Oscar Nominated Movies from 1979
by mtatzgern | created - 14 Dec 2019 | updated - 14 Dec 2019 | PublicFeature films nominated for the 52nd Academy Awards
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1. Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
PG | 105 min | Drama
After his wife leaves him, a work-obsessed Manhattan advertising executive is forced to learn long-neglected parenting skills, but a heated custody battle over the couple's young son deepens the wounds left by the separation.
Director: Robert Benton | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Jane Alexander, Justin Henry
Votes: 154,760 | Gross: $106.26M
2. All That Jazz (1979)
R | 123 min | Drama, Music, Musical
Director/choreographer Bob Fosse tells his own life story as he details the sordid career of Joe Gideon, a womanizing, drug-using dancer.
Director: Bob Fosse | Stars: Roy Scheider, Jessica Lange, Ann Reinking, Leland Palmer
Votes: 35,407 | Gross: $37.82M
3. Apocalypse Now (1979)
R | 147 min | Drama, Mystery, War
A U.S. Army officer serving in Vietnam is tasked with assassinating a renegade Special Forces Colonel who sees himself as a god.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest
Votes: 710,483 | Gross: $83.47M
4. Breaking Away (1979)
PG | 101 min | Comedy, Drama, Sport
A working-class Indiana teen obsessed with the Italian cycling team vies for the affections of a college girl while searching for life goals with his friends.
Director: Peter Yates | Stars: Dennis Christopher, Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern, Jackie Earle Haley
Votes: 25,482 | Gross: $16.42M
5. Norma Rae (1979)
PG | 114 min | Drama
A young single mother and textile worker agrees to help unionize her mill despite the problems and dangers involved.
Director: Martin Ritt | Stars: Sally Field, Beau Bridges, Ron Leibman, Pat Hingle
Votes: 12,841 | Gross: $22.23M
6. The China Syndrome (1979)
PG | 122 min | Drama, Thriller
A reporter finds what appears to be a cover-up of safety hazards at a nuclear power plant.
Director: James Bridges | Stars: Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Michael Douglas, Scott Brady
Votes: 33,046 | Gross: $51.72M
7. And Justice for All (1979)
R | 119 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A lawyer is forced to defend a judge, while defending other clients, and trying to find punishment for the guilty and provide justice for the innocent.
Director: Norman Jewison | Stars: Al Pacino, Jack Warden, John Forsythe, Lee Strasberg
Votes: 39,682
8. Being There (1979)
PG | 130 min | Comedy, Drama
After the death of his employer forces him out of the only home he's ever known, a simpleminded, sheltered gardener becomes an unlikely trusted advisor to a powerful tycoon and an insider in Washington politics.
Director: Hal Ashby | Stars: Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, Melvyn Douglas, Jack Warden
Votes: 77,677 | Gross: $30.18M
9. Starting Over (1979)
R | 105 min | Comedy, Romance
A divorced man falls in love, but somehow he can't get over his ex-wife. This affects his love life in comic ways. Based on Dan Wakefield's novel.
Director: Alan J. Pakula | Stars: Burt Reynolds, Jill Clayburgh, Candice Bergen, Charles Durning
Votes: 3,242 | Gross: $41.64M
10. Chapter Two (1979)
PG | 124 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
George Schneider is an author whose wife had just died. His brother Leo gives him the number of Jennie MacLaine, and somehow they hit it off, and just when things are moving along, the memory of his first wife comes between them.
Director: Robert Moore | Stars: James Caan, Marsha Mason, Joseph Bologna, Valerie Harper
Votes: 1,275
11. The Rose (1979)
R | 125 min | Drama, Music, Romance
The tragic life of a self-destructive female rock star who struggles to deal with the constant pressures of her career and the demands of her ruthless business manager.
Director: Mark Rydell | Stars: Bette Midler, Alan Bates, Frederic Forrest, Harry Dean Stanton
Votes: 9,252 | Gross: $29.20M
12. The Black Stallion (1979)
G | 118 min | Adventure, Family, Sport
After being shipwrecked with a magnificent horse off the coast of Africa in the 1940s, a boy bonds with the stallion, and trains him to race after their rescue.
Director: Carroll Ballard | Stars: Kelly Reno, Mickey Rooney, Teri Garr, Clarence Muse
Votes: 14,043
13. Manhattan (1979)
R | 96 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
The life of a divorced television writer dating a teenage girl is further complicated when he falls in love with his best friend's mistress.
Director: Woody Allen | Stars: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Mariel Hemingway, Michael Murphy
Votes: 147,303 | Gross: $45.70M
14. La Cage aux Folles (1978)
R | 97 min | Comedy
The manager of a Saint-Tropez nightclub featuring drag entertainment, and his star attraction, are a gay couple. Madness ensues when his straight son brings home a fiancée and her ultra-conservative parents to meet them.
Director: Édouard Molinaro | Stars: Ugo Tognazzi, Michel Serrault, Claire Maurier, Rémi Laurent
Votes: 11,910 | Gross: $20.42M
15. A Little Romance (1979)
PG | 110 min | Adventure, Comedy, Romance
An American teenager living in Paris meets and falls in love with a local.
Director: George Roy Hill | Stars: Laurence Olivier, Diane Lane, Thelonious Bernard, Arthur Hill
Votes: 6,428
16. The Black Hole (1979)
PG | 98 min | Action, Sci-Fi
A research vessel finds a missing ship, commanded by a mysterious scientist, on the edge of a black hole.
Director: Gary Nelson | Stars: Maximilian Schell, Anthony Perkins, Robert Forster, Joseph Bottoms
Votes: 28,002
17. 1941 (1979)
PG | 118 min | Action, Comedy, War
Hysterical Californians prepare for a Japanese invasion in the days after Pearl Harbor.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Treat Williams, Nancy Allen
Votes: 36,278 | Gross: $31.76M
18. Alien (1979)
R | 117 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
The crew of a commercial spacecraft encounters a deadly lifeform after investigating a mysterious transmission of unknown origin.
Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt, Veronica Cartwright
Votes: 951,219 | Gross: $78.90M
19. Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
G | 143 min | Adventure, Mystery, Sci-Fi
When an alien spacecraft of enormous power is spotted approaching Earth, Admiral James T. Kirk resumes command of the overhauled USS Enterprise in order to intercept it.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan
Votes: 96,635 | Gross: $82.26M
20. Agatha (1979)
PG | 105 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
In December 1926, Agatha Christie's husband asks for a divorce. She leaves her car and goes missing for 11 days. She books into a hotel as Mrs. Neele. A US reporter looks for her and investigates.
Director: Michael Apted | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Vanessa Redgrave, Timothy Dalton, Helen Morse
Votes: 3,589 | Gross: $7.50M
21. Butch and Sundance: The Early Days (1979)
PG | 115 min | Comedy, Western
A prequel of sorts to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) which chronicles the two outlaws' lives in the years before the events portrayed in the 1969 movie.
Director: Richard Lester | Stars: William Katt, Tom Berenger, Jeff Corey, John Schuck
Votes: 1,709 | Gross: $5.14M
22. The Europeans (1979)
90 min | Drama, Romance
It's the fall of 1850, a few miles outside Boston. The household of the dour Mr. Wentworth receives two unannounced visitors from Europe, Eugenia and Felix, the daughter and son of his half... See full summary »
Director: James Ivory | Stars: Lee Remick, Robin Ellis, Wesley Addy, Tim Choate
Votes: 1,145
23. The Electric Horseman (1979)
PG | 121 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A rodeo star past his prime steals his company's horse and rides into the desert, accompanied by a feisty reporter.
Director: Sydney Pollack | Stars: Robert Redford, Jane Fonda, Valerie Perrine, Willie Nelson
Votes: 10,299 | Gross: $61.80M
24. Meteor (1979)
PG | 108 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
The U.S. must join forces with the U.S.S.R. in order to destroy a gigantic asteroid heading straight for Earth.
Director: Ronald Neame | Stars: Sean Connery, Natalie Wood, Karl Malden, Brian Keith
Votes: 8,217
25. Moonraker (1979)
PG | 126 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
James Bond investigates the mid-air theft of a space shuttle, and discovers a plot to commit global genocide.
Director: Lewis Gilbert | Stars: Roger Moore, Lois Chiles, Michael Lonsdale, Richard Kiel
Votes: 108,827 | Gross: $70.31M
26. The Muppet Movie (1979)
G | 95 min | Adventure, Comedy, Family
Kermit and his newfound friends trek across America to find success in Hollywood, but a frog legs merchant is after Kermit.
Director: James Frawley | Stars: Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt
Votes: 39,154 | Gross: $76.66M
27. 10 (1979)
R | 122 min | Comedy, Romance
A Hollywood composer goes through a mid-life crisis and becomes infatuated with a sexy, newly married woman.
Director: Blake Edwards | Stars: Dudley Moore, Bo Derek, Julie Andrews, Robert Webber
Votes: 19,287 | Gross: $74.87M
28. Ice Castles (1978)
PG | 108 min | Drama, Romance, Sport
An inexperienced yet naturally gifted ice skater makes a spectacular debut in the skating world before encountering an event that could possibly derail her hopes and dreams.
Director: Donald Wrye | Stars: Lynn-Holly Johnson, Robby Benson, Colleen Dewhurst, Tom Skerritt
Votes: 4,051 | Gross: $20.71M
29. The Promise (1979)
PG | 97 min | Drama, Romance
A corporate heir's mother pays for his disfigured girlfriend's plastic surgery, on one condition.
Director: Gilbert Cates | Stars: Kathleen Quinlan, Stephen Collins, Beatrice Straight, Laurence Luckinbill
Votes: 825
30. The Amityville Horror (1979)
R | 117 min | Horror
Newlyweds and their three children move into a large house where a mass murder was committed. They start to experience strange, inexplicable manifestations which have strong effects on everyone living in or visiting the house.
Director: Stuart Rosenberg | Stars: James Brolin, Margot Kidder, Rod Steiger, Don Stroud
Votes: 44,609 | Gross: $86.43M
31. The Champ (1979)
PG | 121 min | Drama, Sport
Billy Flynn is an ex-champion boxer who was KO'd by booze and gambling. When the wealthy, estranged mother of his young son begins trying to lure the boy away from him, Flynn must return to the ring to provide for his child.
Director: Franco Zeffirelli | Stars: Jon Voight, Faye Dunaway, Ricky Schroder, Jack Warden
Votes: 9,245 | Gross: $30.44M
32. The Tin Drum (1979)
R | 142 min | Drama, War
In 1924, Oskar Matzerath is born in the Free City of Danzig. At age three, he falls down a flight of stairs and stops growing. In 1939, World War II breaks out.
Director: Volker Schlöndorff | Stars: David Bennent, Mario Adorf, Angela Winkler, Katharina Thalbach
Votes: 25,758
33. The Maids of Wilko (1979)
118 min | Drama, Romance
Set in the late '20s. A thirtyish young man, who heads a small factory, faints at the funeral of a close friend. He decides to go home to his aunt and uncle for a while, but gets involved ... See full summary »
Director: Andrzej Wajda | Stars: Daniel Olbrychski, Anna Seniuk, Maja Komorowska, Stanislawa Celinska
Votes: 1,454
34. Mama Turns 100 (1979)
Not Rated | 100 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Ana is alive and married with Antonio; they arrive in the manor in the countryside of Spain where she worked as a nanny many years ago, for the centennial birthday of the matriarch. In ... See full summary »
Director: Carlos Saura | Stars: Geraldine Chaplin, Amparo Muñoz, Fernando Fernán Gómez, Norman Briski
Votes: 1,367
35. A Simple Story (1978)
110 min | Drama, Romance
A simple story about simple people. A 38 year old divorced woman (Marie), who now has a lover (Serge) but decides to leave him, abort his baby, and then returns with her ex-husband (Georges... See full summary »
Director: Claude Sautet | Stars: Romy Schneider, Claude Brasseur, Bruno Cremer, Roger Pigaut
Votes: 1,399
36. To Forget Venice (1979)
Not Rated | 110 min | Drama
A gay brother visits his childhood home where his sister still lives with her lesbian niece and her girlfriend. They reminisce about the better past and their parents.
Director: Franco Brusati | Stars: Mariangela Melato, Eleonora Giorgi, Erland Josephson, Nerina Montagnani
Votes: 389
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