Academy Awards for 1971

By Patrick Mondout

The 44^th Annual Academy Awards were hosted by Sammy Davis Jr., Helen Hayes, Alan King and Jack Lemmon on April 10, 1972 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion (Los Angeles) and broadcast live on NBC. The French Connection was the big winner taking O's for Best Pictures, Best Actor, Best Director and Best Writing. In one of the most emotional moments in any Oscars show, Charlie Chaplin received a long-overdue honorary award and a standing ovation that lasted for several minutes. In a moment later reproduced for the movie Chaplin starring Robert Downey, Jr., The Little Tramp could only say, "Words are so futile, so feeble."

BEST PICTURE
	A Clockwork Orange, Stanley Kubrick, producer
	Fiddler on the Roof, Norman Jewison, producer
	The French Connection, Philip D'Antoni, producer
	The Last Picture Show, Stephen J. Friedman, producer
	Nicholas and Alexandra, Sam Spiegel, producer

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
	Topol, Fiddler on the Roof
	Gene Hackman, The French Connection
	George C. Scott, The Hospital
	Walter Matthau, Kotch
	Peter Finch, Sunday Bloody Sunday

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
	Jane Fonda, Klute
	Vanessa Redgrave, Mary, Queen of Scots
	Julie Christie, McCabe & Mrs. Miller
	Janet Suzman, Nicholas and Alexandra
	Glenda Jackson, Sunday Bloody Sunday

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
	Leonard Frey, Fiddler on the Roof
	Roy Scheider, The French Connection
	Jeff Bridges, The Last Picture Show
	Ben Johnson, The Last Picture Show
	Richard Jaeckel, Sometimes a Great Notion

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
	Ann-Margret, Carnal Knowledge
	Margaret Leighton, The Go-Between
	Ellen Burstyn, The Last Picture Show
	Cloris Leachman, The Last Picture Show
	Barbara Harris, Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?

BEST DIRECTOR
	Stanley Kubrick, A Clockwork Orange
	Norman Jewison, Fiddler on the Roof
	William Friedkin, The French Connection
	Peter Bogdanovich, The Last Picture Show
	John Schlesinger, Sunday Bloody Sunday

BEST WRITING (SCREENPLAY FACTUALLY BASED OR NEW MATERIAL)
	Paddy Chayefsky, The Hospital
	Elio Petri and Ugo Pirro, Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion
	Andy Lewis and Dave Lewis, Klute
	Herman Raucher, Summer of '42
	Penelope Gilliatt, Sunday Bloody Sunday

BEST WRITING (SCREENPLAY BASED ON MATERIAL FROM ANOTHER MEDIUM)
	Stanley Kubrick, A Clockwork Orange
	Bernardo Bertolucci, The Conformist
	Ernest Tidyman, The French Connection
	Ugo Pirro and Vittorio Bonicelli, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis
	Larry McMurtry and Peter Bogdanovich, The Last Picture Show

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
	Oswald Morris, Fiddler on the Roof
	Owen Roizman, The French Connection
	Robert Surtees, The Last Picture Show
	Freddie Young, Nicholas and Alexandra
	Robert Surtees, Summer of '42

BEST FILM EDITING
	Bill Butler, A Clockwork Orange
	Stuart Gilmore and John W. Holmes, The Andromeda Strain
	Jerry Greenberg, The French Connection
	Ralph E. Winters, Kotch
	Folmar Blangsted, Summer of '42

BEST ART DIRECTION/SET DIRECTION
	Boris Leven and William Tuntke, art direction; Ruby Levitt, set decoration, The Andromeda Strain
	John B. Mansbridge and Peter Ellenshaw, art direction; Emile Kuri and Hal Gausman, set decoration, Bedknobs and Broomsticks
	Robert Boyle and Michael Stringer, art direction; Peter Lamont, set decoration, Fiddler on the Roof
	Terence Marsh and Robert Cartwright, art direction; Peter Howitt, set decoration, Mary, Queen of Scots
	John Box, Ernest Archer, Jack Maxsted and Gil Parrondo, art direction; Vernon Dixon, set decoration, Nicholas and Alexandra

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
	Bill Thomas, Bedknobs and Broomsticks
	Piero Tosi, Death in Venice
	Yvonne Blake and Antonio Castillo, Nicholas and Alexandra
	Margaret Furse, Mary, Queen of Scots
	Morton Haack, What's the Matter With Helen?

BEST SOUND
	Gordon K. McCallum, John Mitchell and Alfred J. Overton, Diamonds Are Forever
	Gordon K. McCallum and David Hildyard, Fiddler on the Roof
	Theodore Soderberg and Christopher Newman, The French Connection
	Richard Portman and Jack Solomon, Kotch
	Bob Jones and John Aldred, Mary, Queen of Scots

BEST SOUND (SONG ORIGINAL TO THE PICTURE)
	“The Age of Not Believing,” Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, music and lyrics
	“Bless the Beasts and Children,” Bless the Beasts and Children, Barry DeVorzon and Perry Botkin, Jr., music and lyrics
	“Life Is What You Make It,” Kotch, Marvin Hamlisch, music; Johnny Mercer, lyrics
	“Theme From Shaft,” Shaft, Isaac Hayes, music and lyrics
	“All His Children,” Sometimes a Great Notion, Henry Mancini, music; Alan and Marilyn Bergman, lyrics

BEST MUSIC (ORIGINAL DRAMATIC SCORE)
	John Barry, Mary, Queen of Scots
	Richard Rodney Bennett, Nicholas and Alexandra
	Isaac Hayes, Shaft
	Jerry Fielding, Straw Dogs
	Michel Legrand, Summer of '42

BEST MUSIC (ADAPTATION & ORIGINAL SONG SCORE)
	Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, song; Irwin Kostal, adaptation, Bedknobs and Broomsticks
	Peter Maxwell Davies and Peter Greenwell, The Boy Friend
	John Williams, Fiddler on the Roof
	Dimitri Tiomkin, Tchaikovsky
	Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley, song; Walter Scharf, adaptation, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

BEST SHORT FILMS (ANIMATED)
	The Crunch Bird (Maxwell-Petok-Petrovich Productions; Regency Film Distributing Corp.)
	Evolution (National Film Board of Canada; Columbia)
	The Selfish Giant (Potterton Productions; Pyramid Films)

BEST SHORT FILMS (LIVE ACTION)
	Good Morning (E/G Films; Seymour Borde and Associates)
	The Rehearsal (Cinema Verona Production; Schoenfeld Film Distributing Corp.)
	Sentinels of Silence (Producciones Concord; Paramount)

BEST DOCUMENTARY (SHORT SUBJECTS)
	Adventures in Perception (Hans van Gelder Filmproduktie; Netherlands Information Service)
	Art Is... (Henry Strauss Associates; Sears, Roebuck Foundation)
	The Numbers Start With the River (WH Picture; U.S. Information Agency)
	Sentinels of Silence (Producciones Concord; Paramount)
	Somebody Waiting (Snider Productions; University of California Medical Film Library)

BEST DOCUMENTARY (FEATURES)
	Alaska Wilderness Lake (Alan Landsburg, producer; Alan Landsburg Productions)
	The Hellstrom Chronicle (David L. Wolper Productions; Cinema 5, Ltd.)
	On Any Sunday (Bruce Brown-Solar; Cinema 5, Ltd.)
	The RA Expeditions (Swedish Broadcasting Company; Interwest Film Corp.)
	The Sorrow and the Pity (Television Rencontre-Norddeutscher Rundfunk-Television Swiss Romande; Cinema 5, Ltd.)

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
	Dodes'Ka-Den, Japan
	The Emigrants, Sweden
	The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, Italy
	The Policeman, Israel
	Tchaikovsky, U.S.S.R.

VISUAL SPECIAL EFFECTS
	Alan Maley, Eustace Lycett and Danny Lee, Bedknobs and Broomsticks
	Jim Danforth and Roger Dicken, When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth

Other Awards

An honorary award was finally given to Charles Chaplin "for the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century." Chaplin returned to the U.S. to receive the award for the first time since the dark days of McCarthyism in the early 1950s, when his re-entry visa was was revoked. It was long-overdue recognition for the most popular star of the first 30 years of the 20th century.

Scientific Awards

Optical Radiation Corporation (Lighting)
John N. Wilkinson (Lighting)
Robert D. Auguste (Camera)
Cinema Products Company (Camera)
Cinema Products Company (Camera)
Cinema Research Corporation (Laboratory)
Consolidated Film Industries (Laboratory)
Fenton Hamilton (Lighting)
Thomas Jefferson Hutchinson (Lighting)
Kollmorgen Corporation Photo Research Division (Photography)
Producers Service Corporation (Laboratory)
Research Products Incorporated (Laboratory)
James R. Rochester (Lighting)