1979: Year in Review
Fritz Golden Superlatives

1. Apocalypse Now (dir: Francis Ford Coppola)

2. Alien (dir: Ridley Scott)

3. The Marriage of Maria Braun (dir: Rainier Werner Fassbinder)

4. Saint Jack (dir: Peter Bogdanovich)

5. All That Jazz (dir: Bob Fosse)

6. Nosferatu, the Vampyre (dir: Werner Herzog)

7. Wise Blood (dir: John Huston)

8. The Warriors (dir: Walter Hill)

9. Beauty and the Beast (dir: Juraj Herz)

10. The Brood (dir: David Cronenberg)

Honorable Mentions (in alphabetical order): Being There (dir: Hal Ashby), The Black Stallion (dir: Caroll Ballard), Boulevard Nights (dir: Michael Pressman), Breaking Away (dir: Peter Yates), Fascination (dir: Jean Rollin), Hardcore (dir: Paul Schrader), Heartland (dir: Richard Pearce), Mad Max (dir: George Miller), Manhattan (dir: Woody Allen), North Dallas Forty (dir: Ted Kotcheff), Phantasm (dir: Don Coscarelli), ¡Que Viva México! (dir: Sergei Eisenstein), Starting Over (dir: Alan J. Pakula), The Third Generation (dir: Rainier Werner Fassbinder), and When a Stranger Calls (dir: Fred Walton)

Best Picture: Apocalypse Now
Director: Francis Ford Coppola Producers: Kim Aubry, Francis Ford Coppola
US Distributor: Paramount Pictures

Best Director:
Francis Ford Coppola, Apocalypse Now
2. Ridley Scott, Alien
3. Bob Fosse, All That Jazz
4. Rainier Werner Fassbinder, The Marriage of Maria Braun AND The Third Generation
5. Peter Bogdanovich, Saint Jack

Best Actor:
Nick Nolte, North Dallas Forty
2. Ben Gazzara, Saint Jack
3. Roy Scheider, All That Jazz
4. Brad Dourif, Wise Blood
5. Klaus Kinski, Nosferatu, the Vampyre

Best Actress:
Hanna Schygulla, The Marriage of Maria Braun
2. Jill Clayburgh, Starting Over
3. Carol Kane, The Mafu Cage
4. Sally Field, Norma Rae
5. Conchata Ferrell, Heartland

Best Supporting Actor
Robert Duvall, Apocalypse Now
2. Paul Dooley, Breaking Away
3. Tony Beckley, When a Stranger Calls
4. Ian Holm, Alien
5. Melvyn Douglas, Being There

Best Supporting Actress
Sigourney Weaver, Alien
2. Candice Bergen, Starting Over
3. Meryl Streep, Kramer vs. Kramer
4. Mariel Hemingway, Manhattan
5. Cheryl Barnes, Hair

Best Original Screenplay:
All That Jazz – Bob Fosse and Robert Alan Arthur
2. The Marriage of Maria Braun – Rainier Werner Fassbinder, Pea Frohlich and Peter Marthesheimer 
3. Manhattan — Woody Allen and Marshall Brinkman
4. Breaking Away — Steve Tesich
5. Over the Edge – Charles S. Haas and Tim Hunter

Best Adapted Screenplay:
Apocalypse Now – John Milius, Michael Herr, and Francis Ford Coppola
2. Saint Jack — Howard Sackler, Paul Theroux, and Peter Bogdanovich
3. Wise Blood — Benedict Fitzgerald and Michael Fitzgerald
4. Nosferatu, the Vampyre — Werner Herzog
5. North Dallas Forty — Ted Kotcheff, Frank Yablans, Peter Gent, and Nancy Dowd

Best Cinematography:
Apocalypse Now — Vittorio Storaro
2. Manhattan — Gordon Willis
3. All That Jazz — Giuseppe Rotunno
4. The Black Stallion — Caleb Deschanel
5. Phantasm — Don Coscarelli

Best Film Editing: 
All That Jazz – Alan Heim
2. Alien — David Crowther, Terry Rawlings and Peter Weatherley
3. Apocalypse Now — Lisa Fruchtman, Jerry Greenberg and Walter Murch
4. Hardcore – Tom Rolf
5. When a Stranger Calls — Sam Vitale

Best Original Score
A Little Romance — Georges Delarue
2. The Brood – Howard Shore
3. The Black Stallion — Carmine Coppola
4. Alien — Jerry Goldsmith
5. Time After Time — Miklos Rosza

Best Production Design: 
Alien – Michael Seymour, Leslie Dilley, and Roger Christian
2. All That Jazz — Philip Rosenberg, Gary Brink, and Edward Stewart
3.The China Syndrome — George Jenkins and Arthur Jeph Parker
4. Apocalypse Now – Dean Tavoularis and George R. Nelson
5. Time After Time — Edward C. Carfagno and Barbara Krieger

Best Costume Design: 
Beauty and the Beast — Irena Greifová
2. All That Jazz — Albert Wolsky
3. Hair — Ann Roth
4. Heartland — Hilary Rosenfeld
5. The Warriors – Bobbie Mannix and Mary Ellen Winston

Best Visual Effects
Alien
2. Time After Time
3. Phantasm

Best Sound
Alien
2. Apocalypse Now
3. All That Jazz

Best Documentary Feature: 
Sergei Eisenstein, ¡Que Viva México!

Best Animated Feature:
Chuck Jones and Phil Monroe, The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie

Best Ensemble Cast:
Wise Blood

Orson Welles’ Best First Feature:
George Miller, Mad Max

Best Ensemble Cast: 
Wise Blood (dir: John Huston; in alphabetical order): Ned Beatty, Brad Dourif, John Huston, William Hickey, Mary Nell Santacroce, Dan Shor, Harry Dean Stanton (pictured) and Amy Wright (pictured)

Orson Welles' Best First Feature: Mel Gibson (pictured) in George Miller’s Mad Max

RECAP

W I N S :

Apocalypse Now— 5,
Alien — 4, All that Jazz— 2, Beauty and the Beast — 1, The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie — 1, A Little Romance — 1, Mad Max — 1, The Marriage of Maria Braun — 1, North Dallas Forty — 1, ¡Que Viva México! — 1, Wise Blood — 1

M U L T I P L E
N O M I N A T I O N S :

Alien — 9, All that Jazz — 9,
Apocalypse Now — 8, The Marriage of Maria Braun — 4, Saint Jack — 4, Wise Blood — 4, Manhattan — 3, Nosferatu, the Vampyre — 3, Time After Time — 3, Beauty and the Beast — 2, The Black Stallion — 2, Breaking Away — 2, The Brood — 2, Hair — 2, The Heartland — 2, Phantasm — 2, Starting Over — 2, The Warriors — 2, When a Stranger Calls — 2

the year-end project:

2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995, 1994, 1993, 1992, 1991, 1990, 1989, 1988, 1987, 1986, 1985, 1984, 1983, 1982, 1981, 1980, 1979, 1978, 1977, 1976, 1975, 1974, 1973, 1972, 1971, 1970, 1969, 1968, 1967, 1966, 1965, 1964, 1963, 1962, 1961, 1960, 1959, 1958, 1957, 1956, 1955, 1954, 1953, 1952, 1951, 1950, 1940 - 1949, 1930 - 1939, 1920 - 1929 + Superlatives Index

Best of the Decade:
2010s, 2000s, 1990s, 1980s