Also Known As : The Promised Land
Country : Poland
Director : Andrzej Wajda
Writer : Wladyslaw Stanislaw Reymont (novel), Andrzej Wajda (writer)
Genre : Drama
Main Cast : Daniel Olbrychski, Wojciech Pszoniak, Andrzej Seweryn, Anna Nehrebecka, Tadeusz Bialoszczynski

Plot : Polish filmmaker Andrzej Wajda adapted his 1975 effort Land of Promise (Ziemia Obiecana) from an 1897 novel by Wladyslaw Stanislaw Reymont. The story concerns three Polish laborers of vastly different social, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds. Unlike many of their recalcitrant contemporaries, the three men are able to overcome their differences and work together. Eventually they create and manage a textile factory, founded upon the edicts of equality, trust, and respect. By concentrating on three individuals, Wajda is able to reflect Poland’s 19th century ascension from ancient feudalism to modern capitalism. But this is no sugar-coated “beating the odds” saga; Wajda makes it clear that with progress comes sacrifice and heartache. Also released as The Promised Land, Land of Promise originated as a multipart series for Polish television.