Recap / Fifty Third Academy Awards

The 53rd Academy Awards

Host: Johnny Carson

Air Date: March 31, 1981

Best Picture

• Ordinary People (winner)
• Coal Miner's Daughter
• The Elephant Man
• Raging Bull
• Tess

Best Actor

• Robert De Niro - Raging Bull (winner)
• Robert Duvall - The Great Santini
• John Hurt - The Elephant Man
• Jack Lemmon - Tribute
• Peter O'Toole - The Stunt Man

Best Actress

• Sissy Spacek - Coal Miner's Daughter (winner)
• Ellen Burstyn - Resurrection (1980)
• Goldie Hawn - Private Benjamin
• Mary Tyler Moore - Ordinary People
• Gena Rowlands - Gloria

Best Supporting Actor

• Timothy Hutton - Ordinary People (winner)
• Judd Hirsch - Ordinary People
• Michael O'Keefe - The Great Santini
• Joe Pesci - Raging Bull
• Jason Robards - Melvin and Howard

Best Supporting Actress

• Mary Steenburgen - Melvin and Howard (winner)
• Eileen Brennan - Private Benjamin
• Eva Le Gallienne - Resurrection
• Cathy Moriarty - Raging Bull
• Diana Scarwid - Inside Moves

Best Director

• Robert Redford - Ordinary People (winner)
• David Lynch - The Elephant Man
• Martin Scorsese - Raging Bull
• Richard Rush - The Stunt Man
• Roman Polański - Tess

Best Original Screenplay

• Melvin and Howard (winner)
• Brubaker
• Fame
• Mon oncle d'Amérique
• Private Benjamin

Best Adapted Screenplay

• Ordinary People (winner)
• Breaker Morant
• Coal Miner's Daughter
• The Elephant Man
• The Stunt Man

Best Foreign Language Film

• Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears (winner)
• Confidence
• Kagemusha
• The Last Metro
• The Nest

Best Documentary (feature)

• From Mao To Mozart Isaac Stern In China (winner)
• Agee
• The Day After Trinity
• Front Line
• The Yellow Star The Persecution Of The Jews In Europe 1933 To 45

Best Documentary (short subject)

• Karl Hess Toward Liberty (winner)
• Dont Mess With Bill
• The Eruption Of Mount St Helens
• Its The Same World
• Luther Metke At 94

Best Short Film (Live-Action)

• The Dollar Bottom (winner)
• Fall Line
• A Jury of Her Peers

Best Short Film (Animated)

• The Fly (winner)
• All Nothing
• History of the World in Three Minutes Flat

Best Original Score

• Fame (winner)
• Altered States
• The Elephant Man
• The Empire Strikes Back
• Tess

Best Original Song

• "Fame" - Fame (winner)
• "9 to 5" - 9 to 5
• "On the Road Again" - Honeysuckle Rose
• "Out Here on My Own" - Fame
• "People Alone" - The Competition

Best Sound

• The Empire Strikes Back (winner)
• Altered States
• Coal Miner's Daughter
• Fame
• Raging Bull

Best Costume Design

• Tess (winner)
• The Elephant Man
• My Brilliant Career
• Somewhere in Time
• When Time Ran Out...

Best Art Direction

• Tess (winner)
• Coal Miner's Daughter
• The Elephant Man
• The Empire Strikes Back
• Kagemusha

Best Cinematography

• Tess (winner)
• The Blue Lagoon (1980)
• Coal Miner's Daughter
• The Formula
• Raging Bull

Best Film Editing

• Raging Bull (winner)
• Coal Miner's Daughter
• The Competition
• The Elephant Man
• Fame

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