1978 in film

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The year 1978 in film involved some significant events.

Events

• February 1 - Bob Dylan's film Renaldo and Clara, a documentary of the "Rolling Thunder Revue" tour premieres in Los Angeles, California.
• March 1 - Charlie Chaplin's coffin is stolen from a Swiss cemetery three months after burial.
• March - Leigh Brackett completes the first draft for The Empire Strikes Back.
• June 4 - Grease, starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, has its world premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
• September - George Lucas purchases Bulltail Ranch, on Lucas Valley Road, for the development of Skywalker Ranch.
• November 17 - The Star Wars Holiday Special airs on CBS. The special gives fans their first glimpse of Boba Fett, a character from the upcoming sequel.
• The first Sundance Film Festival is held.

Top grossing films (U.S.)

Rank	Title	Studio	Gross
1.	Grease	Paramount	$96,300,000
2.	Superman	Warner Brothers	$82,800,000
3.	National Lampoon's Animal House	Universal	$80,826,000
4.	Every Which Way But Loose	Warner Brothers	$61,900,000
5.	Jaws 2	Universal	$50,432,000
6.	Heaven Can Wait	Paramount	$49,400,000
7.	Hooper	Warner Brothers	$34,900,000
8.	California Suite	Columbia	$28,386,000
9.	Cheech & Chong's Up In Smoke	Paramount	$28,300,000
10.	Foul Play	Paramount	$27,500,000

source: http://www.boxofficereport.com/database/1978.shtml

Awards

Academy Awards:

Best Picture: The Deer Hunter - EMI Films/Cimino, Universal

Best Director: Michael Cimino - The Deer Hunter

Best Actor: Jon Voight - Coming Home

Best Actress: Jane Fonda - Coming Home

Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Walken - The Deer Hunter

Best Supporting Actress: Maggie Smith - California Suite

Best Foreign Language Film: Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (Preparez vos mouchoirs), directed by Bertrand Blier, France

Golden Globe Awards:

Drama:

Best Picture: Midnight Express

Best Actor: Jon Voight - Coming Home

Best Actress: Jane Fonda - Coming Home

Musical or comedy:

Best Picture: Heaven Can Wait

Best Actor: Warren Beatty - Heaven Can Wait

Best Actress (tie): Ellen Burstyn - Same Time, Next Year

Best Actress (tie): Maggie Smith - California Suite

Other

Best Director: Michael Cimino - The Deer Hunter

Best Foreign Language Film: Autumn Sonata, Sweden

Palme d'Or (Cannes Film Festival):

The Tree of Wooden Clogs (L'Albero degli zoccoli), directed by Ermanno Olmi, Italy

Golden Bear (Berlin Film Festival):

Trout (Las Truchas), directed by José Luis García Sánchez, Spain

What Max Said (Las Palabras de Max), directed by Emilio Martínez Lázaro, Spain

Films released in 1978

• The 36th Chamber of Shaolin
• Five Deadly Venoms
• The Adventures of Jody Shanan
• Almost Summer
• American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince, directed by Martin Scorsese (documentary)
• Animal House
• Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
• Autumn Sonata
• The Bad News Bears Go to Japan
• Battlestar Galactica (Canada and most European countries only; released in U.S. theatres the following year)
• The Betsy
• Big Wednesday
• Blue Collar
• The Boys from Brazil
• Bread and Chocolate
• The Buddy Holly Story
• Bye Bye Monkey
• La Cage aux Folles
• California Suite
• Capricorn One
• The Cat from Outer Space
• China 9, Liberty 37
• Coma
• Comes a Horseman
• Coming Home
• Convoy
• Corvette Summer
• Cosi' come sei (aka Stay as you are)
• Damien: Omen II, starring William Holden
• Dawn of the Dead (Italy)
• Days of Heaven
• Death on the Nile
• The Deer Hunter
• The Driver
• Drunken Master
• The End
• Enter the Fat Dragon starring Sammo Hung
• Every Which Way But Loose
• Eyes of Laura Mars
• Fingers
• F.I.S.T.
• Force 10 from Navarone
• Foul Play
• The Fury, starring Kirk Douglas and Amy Irving.
• Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (Preparez vos mouchoirs), aka Get Your Handkerchiefs Ready
• Girlfriends, Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner
• Gray Lady Down
• Grease
• Halloween, starring Jamie Lee Curtis
• Harper Valley PTA
• Heaven Can Wait
• Hooper
• Hot Lead and Cold Feet
• House Calls
• Ice Castles
• In einem Jahr mit 13 Monden
• In Praise of Older Women
• Interiors
• Invasion of the Body Snatchers, remake of 1956 movie
• International Velvet
• Jaws 2
• Lady on the Bus
• The Last Waltz, directed by Martin Scorsese
• The Late Great Planet Earth -(film only mentioned in article)
• Law of the Sixgun
• The Lord of the Rings, animated film by Ralph Bakshi
• Max's Words Golden Bear winner -(not found in searches under this title)
• Midnight Express
• Movie Movie
• National Lampoon's Animal House
• The One and Only
• Perceval le Gallois
• Prova d'orchestra
• Rabbit Test
• Renaldo and Clara
• Return from Witch Mountain
• Revenge of the Pink Panther
• Richard Pryor: Live in Concert
• Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
• The Silent Partner
• The Small One
• Stevie (the 1978 film, there is also Stevie the 2002 film)
• Straight Time
• So Much Warm (TV movie)
• Superman: The Movie, starring Christopher Reeve and Marlon Brando
• The Tree of Wooden Clogs Palme d'Or winner
• Las Truchas (The Trout) Golden Bear winner
• Two Solitudes
• An Unmarried Woman
• Up In Smoke
• Violette Nozière
• The Water Babies
• Watership Down
• A Wedding
• The Wiz

Births

• June 1 - Danielle Harris, voice actress in The Wild Thornberrys
• June 6 - Judith Barsi, actress (d.1988)
• June 7 - Bill Hader, actor
• June 29 - Luis De los Santos,
• November 9 - Sisqó, singer/actor/songwriter
• November 17 - Rachel McAdams, actress
• November 24 - Katherine Heigl, actress
• December 9 - Jesse Metcalfe, actor
• December 18 - Katie Holmes, actress

Deaths

• January 5 - Sally Eilers, actress
• January 29 - Tim McCoy, cowboy actor, soldier
• March 24 - Leigh Brackett, science fiction writer and screenwriter (The Big Sleep)
• August 24 - Louis Prima, bandleader, voice actor ("King Louie of the Apes" in The Jungle Book)
• August 26 - Charles Boyer, actor
• August 28 - Robert Shaw, actor
• September 9 - Jack Warner, Hollywood studio founder
• September 30 - Edgar Bergen, actor
• October 16 - Dan Dailey, actor
• October 19 - Gig Young, actor

Film debuts

• Kathy Bates