45th Academy Awards


The 45th Academy Awards were presented Tuesday, March 27, 1973, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California, honoring the best films of 1972. The ceremonies were presided over by Carol Burnett, Michael Caine, Charlton Heston, and Rock Hudson.
The ceremony was marked by Marlon Brando's boycott of the Oscars and his sending of Sacheen Littlefeather to explain why he would not show up to collect his Best Actor award for The Godfather, and by Charlie Chaplin's only competitive Oscar win for Best Original Dramatic Score for his 20-year-old film Limelight, which was eligible because it did not screen in Los Angeles until 1972. Chaplin had received honorary Academy Awards in 1929 and 1972.
Cabaret, Bob Fosse's adaptation of the Broadway stage musical, set a record for the most Oscars won without winning Best Picture. Best Picture winner The Godfather received only three Academy Awards.
This year was the first time that two African American women received nominations for Best Actress.
This was also the first year when all the Oscar winners were brought out on stage at the end of the ceremony. The show drew a television audience of viewers.

Winners and nominees

Awards

Winners are listed first in boldface.
Best PictureBest Director

  • The Godfather – Albert S. Ruddy, producer
  • *Cabaret – Cy Feuer, producer
  • *Deliverance – John Boorman, producer
  • *The Emigrants – Bengt Forslund, producer
  • *Sounder – Robert B. Radnitz, producer
  • Bob Fosse – Cabaret
  • *John Boorman – Deliverance
  • *Jan Troell – The Emigrants
  • *Francis Ford Coppola – The Godfather
  • *Joseph L. Mankiewicz – Sleuth
    • Best ActorBest Actress
  • Marlon Brando – The Godfather as Vito Corleone
  • *Michael Caine – Sleuth as Milo Tindle
  • *Laurence Olivier – Sleuth as Andrew Wyke
  • *Peter O'Toole – The Ruling Class as Jack Gurney
  • *Paul Winfield – Sounder as Nathan Lee Morgan
  • Liza Minnelli – Cabaret as Sally Bowles
  • *Diana Ross – Lady Sings the Blues as Billie Holiday
  • *Maggie Smith – Travels with My Aunt as Augusta Bertram
  • *Cicely Tyson – Sounder as Rebecca Morgan
  • *Liv Ullmann – The Emigrants as Kristina Nilsson
    • Best Supporting ActorBest Supporting Actress
  • Joel Grey – Cabaret as the M.C.
  • *Eddie Albert – The Heartbreak Kid as Mr. Corcoran
  • *James Caan – The Godfather as Santino "Sonny" Corleone
  • *Robert Duvall – The Godfather as Tom Hagen
  • *Al Pacino – The Godfather as Michael Corleone
  • Eileen Heckart – Butterflies Are Free as Mrs. Baker
  • *Jeannie Berlin – The Heartbreak Kid as Lila Kolodny
  • *Geraldine Page – Pete 'n' Tillie as Gertrude Wilson
  • *Susan Tyrrell – Fat City as Oma
  • *Shelley Winters – The Poseidon Adventure as Belle Rosen
    • Best Screenplay Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Produced or PublishedBest Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium
  • The Candidate – Jeremy Larner
  • *The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie – Luis Buñuel and Jean-Claude Carrière
  • *Lady Sings the Blues – Chris Clark, Suzanne de Passe and Terence McCloy
  • *Murmur of the Heart – Louis Malle
  • *Young Winston – Carl Foreman
  • The Godfather – Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo based on the novel by Puzo
  • *Cabaret – Jay Presson Allen based on the musical by Fred Ebb and John Kander and the book by Joe Masteroff
  • *The Emigrants – Bengt Forslund and Jan Troell based on the novels The Emigrants and Unto a Good Land by Vilhelm Moberg
  • *Pete 'n' Tillie – Julius J. Epstein based on the story Witch's Milk by Peter De Vries
  • *Sounder – Lonne Elder III based on the novel by William H. Armstrong
    • Best Documentary FeatureBest Documentary Short Subject
  • Marjoe – Sarah Kernochan and Howard Smith
  • *Ape and Super-Ape – Bert Haanstra
  • *Malcolm X – Arnold Perl and Marvin Worth
  • *Manson – Robert Hendrickson and Laurence Merrick
  • *The Silent Revolution – Eckehard Munck
  • This Tiny World – Charles Huguenot van der Linden and Martina Huguenot van der Linden
  • *Hundertwasser's Rainy Day – Peter Schamoni
  • *K-Z – Giorgio Treves
  • *Selling Out – Tadeusz Jaworski
  • *The Tide of Traffic – Humphrey Swingler
    • Best Live Action Short SubjectBest Animated Short Subject
  • Norman Rockwell's World... An American Dream – Richard Barclay
  • *Frog Story – Ray Gideon and Ron Satlof
  • *Solo – David Adams
  • A Christmas Carol – Richard Williams
  • *Kama Sutra Rides Again – Bob Godfrey
  • *Tup Tup – Nedeljko Dragic
    • Best Foreign Language FilmBest Song Original for the Picture
  • The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie in French – Luis Buñuel
  • * The Dawns Here Are Quiet in Russian – Stanislav Rostotsky
  • * I Love You Rosa in Hebrew – Moshé Mizrahi
  • * My Dearest Senorita in Spanish – Jaime de Armiñán
  • * The New Land in Swedish – Jan Troell
  • "The Morning After" from The Poseidon Adventure – Music and Lyrics by Joel Hirschhorn and Al Kasha
  • * "Ben" from Ben – Music by Walter Scharf; Lyrics by Don Black
  • * "Come Follow, Follow Me" from The Little Ark – Music by Fred Karlin; Lyrics by Marsha Karlin
  • * "Marmalade, Molasses & Honey" from The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean – Music by Maurice Jarre; Lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman
  • * "Strange Are the Ways of Love" from The Stepmother – Music by Sammy Fain; Lyrics by Paul Francis Webster
    • Best Original Dramatic ScoreBest Scoring: Adaptation and Original Song Score
  • Limelight – Charlie Chaplin, Raymond Rasch and Larry Russell
  • *Images – John Williams
  • *Napoleon and Samantha – Buddy Baker
  • *The Poseidon Adventure – John Williams
  • *Sleuth – John Addison
  • Cabaret – Adaptated by Ralph Burns
  • *Lady Sings the Blues – Adapted by Gil Askey
  • *Man of La Mancha – Adapted by Laurence Rosenthal
    • Best Costume DesignBest Sound
  • Travels with My Aunt – Anthony Powell
  • *The Godfather – Anna Hill Johnstone
  • *Lady Sings the Blues – Ray Aghayan, Norma Koch and Bob Mackie
  • *The Poseidon Adventure – Paul Zastupnevich
  • *Young Winston – Anthony Mendleson
  • Cabaret – David Hildyard and Robert Knudson
  • * Butterflies Are Free – Charles T. Knight and Arthur Piantadosi
  • * The Candidate – Gene Cantamessa and Richard Portman
  • * The Godfather – Bud Grenzbach, Christopher Newman and Richard Portman
  • * The Poseidon Adventure – Herman Lewis and Theodore Soderberg
    • Best Art DirectionBest Cinematography
  • Cabaret – Art Direction: Hans Jürgen Kiebach and Rolf Zehetbauer; Set Decoration: Herbert Strabel
  • *Lady Sings the Blues – Art Direction: Carl Anderson; Set Decoration: Reg Allen
  • *The Poseidon Adventure – Art Direction: William Creber; Set Decoration: Raphaël Bretton
  • *Travels with My Aunt – Art Direction and Set Decoration: John Box, Robert W. Laing and Gil Parrondo
  • *Young Winston – Art Direction: Donald M. Ashton, Geoffrey Drake, John Graysmark and William Hutchinson; Set Decoration: Peter James
  • Cabaret – Geoffrey Unsworth
  • *1776 – Harry Stradling Jr.
  • *Butterflies Are Free – Charles Lang
  • *The Poseidon Adventure – Harold E. Stine
  • *Travels with My Aunt – Douglas Slocombe
    • Best Film Editing-
  • Cabaret – David Bretherton
  • * Deliverance – Tom Priestley
  • * The Godfather – William H. Reynolds and Peter Zinner
  • * The Hot Rock – Fred W. Berger and Frank P. Keller
  • * The Poseidon Adventure – Harold F. Kress
    		• -

    Honorary Academy Awards

    Special Achievement Award

    The following 15 films received multiple nominations.
    A Was also nominated in the previous year for Best Foreign Language Film.
    The following three films received multiple awards.
    It was initially announced, on February 12, 1973, that The Godfather received 11 nominations, more than any other film that year. This was reduced to 10 nominations after a new vote by the Academy's music branch, following a controversy over whether Nino Rota's score for The Godfather was eligible for the nomination it received. For the re-balloting, members of the music branch chose from six films: The Godfather and the five films that had been on the shortlist for best original dramatic score but did not get nominated. John Addison's score for Sleuth won this new vote, and thus replaced Rota's score on the official list of nominees. The controversy arose, according to Academy President Daniel Taradash, because the love theme in The Godfather had previously been used by Rota in Fortunella, an Italian movie from several years earlier.
    The nominations in the category of Best Original Song were not announced in February with the rest of the nominations, reportedly because of "a mixup in balloting". It was later reported that the Academy had been considering whether Curtis Mayfield's song "Freddie's Dead" from the film Super Fly should be eligible. The song was ruled ineligible for a nomination because its lyrics were not sung in the film. Academy governor John Green was quoted as saying: "Times have changed. In the old days Hollywood made 30 or 40 musicals a year, and there were plenty of songs to choose from. Now there are hardly any, and most of the eligible songs are themes. Both the lyric and the music must be heard on the sound track to be eligible."

    Presenters and performers

    The following individuals, listed in order of appearance, presented awards or performed musical numbers. Notably, Charlton Heston was late for his role presenting the voting rules, reportedly due to a flat tire. Clint Eastwood, who was slated to present for Best Picture, was asked to fill in. Heston's written dialogue leaned heavily on his role in the move, leading Eastwood to quip “Come on, flip the card, man. This isn’t my bag.” Eastwood also famously said on filling in at the last minute, "...They pick the guy who hasn’t said but three lines in 12 movies to substitute for him ”. Heston arrived part of the way through the bit, allowing Eastwood to escape.

    Presenters

    Performers