42nd Academy Awards

42nd Academy Awards
DateApril 7, 1970
SiteDorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles
Produced byM. J. Frankovich
Directed byJack Haley Jr.
Highlights
Best PictureMidnight Cowboy
Most awardsButch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (4)
Most nominationsAnne of the Thousand Days (10)
TV in the United States
NetworkABC
Duration2 hours, 25 minutes
Ratings43.4% (Nielsen ratings)

The 42nd Academy Awards were presented April 7, 1970, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California. For the second year in a row, there was no official host. This was the first Academy Awards ceremony to be broadcast via satellite to an international audience, though outside North America, Mexico and Brazil were the only countries to broadcast the event live.[1]

One year after Oliver! became the only G-rated film to win Best Picture, Midnight Cowboy became the first and only X-rated film to win, though its rating was changed in 1971 to R after the MPAA revised its ratings criteria. Only one other X-rated film has been nominated for Best Picture since, Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (1971), which was also subsequently downgraded to an R rating (though this was a result of cuts to the original film).

They Shoot Horses, Don't They? set an Oscar record by receiving nine nominations without one for Best Picture. This was the last time until the 68th Academy Awards wherein none of the four winning performances came from Best Picture nominated films, as well as the first ceremony in which every acting nomination was in color.

  1. ^ The Opening of the Academy Awards in 1970 on YouTube At 5:30 mark. Retrieved March 27, 2016.