1972 Film Year: Oscar Winners & Nominees

The AwardWentTo archive contains 101 Academy Award records for the 1972 film year, covering 48 films and including 22 wins.

Years follow the source film eligibility/dataset year, which may differ from the ceremony calendar year. Counts describe film-linked archive records, including historical and special-award context where supplied.

1973 → ← 1971

Best Picture result

5 Best Picture award records for this film year. See the full result · Best Picture history

Acting category results

Leading winning films

Ranked by winning records in this film-year selection.

  1. Cabaret

    8 wins from 10 award records

  2. The Godfather

    3 wins from 11 award records

  3. The Poseidon Adventure

    2 wins from 9 award records

  4. Travels with My Aunt

    1 win from 4 award records

  5. Butterflies Are Free

    1 win from 3 award records

  6. The Candidate

    1 win from 2 award records

Category winners

Select a category to explore its history, or jump to this year's full records.

Nominations and award records by category

Showing 101 of 101 archive records. Gold stars mark winning records.

Best Picture

Best Actor

Best Supporting Actor

Best Actress

Best Supporting Actress

Art Direction

Cinematography

Costume Design

Best Director

Documentary Feature

Documentary Short Subject

Film Editing

International Feature Film

Original Score

  • ★ Limelight IMDB — Charles Chaplin, Raymond Rasch, Larry Russell
  • The Godfather IMDB — Nino Rota
    Source context

    NOTE: THIS IS NOT AN OFFICIAL NOMINATION. The Godfather score, composed by Nino Rota, was originally announced as one of the five official nominees. It was later pointed out that portions of the score and the main theme were composed by Rota for his score to the 1958 Italian film, Fortunella. The Music Branch was given this information and re-balloted to determine the fifth nomination. The list of six films they were to choose from were the remaining five of the top ten preliminary listings, plus The Godfather score. The results of the re-balloting was that the fifth nomination became Sleuth, composed by John Addison.

  • images IMDB — John Williams
  • Napoleon and Samantha IMDB — Buddy Baker
  • The Poseidon Adventure IMDB — John Williams
  • Sleuth IMDB — John Addison
    Source context

    NOTE: The Godfather score, composed by Nino Rota, was originally announced as one of the five official nominees. It was later pointed out that portions of the score and the main theme were composed by Rota for his score to the 1958 Italian film, Fortunella. The Music Branch was given this information and re-balloted to determine the fifth nomination. The list of six films they were to choose from were the remaining five of the top ten preliminary listings, plus The Godfather score. The results of the re-balloting was that the fifth nomination became Sleuth, composed by John Addison.

Original Song

Music (Original Song Score or Adaptation Score)

Animated Short Film

Live Action Short Film

Sound Mixing

Special Achievement Award (Visual Effects)

Adapted Screenplay

Original Screenplay

Nominated films and other recorded entries

48 films represented in the 1972 archive selection.

About these award records

This independent archive groups film-linked award records by film, credited name, category and eligibility year. The film year can differ from the year the ceremony took place. Ceremony numbers are shown where supplied by the records.

Each distinct performance, song or award credit remains a separate record, even when it belongs to the same film. Shared credits stay together. A person's page covers the name shown, without combining aliases or shared credits into a complete career total.

Totals can include honorary, special and historical awards alongside competitive nominations. Awards without a linked film are outside these page totals. Source notes and uncertain records are retained; category comparisons omit groups with unresolved notes, ties or conflicting identities.

For the official record, search the Academy Awards Database (opens in a new tab). Award Went To is an independent exploration tool and is not affiliated with the Academy.