44th Academy Awards

44th Academy Awards
Date	Monday, April 10, 1972
Site	Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles
Host	Helen Hayes, Alan King, Sammy Davis, Jr., Jack Lemmon
Producer	Howard W. Koch
Director	Marty Pasetta
Highlights
Best Picture	The French Connection
Most awards	The French Connection (5)
Most nominations	Fiddler on the Roof, The French Connection, and The Last Picture Show (8)
TV in the United States
Network	NBC
< 43rd Academy Awards 45th >

The 44th Academy Awards were presented April 10, 1972 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles. The ceremonies were presided over by Helen Hayes, Alan King, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Jack Lemmon. One of the major highlights of the evening was the appearance of Betty Grable, who was battling cancer at the time, making one of her last public appearances. She appeared along with one of her leading men from the 1940s, singer Dick Haymes, to present the musical scoring awards. Grable died the following year.

The year also marked The Last Picture Show becoming the first film to win both the awards for Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress, since West Side Story nearly ten years earlier.

Winners and nominees

Awards

Winners are listed first and highlighted in boldface.

Best Picture	Best Director
The French Connection – Philip D'Antoni A Clockwork Orange – Stanley Kubrick Fiddler on the Roof – Norman Jewison The Last Picture Show – Stephen J. Friedman Nicholas and Alexandra – Sam Spiegel	William Friedkin – The French Connection Peter Bogdanovich – The Last Picture Show Norman Jewison – Fiddler on the Roof Stanley Kubrick – A Clockwork Orange John Schlesinger – Sunday Bloody Sunday
Best Actor	Best Actress
Gene Hackman – The French Connection as Det. Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle Peter Finch – Sunday Bloody Sunday as Dr. Daniel Hirsch Walter Matthau – Kotch as Joseph P. Kotcher George C. Scott – The Hospital as Dr. Herbert "Herb" Bock Topol – Fiddler on the Roof as Tevye	Jane Fonda – Klute as Bree Daniels Julie Christie – McCabe & Mrs. Miller as Constance Miller Glenda Jackson – Sunday Bloody Sunday as Alex Greville Vanessa Redgrave – Mary, Queen of Scots as Mary, Queen of Scots Janet Suzman – Nicholas and Alexandra as Empress Alexandra
Best Supporting Actor	Best Supporting Actress
Ben Johnson – The Last Picture Show as Sam the Lion Jeff Bridges – The Last Picture Show as Duane Jackson Leonard Frey – Fiddler on the Roof as Motel Kamzoil Richard Jaeckel – Sometimes a Great Notion as Joe Ben Stamper Roy Scheider – The French Connection as Det. Buddy 'Cloudy' Russo	Cloris Leachman – The Last Picture Show as Ruth Popper Ann-Margret – Carnal Knowledge as Bobbie Ellen Burstyn – The Last Picture Show as Lois Farrow Barbara Harris – Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? as Allison Densmore Margaret Leighton – The Go-Between as Mrs. Maudsley
Best Original Screenplay	Best Adapted Screenplay
The Hospital – Paddy Chayefsky Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion – Elio Petri and Ugo Pirro Klute – Andy Lewis and Dave Lewis Summer of '42 – Herman Raucher Sunday Bloody Sunday – Penelope Gilliatt	The French Connection – Ernest Tidyman from The French Connection by Robin Moore A Clockwork Orange – Stanley Kubrick from A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess The Conformist – Bernardo Bertolucci from The Conformist by Alberto Moravia The Garden of the Finzi-Continis – Vittorio Bonicelli and Ugo Pirro from The Garden of the Finzi-Continis by Giorgio Bassani The Last Picture Show – Peter Bogdanovich and Larry McMurtry from The Last Picture Show by McMurtry
Best Foreign Language Film	Best Costume Design
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (Italy) in Italian – Vittorio De Sica Dodes'ka-den (Japan) in Japanese – Akira Kurosawa The Emigrants (Sweden) in Swedish – Jan Troell The Policeman (Israel) in Hebrew – Ephraim Kishon Tchaikovsky (USSR) in Russian – Igor Talankin	Nicholas and Alexandra – Yvonne Blake and Antonio Castillo Bedknobs and Broomsticks – Bill Thomas Death in Venice – Piero Tosi Mary, Queen of Scots – Margaret Furse What's the Matter with Helen? – Morton Haack
Best Documentary Feature	Best Documentary Short
The Hellstrom Chronicle – Walon Green Alaska Wilderness Lake – Alan Landsburg On Any Sunday – Bruce Brown Ra – Lennart Ehrenborg and Thor Heyerdahl The Sorrow and the Pity – Marcel Ophüls	Sentinels of Silence – Robert Amram and Manuel Arango Adventures in Perception – Han van Gelder Art Is... – Julian Krainin and DeWitt L. Sage, Jr. The Numbers Start with the River – Donald Wrye Somebody Waiting – Sherwood Omens, Hal Riney and Dick Snider
Best Live Action Short	Best Animated Short
Sentinels of Silence – Robert Amram and Manuel Arango Good Morning – Denny Evans and Ken Greenwald The Rehearsal – Stephen F. Verona	The Crunch Bird – Ted Petok Evolution – Michael Mills The Selfish Giant – Peter Sander and Murray Shostak
Best Original Score (Dramatic)	Best Original Song Score or Adaptation Score
Summer of '42 – Michel Legrand Mary, Queen of Scots – John Barry Nicholas and Alexandra – Richard Rodney Bennett Shaft – Isaac Hayes Straw Dogs – Jerry Fielding	Fiddler on the Roof – Adaptation: John Williams Bedknobs and Broomsticks – Adaptation: Irwin Kostal; Song Score: Richard Sherman and Robert Sherman The Boy Friend – Adaptation: Peter Maxwell Davies and Peter Greenwell Tchaikovsky – Adaptation: Dimitri Tiomkin Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory – Adaptation: Walter Scharf; Song Score: Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley
Best Original Song	Best Sound Mixing
"Theme from Shaft" from Shaft – Isaac Hayes "The Age of Not Believing" from Bedknobs and Broomsticks – Robert Sherman and Richard Sherman "All His Children" from Sometimes a Great Notion – Alan Bergman, Marilyn Bergman and Henry Mancini "Bless the Beasts and Children" from Bless the Beasts and Children – Perry Botkin, Jr. and Barry De Vorzon "Life Is What You Make It" from Kotch – Marvin Hamlisch and Johnny Mercer	Fiddler on the Roof – David Hildyard and Gordon McCallum Diamonds Are Forever – Gordon McCallum, John W. Mitchell and Alfred J. Overton The French Connection – Chris Newman and Theodore Soderberg Kotch – Richard Portman and Jack Solomon Mary, Queen of Scots – John Aldred and Bob Jones
Best Art Direction	Best Cinematography
Nicholas and Alexandra – Art Direction: Ernest Archer, John Box, Jack Maxsted and Gil Parrondo; Set Decoration: Vernon Dixon The Andromeda Strain – Art Direction: Boris Leven, William H. Tuntke; Set Decoration: Ruby R. Levitt Bedknobs and Broomsticks – Art Direction: Peter Ellenshaw and John B. Mansbridge; Set Decoration: Hal Gausman and Emile Kuri Fiddler on the Roof – Art Direction: Robert F. Boyle and Michael Stringer; Set Decoration: Peter Lamont Mary, Queen of Scots – Art Direction: Terence Marsh and Robert Cartwright; Set Decoration: Peter Howitt	Fiddler on the Roof – Oswald Morris The French Connection – Owen Roizman The Last Picture Show – Robert L. Surtees Nicholas and Alexandra – Freddie Young Summer of '42 – Robert L. Surtees
Best Film Editing	Best Visual Effects
The French Connection – Gerald B. Greenberg The Andromeda Strain – Stuart Gilmore and John W. Holmes A Clockwork Orange – Bill Butler Kotch – Ralph E. Winters Summer of '42 – Folmar Blangsted	Bedknobs and Broomsticks – Danny Lee, Eustace Lycett and Alan Maley When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth – Jim Danforth and Roger Dicken

Honorary Academy Awards

• Charlie Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin received an honorary award at this ceremony, for "the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century". Chaplin, who had been living in self-imposed exile in Switzerland for twenty years, came back to the United States specifically to receive this award. When introduced, Chaplin received a twelve-minute standing ovation, the longest in Academy Awards history.

Films with multiple nominations and awards

The following 18 films received multiple nominations.

• Eight: Fiddler on the Roof, The French Connection and The Last Picture Show
• Six: Nicholas and Alexandra
• Five: Bedknobs and Broomsticks and Mary, Queen of Scots
• Four: A Clockwork Orange, Kotch, Summer of '42 and Sunday Bloody Sunday
• Two: The Andromeda Strain, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, The Hospital, Klute, Sentinels of Silence, Shaft, Sometimes a Great Notion and Tchaikovsky

The following five films received multiple awards.

• Five: The French Connection
• Three: Fiddler on the Roof
• Two: The Last Picture Show, Nicholas and Alexandra and Sentinels of Silence

Presenters and performers

The following individuals presented awards or performed musical numbers.

Presenters

  Presenters (in order of appearance)

Name(s)	Role
Ann-Margret John Gavin	Presenters of the award for Best Cinematography
Karen Black Richard Chamberlain	Presenters of the award for Best Visual Effects
Timothy Bottoms Jennifer O'Neill	Presenters of the award for Best Art Direction
Red Buttons John St. John	Presenters of the award for Best Film Editing
James Caan Joey Heatherton	Presenters of the award for Best Documentary Feature and Best Documentary Short
Frank Capra Natalie Wood	Presenters of the award for Best Director
Leslie Caron Jack Valenti	Presenters of the award for Best Foreign Language Film
Sandy Duncan Michael York	Presenters of the award for Best Sound Mixing
Betty Grable Dick Haymes	Presenters of the award for Best Original Score (Dramatic) and Best Score (Adaptation and Original Song)
Joel Grey	Presenter of the award for Best Original Song
Gene Hackman Raquel Welch	Presenters of the award for Best Supporting Actress
Richard Harris Sally Kellerman	Presenters of the award for Best Supporting Actor
Cloris Leachman Richard Roundtree	Presenters of the award for Best Animated Short and Live Action Short
Walter Matthau	Presenter of the award for Best Actress
Liza Minnelli	Presenter of the award for Best Actor
Joe Namath Cybill Shepherd	Presenters of the award for Best Costume Design
Jack Nicholson	Presenter of the award for Best Picture
Daniel Taradash	Presenter of the Academy Honorary Award to Charlie Chaplin

Performers

  Performers (in order of appearance)

Name(s)	Role	Performed
The Carpenters	Performer	"Bless the Beasts and Children"
Isaac Hayes	Performer	"Theme from Shaft"
Johnny Mathis	Performer	"Life Is What You Make It"
Charley Pride	Performer	"All His Children"
Debbie Reynolds	Performer	"The Age of Not Believing"

See also

• Academy Awards
• List of Academy Awards ceremonies
• Academy Honorary Award
• 44th Academy Awards nominees and winners
• 29th Golden Globe Awards
• 1971 in film
• 14th Grammy Awards
• 23rd Primetime Emmy Awards
• 24th Primetime Emmy Awards
• 25th British Academy Film Awards
• 26th Tony Awards
• Governors Awards