ACADEMY AWARD WINNER HISTORY

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The Academy Awards Year 1978 was held at Los Angeles, California, USA on March 31 1981

BEST PICTURE 1981 WINNER

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ORDINARY PEOPLE (1980)

Director : Robert Redford
Writer : Judith Guest (novel), Alvin Sargent (screenplay)
Genre : Drama
Main Cast : Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, Judd Hirsch, Timothy Hutton

Plot : Teen-aged brothers and best friends Buck and Conrad Jarrett were involved in a boating accident which claimed Buck’s life. Shortly thereafter, Conrad tried to commit suicide. After a four month hospitalization, Conrad is back in his upper middle class suburban Chicago home with his parents, Calvin and Beth Jarrett. The Jarretts collectively are publicly trying to get on with their lives, Conrad who is back at high school in his senior year partaking in his old activities such as the swim team and choir. But things in the Jarrett household are not all right. Although stating he is unsure why he decides to do so, Conrad restarts his psychiatric therapy outside of the hospital with a Dr. Berger. This therapy may be able to uncover the reasons for the Jarrett’s collective unhappiness, and leads each to examine not only the overall family dynamic but the individual relationships with each of the other two. —IMDb

 

 

 

 

 

OTHER NOMINEES

COAL MINER’S DAUGHTER (1980)

Director : Michael Apted
Writer : Loretta Lynn (autobiography), Thomas Rickman (writer)
Genre : Biography | Drama | Music
Main Cast : Sissy Spacek, Tommy Lee Jones, Beverly D’Angelo, Levon Helm

Plot : Sissy Spacek won a much-deserved Oscar for her lead in this entertaining biography of country-music legend Loretta Lynn. British director Michael Apted (Gorillas in the Mist) brings fine texture to the Kentucky backwoods section of the film, where the teenage Loretta meets her future husband (Tommy Lee Jones), who ultimately pushes her into show business. Lynn’s adult life is well covered, from her spouse’s philandering to her own on-stage crackups; but between the chapter-and-verse recollections, the script by Thomas Rickman is layered with life and moments of great humor. No wooden portrait, this is a vibrant film made outstanding by the colorful performances of the two leads, as well as Beverly D’Angelo and the Band’s Levon Helm. —Rottentomatoes

 

RAGING BULL (1980)

Director : Martin Scorsese
Writer : Jake LaMotta (based on the book by), Joseph Carter (with) et al.
Genre : Biography | Drama | Sport
Main Cast : Robert De Niro, Cathy Moriarty, Joe Pesci, Frank Vincent

Plot : When Jake LaMotta steps into a boxing ring and obliterates his opponent, he’s a prizefighter. But when he treats his family and friends the same way, he’s a ticking time bomb, ready to go off at any moment. Though LaMotta wants his family’s love, something always seems to come between them. Perhaps it’s his violent bouts of paranoia and jealousy. This kind of rage helped make him a champ, but in real life, he winds up in the ring alone. —IMDb

 

 

TESS (1979)

Director : Roman Polanski
Writer : Gérard Brach (screenplay) & Roman Polanski (screenplay) et al.
Genre : Drama | Romance
Main Cast : Nastassja Kinski, Leigh Lawson, Peter Firth, John Collin

Plot : Roman Polanski adapted Thomas Hardy’s novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles and came up with this moody, haunting film starring Nastassia Kinski as the farm girl who is misused by the aristocrat for whom she works and who is then caught in a marriage where her initial happiness soon turns to grief. Fans of the novel may feel unpersuaded by Polanski’s effort to marry Hardy’s Dorset vision with his own fascination with psychosexual impulses toward survival, but the film is an often stunning thing to see, and Kinski’s sensitive, intelligent performance lingers in the memory. —Rottentomatoes

 

THE ELEPHANT MAN (1980)

Director : David Lynch
Writer : Christopher De Vore (screenplay) & Eric Bergren (screenplay) et al.
Genre : Biography | Drama | History
Main Cast : Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt, Anne Bancroft, John Gielgud

Plot : John Hurt stars as John Merrick, the hideously deformed 19th century Londoner known as “The Elephant Man”. Treated as a sideshow freak, Merrick is assumed to be retarded as well as misshapen because of his inability to speak coherently. In fact, he is highly intelligent and sensitive, a fact made public when one Dr. Frederick Treves (Anthony Hopkins) rescues Merrick from a carnival and brings him to a hospital for analysis. Alas, even after being recognized as a man of advanced intellect, Merrick is still treated like a freak; no matter his station in life, he will forever be a prisoner of his own malformed body. —Allmovie

 

 

 

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM WINNER 1979

MOSKVA SLEZAM NE VERIT (1980)

Also Known As : Moscow Does Not Believe In Tears
Country : Soviet Union
Director : Vladimir Menshov
Writer : Valentin Chernykh (writer)
Genre : Comedy | Drama | Romance
Main Cast : Vera Alentova, Irina Muravyeva, Raisa Ryazanova, Alexander Fatyushin

Plot : Moscow of the late ’50s is the initial setting for this movie of three young girls out for love — the upwardly mobile Lyuda (Irina Muravyova), the secure Tonya (Raisa Ryazanova) and the head-over-heels Katya (Vera Alentova). The film re-engages the trio 20 years later, focusing on their varied life changes. Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears received the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1980. —Allmovie

 

 

 

 

 

OTHER NOMINEES

BIZALOM (1980)

Also Known As : Confidence
Country : Hungary
Director : István Szabó
Writer : István Szabó (screenplay), István Szabó (story) et al.
Genre : Drama
Main Cast : Ildikó Bánsági, Peter Andorai, Zoltán Bezerédy, Tamás Dunai

Plot : Confidence is set in wartime Hungary. Fugitives Peter Andorai and Ildiko Bansagi are married, though not to each other. In order to escape the Nazis, the pair must reluctantly pose as husband and wife. Their ever-growing mutual trust and respect eventually blossoms into love. Released in Hungary in 1979 and internationally the following year, Confidence was the recipient of the Berlin Festival Silver Bear award. —Allmovie

 

 

EL NIDO (1980)

Also Known As : The Nest
Country : Spain
Director : Jaime de Armiñán
Writer : Jaime de Armiñán (writer)
Genre : Drama
Main Cast : Héctor Alterio, Ana Torrent, Luis Politti, Agustin Gonzalez

Plot : In a town near Salamanca, an eccentric widower, aged 60, is captivated by an imp, a precocious 13 year old. Alejandro is wealthy and alone, passing time with music, chess, and his shotgun. Gregoria (Goyita) the daughter of a weak-willed policeman and his bullying wife, is a budding naturalist who conspires to meet Alejandro. Even though he knows the village is talking, Alejandro spends time with Goyita, on walks, horseback rides, and dinners. He’s enchanted and tells his friend the village priest that he’s living for the first time. Goyita makes new demands on Alejandro, and he must decide how to be true to his ethics and to this Platonic yet highly-charged relationship. —IMDb

 

KAGEMUSHA (1980)

Also Known As : The Shadow Warrior
Country : Japan
Director : Akira Kurosawa
Writer : Masato Ide (writer), Akira Kurosawa (writer)
Genre : Drama | History | War
Main Cast : Tatsuya Nakadai, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Kenichi Hagiwara, Kota Yui

Plot : In 1572, there is a civil war in Japan, and three powerful clans, leaded by the lords Shingen Takeda (Tatsuya Nakadai), Nobunaga Oda (Daisuke Ryu) and Ieyasu Tokugawa (Masayuki Yui), dispute the conquest of Kyoto. When Shingen is mortally wounded, the Takeda clan hides the incident and uses a poor thief to be the double of the strategist Shingen and keep the respect of their enemies. Along the years, Kagemusha incorporates the spirit of the warrior of the dead warlord. —IMDb

 

 

 

LE DERNIER MÉTRO (1980)

Also Known As : The Last Metro
Country : France
Director : François Truffaut
Writer : François Truffaut (scenario) & Suzanne Schiffman (scenario) et al.
Genre : Drama | Romance
Main Cast : Catherine Deneuve, Gérard Depardieu, Jean Poiret, Heinz Bennent

Plot : The Last Metro is set virtually in its entirety in a crumbling French theatre. During the Nazi occupation, Jewish director Lucas Steiner (Heinz Bennent) hides in the basement of the theatre, while his wife Marion (Catherine Deneuve) stars in its latest production. Marion is enamored of leading man Bernard Granger (Gerard Depardieu), and he with her, but they resist temptation out of respect to her husband. When she is given a choice between loyalty to her husband and to her countrymen, her dilemma offers two logical solutions–both of which are acted out on stage during the play. This Pirandellian ending aside, The Last Metro is one of the few films to accurately capture the feeling of what it was like to live in Paris under the thumb of the Nazis. —Allmovie