The Nighthawk Awards: 1969

You can read more about this year in film here.  The Best Picture race is discussed here, with reviews of all the nominees.  First there are the categories, followed by all the films with their nominations, then the Globes, where I split the major awards by Drama and Comedy, followed by a few lists at the very end.  If there’s a film you expected to see and didn’t, check the very bottom – it might be eligible in a different year.  Films in red won the Oscar in that category (or Globe, in the Globes section).  Films in blue were nominated.  Films with an asterisk (*) were Consensus nominees (a scale I put together based on the various awards) while those with a double asterisk (**) were the Consensus winners.

I’m listing the top 10 in the categories but only the top 5 earn Nighthawk nominations.

Nighthawk Awards:

• Best Picture

1. The Wild Bunch
2. Chimes at Midnight
3. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid  *
4. Z  **
5. Once Upon a Time in the West
6. Oh! What a Lovely War!
7. Midnight Cowboy  *
8. Stolen Kisses
9. They Shoot Horses Don’t They  *
10. Shame

Analysis:  A truly great top 5, including three of the greatest Westerns ever made.  This is the best Top 5 since 1946 and the second best to date.  The Top 10 is strong as well – the best since 1962 and tied for the third best to date.  They are all **** films, but there is a four point drop from #6 to #7.

• Best Director

1. Sam Peckinpah  (The Wild Bunch)
2. Orson Welles  (Chimes at Midnight)
3. George Roy Hill  (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid)  *
4. Constantin Costa-Gavras  (Z)  *
5. Sergio Leone  (Once Upon a Time in the West)
6. Richard Attenborough  (Oh! What a Lovely War)
7. John Schlesinger  (Midnight Cowboy)  **
8. Francois Truffaut  (Stolen Kisses)  *
9. Sydney Pollack  (They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?)  *
10. Ingmar Bergman  (Shame)

Analysis:  Again, the best Top 5 since 1946 and the second best to date.  Of the Top 7 here, all but Welles have hit their peaks with these films.
These are the only nominations for Hill and Costa-Gavras.  It’s the second for both Peckinpah and Leone.  But it’s the sixth for Welles and he moves into 6th place with 405 points.

• Best Adapted Screenplay:

1. Chimes at Midnight
2. Z  *
3. Stolen Kisses
4. Oh! What a Lovely War
5. Midnight Cowboy  **
6. They Shoot Horses Don’t They  *
7. Boudu Saved from Drowning
8. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
9. Goodbye Columbus  *
10. Cactus Flower

Analysis:  The best Top 5 in seven years.  Chimes at Midnight, of course, is one of the most brilliant scripts ever written, in the way it takes the various Falstaff appearances and combines them into one magnificent story.  Stolen Kisses is another of those films that qualify here because of pre-existing characters.  If you count my having seen the original 400 Blows, then I have read four original sources (Chimes, Kisses, Brodie, Columbus).  Z is the best 2nd place finisher in this category since To Kill a Mockingbird in 1962.
With the BAFTAs finally open to non-British scripts, Midnight Cowboy becomes the first adapted script to win the Oscar, WGA and BAFTA; surprisingly no adapted script will do it again until 1977
Welles earns what is surprisingly only his fourth nomination, but its also his fourth win which puts him at 320 points and a tie for fifth place.

• Best Original Screenplay:

1. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid  *
2. The Wild Bunch  *
3. Take the Money and Run  *
4. Shame
5. Once Upon a Time in the West
6. Easy Rider  *
7. The Fireman’s Ball
8. The Milky Way
9. Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice  **
10. Simon of the Desert

Analysis:  This is the best year to date and is significantly better than any previous year except 1950.  The Wild Bunch ranks just behind The Apartment and The Third Man as the best scripts not to win in this category to this date.  This is the first of four times when Woody Allen and Ingmar Bergman will compete in this category and is the only time where neither of them wins.
This is the first of numerous Nighthawk wins for William Goldman.  Woody Allen earns his second nomination.  Ingmar Bergman earns his 11th nomination – he’s at 680 points and a distant second place behind Billy Wilder.
Prior to 1969, only two original scripts had won three or more awards – The Apartment and Bonnie and Clyde.  But, with more awards now, both Butch and Bob & Carol win three awards each.  This will happen again in 1971, but after that there won’t be a year with two scripts that win at least three awards again until 1999.

• Best Actor:

1. Orson Welles  (Chimes at Midnight)
2. William Holden  (The Wild Bunch)
3. Dustin Hoffman  (Midnight Cowboy)  *
4. Jon Voight  (Midnight Cowboy)  **
5. Richard Burton  (Anne of the Thousand Days)
6. Nicol Williamson  (The Bofors Gun)
7. Paul Newman  (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid)
8. Robert Redford  (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid)  *
9. Nicol Williamson  (Hamlet)
10. Max von Sydow  (Shame)

Analysis:  Best Actor seems to be something I’m willing to change in this latest go through in my awards.  I changed the winner in both 1959 and 1960 and now I’ve changed it here.  For a long time it was Holden, but with Welles forced into this year by Oscar eligibility, I’m going with Welles and his Falstaff performance that seems to be the culmination of his acting on screen.  But, really, it’s a pretty close race between all of the top three.
Voight earns the first of consecutive nominations.  Hoffman earns his second nom.  Holden earns his fourth.  Burton earns his fifth (and his fourth in just six years).  Welles earns his seventh (and final) nomination and his third win (his Oscar tally for acting? one nomination), going up to 340 points and fourth place.
John Wayne won the Oscar, in one of the worst choices in Oscar history (the most galling is that he won it over Hoffman or Voight, but almost as bad is that Burton and Peter O’Toole, neither of whom would ever win an Oscar, are the other two nominees).  Wayne won the Oscar and Globe but nothing else – a sure sign of the sentimental vote.  In all the years since, only two other actors have won the Oscar and Globe and failed to earn any other nominations – Al Pacino in 1992, another of the worst Oscar choices in this category and Art Carney in 1974, who somehow won over Jack Nicholson in one of the most stunning Oscar decisions ever.

• Best Actress

1. Jane Fonda  (They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?)
2. Maggie Smith  (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie)
3. Genevieve Bujold  (Anne of the Thousand Days)
4. Liza Minnelli  (The Sterile Cuckoo)
5. Liv Ullmann  (Shame)
6. Patty Duke  (Me Natalie)
7. Jean Simmons  (The Happy Ending)
8. Anna Magnani  (The Secret of Santa Vittoria)
9. Mia Farrow  (John and Mary)
10. Natalie Wood  (Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice)

Analysis:  This is the only nomination for Bujold.  It’s the first for Minnelli and Fonda.  Smith earns her second nomination.  It’s only the second for Ullmann, but the first of back-to-back and she will be here a lot over the next decade.
This is not nearly as strong a group as Best Actor and is a considerably weaker Top 5 than either of the previous two years.

• Best Supporting Actor:

1. Henry Fonda  (Once Upon a Time in the West)
2. Gig Young  (They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?)  *
3. Jack Nicholson  (Easy Rider)  **
4. Robert Ryan  (The Wild Bunch)
5. John Mills  (Oh! What a Lovely War)
6. Jean-Louis Trintigant  (Z)
7. Red Buttons  (They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?)
8. Gunnar Bjornstrand  (Shame)
9. Ian Holm  (The Bofors Gun)
10. Keith Baxter  (Chimes at Midnight)

Analysis:  Sergio Leone told Fonda that he wanted those blue eyes staring out as the eyes of a cold-blooded killer and damn did it ever work.  It’s one of the best villainous performances in film history.
Nicholson wins the first of many Consensus Awards and earns the first of like a gazillion Nighthawk nominations.  Gig Young earns his only Nighthawk nom.  John Mills earns his second nom (and will earn another the next year).  Robert Ryan earns his third.  Henry Fonda, who by this point had only one Oscar nomination, earns his sixth Nighthawk nomination (and second win) and goes up to 270 points and 11th place.
The Top 5 are tied for the second best in this category to this date behind only 1950, really on the strength of those top three performances.

• Best Supporting Actress:

1. Susannah York  (They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?)
2. Pamela Franklin  (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie)
3. Sylvia Miles  (Midnight Cowboy)
4. Goldie Hawn  (Cactus Flower)
5. Katharine Ross  (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid)
6. Claude Jade  (Stolen Kisses)
7. Catherine Burns  (Last Summer)
8. Irene Papas  (Z)
9. Dyan Cannon  (Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice)
10. Shirley Jones  (The Happy Ending)

Analysis:  It’s the only nomination for everyone except for Ross, who was nominated once before.  This is, by far, the weakest of the acting categories and the Top 5 is weaker than any of the previous three years.  What surprises me is that I ended up with two of my least favorite actresses of all-time in my Top 10 (Goldie Hawn and Dyan Cannon).

• Best Editing:

1. The Wild Bunch
2. Z
3. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
4. Oh! What a Lovely War
5. Chimes at Midnight
6. Once Upon a Time in the West
7. Stolen Kisses
8. Shame
9. Take the Money and Run
10. Boudu Saved from Drowning

Analysis:  Another strong category – any of those top three really could be my winner.  Kudos to the Academy for their Oscar for Z, but not so much for their nominations for Hello, Dolly! and The Secret of Santa Vittoria.  The other two Oscar nominees, Midnight Cowboy and They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? are just outside my Top 10.

• Best Cinematography:

1. The Wild Bunch  *
2. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid  **
3. Oh! What a Lovely War  *
4. Once Upon a Time in the West
5. Z
6. Shame
7. The Round-Up
8. Chimes at Midnight
9. They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?
10. Boudu Saved from Drowning

Analysis:  Raoul Coutard, a favorite of the New Wave directors, surprisingly earns his only Nighthawk nomination for Z (though it’s his fourth Top 10 appearance this decade).  Tonino Delli Colli earns his second straight nomination working with Leone.  Conrad L. Hall, who would win his first Oscar in this year, earns his third Nighthawk in four years.  Lucien Ballard earns his first win and third nomination.  The Top 5 are magnificent, but they were ignored for the likes of Hello, Dolly! and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice.

• Best Original Score:

1. Once Upon a Time in the West
2. Z
3. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
4. The Wild Bunch
5. More
6. Boudu Saved from Drowning
7. Chimes at Midnight
8. The Reivers
9. Under the Banner of Samurai
10. 100 Rifles

Analysis:  Rock and roll starts to come into film composing: the soundtrack to More is by Pink Floyd.  Mikis Theodorakis earns his second Nighthawk nomination.  But the big news is Ennio Morricone, who wins his third straight Nighthawk, the first composer to do so.  In just three years, he has earned 175 points and leaped all the way into a tie for 5th place.
I’m fairly surprised Z wasn’t nominated, especially given how many nominations it did receive and that the music is such a key part of the film.
This is the best Top 5 in six years and tied for the 3rd best to date – just magnificent music.

• Best Sound:

1. The Wild Bunch
2. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
3. Once Upon a Time in the West
4. Z
5. Oh! What a Lovely War
6. The Italian Job
7. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
8. Marooned
9. Topaz
10. They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?

Analysis:  Hello, Dolly! won the Oscar because they were obsessed with Musicals in this category, especially ones with exclamation points (this is the category where the year before Oliver! won over Bullit and Star! was nominated over 2001).

• Best Art Direction:

1. Oh! What a Lovely War
2. Hello, Dolly!
3. They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?
4. Midnight Cowboy
5. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
6. Anne of the Thousand Days
7. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
8. Chimes at Midnight
9. The Wild Bunch
10. The Milky Way

Analysis:  There were really some amazing set pieces this year and this is the one time where I’m not gonna argue with the Academy for rewarding Hello, Dolly!, even if I go with all those glorious sets from Oh! What a Lovely War.

• Best Visual Effects

1. Marooned
2. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

Analysis:  The effects in Majesty certainly aren’t great, but, hey, it’s a weak year.

• Best Sound Editing

1. The Wild Bunch
2. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
3. Once Upon a Time in the West
4. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
5. Marooned
6. The Italian Job
7. The Battle of Britain
8. Oh! What a Lovely War
9. Shame
10. Topaz

• Best Costume Design:

1. Oh! What a Lovely War
2. Hello, Dolly!
3. The Wild Bunch
4. They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?
5. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
6. Anne of the Thousand Days
7. Chimes at Midnight
8. Once Upon a Time in the West
9. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
10. Under the Banner of Samurai

Analysis:  Not a whole lot different than my Art Direction list and with good reasons.

• Best Makeup

1. The Wild Bunch
2. Night of the Living Dead
3. Oh! What a Lovely War
4. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

• Best Original Song:

1. “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head”  (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid)
2. “The Ballad of Easy Rider”  (Easy Rider)
3. “Ena proino”  (Girls in the Sun)
4. “If It’s Tueday, This Must Be Belgium”  (If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium)
5. “Fill the World with Love”  (Goodbye Mr. Chips)
6. “We Have All the Time in the World”  (On Her Majesty’s Secret Service)
7. “Jean”  (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie)
8. “Come Saturday Morning”  (The Sterile Cuckoo)
9. “True Grit”  (True Grit)

Analysis:  Not really that good a year for this category.  “Raindrops” is a classic song, moreso when seen in the context of the film.  But most of these songs wouldn’t make my list in a good year.
This year has five semi-finalists (marked in orange).
There were 209 eligible songs in this year, if you go by the oscars.org list.  I have only seen the film for 79 of them, with Changes (8) having the most that I haven’t seen.

• Best Animated Film:

1. none

Analysis:  There are two films listed at oscars.org, one of which is Fox with Nine Tails, a Japanese film I haven’t been able to see.  The other is Mad Monster Party, a truly awful Rankin / Bass film.  There are also three other films I’ve seen which oscars.org doesn’t list, none of which are any better than low-level ***: the Japanese One Thousand One Nights, the Japanese Puss in Boots (which a young Miyazaki did some animation for) and Tintin and the Temple of the Sun, which I had high hopes for, but was actually only a **.5 film.

• Best Foreign Film:

1. Z  **
2. Army of Shadows  *
3. Mississippi Mermaid
4. Boy
5. The Milky Way
6. The Passion of Anna
7. The Joke
8. The Big Dig
9. The Rite

note:  Films in green were submitted to the Academy but not nominated.

Analysis:  Z becomes the last film until 1983 to win both the Oscar and the Globe.  Army of Shadows will win the NYFC in 2006 when it finally gets a U.S. release.
France earns three more nominations, giving it seven nominations in the space of three years.  Luis Buñuel earns his seventh nomination while Francois Truffaut earns his fifth.  They are now fourth and tied for fifth in points, respectively.
There are no green films because none of the films that earn ***.5 were submitted.  The next two best submitted films, my #10 and 11, high-level *** films were actually nominated: The Brothers Karamazov and My Night at Maud’s.  The best submitted film that wasn’t nominated is #17 on my list: Kuragejima — Legends from a Southern Island.

By Film:

note:  They’re in points order.  You get twice as many points for a win as for a nomination.  Hopefully your math skills will let you figure out the system.

• The Wild Bunch  (535)
  • Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Actor, Supporting Actor, Editing, Cinematography, Original Score, Sound, Sound Editing, Costume Design, Makeup
    
• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid  (385)
  • Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Supporting Actress, Editing, Cinematography, Original Score, Sound, Art Direction, Sound Editing, Costume Design, Makeup, Original Song
• Once Upon a Time in the West  (310)
  • Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Supporting Actor, Cinematography, Original Score, Sound, Sound Editing
• Chimes at Midnight  (270)
  • Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Actor, Editing
• Z  (270)
  • Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Editing, Cinematography, Original Score, Sound, Foreign Film
• Oh! What a Lovely War  (220)
  • Adapted Screenplay, Supporting Actor, Editing, Cinematography, Sound, Art Direction, Costume Design, Makeup
• They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?  (195)
  • Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Art Direction, Costume Design
• Midnight Cowboy  (160)
  • Adapted Screenplay, Actor, Actor, Supporting Actress, Art Direction
• Shame  (95)
  • Original Screenplay, Actress, Foreign Film (1968)
• Stolen Kisses  (80)
  • Original Screenplay, Foreign Film (1968)
• Anne of the Thousand Days  (70)
  • Actor, Actress
• The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie  (65)
  • Actress, Supporting Actress
• Marooned  (60)
  • Visual Effects, Sound Editing
• Boudu Saved from Drowning  (40)
  • Foreign Film (1932)
• Take the Money and Run  (40)
  • Original Screenplay
• Easy Rider  (40)
  • Supporting Actor, Original Song
• On Her Majesty’s Secret Service  (40)
  • Visual Effects, Sound Editing
• The Sterile Cuckoo  (35)
  • Actress
• Hello, Dolly!  (35)
  • Art Direction, Costume Design
• Cactus Flower  (30)
  • Supporting Actress
• More  (25)
  • Original Score
• Simon of the Desert  (20)
  • Foreign Film (1965)
• The Round-Up  (20)
  • Foreign Film (1966)
• The Milky Way  (20)
  • Foreign Film
• Night of the Living Dead  (10)
  • Makeup
• If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium  (10)
  • Original Song
• Goodbye Mr Chips  (10)
  • Original Song
• Girls in the Sun  (10)
  • Original Song

Analysis:  The top three films in points are all Westerns.  That has definitely never happened before and won’t ever happen again.

Best Film Not Nominated for Any Nighthawk Awards:

• The Fireman’s Ball

Analysis:  This very good Czech New Wave comedy from Milos Forman helped make him a big-name director.  It’s my #16 film of the year.  Its highest spots are #6 for Foreign Film (in 1968) and #7 in Original Screenplay.

Biggest Awards Film Not Nominated for Any Nighthawk Awards:

• Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice

Analysis:  I’ve never really taken to Paul Mazursky.  On my lists, it doesn’t place any higher than 9th in any category.  But it earned 4 Oscar nominations (including Screenplay and both Supporting categories), a Globe nomination, two BAFTA nominations, but it won Best Supporting Actress from the NYFC and three awards for its script (WGA, NYFC, NSFC).

Nighthawk Golden Globes:

Drama:

• Best Picture

1. The Wild Bunch
2. Chimes at Midnight
3. Z
4. Once Upon a Time in the West
5. Midnight Cowboy

Analysis:  Z actually won Best Foreign Film at the Globes.  The best Top 5 since 1962.  Once Upon a Time in the West is the best #4 film in this category since 1946 and the second best to date.

• Best Director

1. Sam Peckinpah  (The Wild Bunch)
2. Orson Welles  (Chimes at Midnight)
3. Constantin Costa-Gavras  (Z)
4. Sergio Leone  (Once Upon a Time in the West)
5. John Schlesinger  (Midnight Cowboy)

Analysis:  The only nomination for Costa-Gavras, the first for Schlesinger, the second (and last) for Peckinpah, the second for Leone and the sixth for Welles (who moves into a tie for 5th place with 405 points).

• Best Adapted Screenplay:

1. Chimes at Midnight
2. Z
3. Midnight Cowboy
4. They Shoot Horses Don’t They
5. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Analysis:  Like with the regular nominations, Welles earns his fourth nomination but also his fourth win.  Again, the best Top 5 since 1962.

• Best Original Screenplay:

1. The Wild Bunch
2. Shame
3. Once Upon a Time in the West
4. Easy Rider

Analysis:  Shame is the third of five straight Bergman nominations and he’s now up to 720 points and only one nomination behind Kurosawa for 1st place.

• Best Actor:

1. Orson Welles  (Chimes at Midnight)
2. William Holden  (The Wild Bunch)
3. Dustin Hoffman  (Midnight Cowboy)
4. Jon Voight  (Midnight Cowboy)
5. Richard Burton  (Anne of the Thousand Days)

Analysis:  The first Drama nomination for Voight and Hoffman, the fourth for Holden, the sixth for Burton and the eighth (and third win) for Welles, putting him at 375 points and third place, behind only Bogart and Claude Rains.

• Best Actress

1. Jane Fonda  (They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?)
2. Maggie Smith  (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie)
3. Genevieve Bujold  (Anne of the Thousand Days)
4. Liza Minnelli  (The Sterile Cuckoo)
5. Liv Ullmann  (Shame)

Analysis:  The only Drama nomination for Minnelli.  The second for both Bujold and Smith.  It’s the first of many wins in this category for Fonda.  It’s the third of four straight nominations for Ullmann.

• Best Supporting Actor:

1. Henry Fonda  (Once Upon a Time in the West)
2. Gig Young  (They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?)
3. Jack Nicholson  (Easy Rider)
4. Robert Ryan  (The Wild Bunch)
5. Jean-Louis Trintigant  (Z)

Analysis:  It’s the only nomination for Young, the first for Trintigant, the first (of a lot) for Nicholson, the third for Ryan and the sixth for Fonda (putting him, for a few years, in the Top 10).  The best Top 5 since 1950 and the second best in this category to date.

• Best Supporting Actress:

1. Susannah York  (They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?)
2. Pamela Franklin  (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie)
3. Sylvia Miles  (Midnight Cowboy)
4. Catherine Burns  (Last Summer)
5. Irene Papas  (Z)

Analysis:  The only nominations for Franklin, Burns and Papas.  The first nominations for York and Miles, both of whom will be back in the 70’s.

• The Wild Bunch  (335)
  • Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Actor, Supporting Actor
• Chimes at Midnight  (245)
  • Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Actor
• Midnight Cowboy  (235)
  • Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Actor, Actor, Supporting Actress
• They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?  (200)
  • Adapted Screenplay, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress
• Z  (195)
  • Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress
• Once Upon a Time in the West  (195)
  • Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Supporting Actor
• The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie  (105)
  • Adapted Screenplay, Actress, Supporting Actress
• Shame  (75)
  • Original Screenplay, Actress
• Easy Rider  (70)
  • Original Screenplay, Supporting Actor
• Anne of the Thousand Days  (70)
  • Actor, Actress
• The Sterile Cuckoo  (35)
  • Actress
• Last Summer  (30)
  • Supporting Actress

Analysis:  Horses has the most points for a film without a Picture nominee since 1942 and the most ever in Drama for a film without a Picture or Director nomination.

Best Drama Not Nominated for Any Nighthawk Golden Globes:

• Night of the Living Dead

Analysis:

Comedy / Musical:

• Best Picture

1. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
2. Oh! What a Lovely War
3. Stolen Kisses
4. Take the Money and Run
5. Boudu Saved from Drowning

Analysis:  Oh! What a Lovely War actually won the long-defunct Best English Language Foreign Film category at the Globes (making it ineligible for Best Picture).Butch was nominated as a Drama.
The best Top 5 in five years.  But, more importantly, the fifth best in this category to date and all of those that are higher had much lower Top 5 scores for Best Picture – Drama, so this year as a whole, for Best Picture, is the best to date by a considerable margin.  Boudu is the third best #5 film in this category to date.

• Best Director

1. George Roy Hill  (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid)
2. Richard Attenborough  (Oh! What a Lovely War)
3. Francois Truffaut  (Stolen Kisses)
4. Luis Buñuel  (The Milky Way)
5. Luis Buñuel  (Simon of the Desert)

Analysis:  It’s the only Comedy nomination for Attenborough and the first for Truffaut and Hill.  But it’s the fifth and sixth for Buñuel and he moves up to 315 points and 4th place.
This Top 5 is tied with 1952 and 1964 for the best in this category to date.

• Best Adapted Screenplay:

1. Stolen Kisses
2. Oh! What a Lovely War
3. Boudu Saved from Drowning
4. Goodbye Columbus
5. Cactus Flower

Analysis:  Truffaut, normally a dramatic director, wins his first Comedy award.  Jean Renoir earns his second Comedy nomination.

• Best Original Screenplay:

1. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
2. Take the Money and Run
3. The Fireman’s Ball
4. The Milky Way
5. Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice

Analysis:  William Goldman earns his first Comedy win, Woody Allen earns his second nomination and Buñuel his fourth.  This is the best Top 5 in this category since 1952 and the third best to date.

• Best Actor:

1. Paul Newman  (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid)
2. Robert Redford  (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid)
3. Peter O’Toole  (Goodbye Mr. Chips)
4. Jean-Pierre Leaud  (Stolen Kisses)
5. Dustin Hoffman  (John and Mary)

Analysis:  The first Comedy nomination for O’Toole and Leaud, the second for Hoffman and Redford.  It’s the first Comedy win for Newman, more known for Dramas, but who will earn a couple of more nominations over the next decade.
I really could have gone either way with Newman and Redford, but I think it’s Newman’s personality as Butch that really makes me give him the nod over his partner.

• Best Actress

1. Patty Duke  (Me Natalie)
2. Anna Magnani  (The Secret of Santa Vittoria)
3. Mia Farrow  (John and Mary)
4. Natalie Wood  (Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice)
5. Shirley MacLaine  (Sweet Charity)

Analysis:  Farrow earns her first nomination but she’ll be back after she starts working with Woody Allen.  It’s the only Comedy nomination for Duke.  It’s the second for Magnani, 15 years after her first.  It’s the fourth in less than a decade for Natalie Wood, but it’s also her last.  Shirley MacLaine, on the other hand, is now up to third place with 315 points, earning her 7th nomination.  Ironically, all eleven of Wood and MacLaine’s nominations come after Magnani’s previous nomination.
Patty Duke is the weakest winner in this category since 1957.

• Best Supporting Actor:

1. John Mills  (Oh! What a Lovely War)
2. Elliot Gould  (Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice)

Analysis:  It’s the second Comedy win for Mills, but it’s the only nomination at all for Gould (who would actually earn an Oscar nom).

• Best Supporting Actress:

1. Goldie Hawn  (Cactus Flower)
2. Katharine Ross  (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid)
3. Claude Jade  (Stolen Kisses)
4. Dyan Cannon  (Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice)

Analysis:  Cannon was nominated as a lead at the Globes.  It’s the only nomination for Jade, the first for Hawn and Cannon and the second for Ross.
This is not a particularly strong group, but even with 4 nominees, this is the best in this category in six years and tied for fourth place to this date; it’s been a weak category so far.

• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid  (405)
  • Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Actor, Actor, Supporting Actress
• Stolen Kisses  (240)
  • Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Actor, Supporting Actress
• Oh! What a Lovely War  (195)
  • Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Supporting Actor
• Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice  (135)
  • Original Screenplay, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress
• Cactus Flower  (100)
  • Adapted Screenplay, Supporting Actress
• Boudu Saved from Drowning  (90)
  • Picture, Adapted Screenplay
• Take the Money and Run  (90)
  • Picture, Original Screenplay
• The Milky Way  (85)
  • Director, Original Screenplay
• John and Mary  (70)
  • Actor, Actress
• Me Natalie  (70)
  • Actress
• Simon of the Desert  (45)
  • Director
• The Fireman’s Ball  (40)
  • Original Screenplay
• Goodbye Columbus  (40)
  • Adapted Screenplay
• Goodbye Mr. Chips  (35)
  • Actor
• The Secret of Santa Vittoria  (35)
  • Actress
• Sweet Charity  (35)
  • Actress

Analysis:  Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice doesn’t manage any regular Nighthawk noms yet ends up with 4 here in Comedy.

Best Comedy Not Nominated for any Nighthawk Golden Globes:

• The Reivers

Analysis:  This film, made from William Faulkner’s final novel, is a good film but I just didn’t think there was any aspect of it that was particularly awards-worthy (yes, even though it contains an Oscar nominated acting performance).

Roundup for the Year in Film:

Eligible Films I Have Seen:  140

By Stars:

• ****:  10
• ***.5:  10
• ***:  59
• **.5:  33
• **:  19
• *.5:  3
• *:  3
• .5:  3
• 0:  0
• Average Film Score for the Year, out of 100:  61.39

Analysis:  The average score plummets.  The score goes down almost three points and is almost a full point lower than any previous year.  This is because the okay films (*** / **.5) drop to below 70% for only the third time and the bad films (** / *.5) rise to almost 16%, the highest to date.  Yet, this is just the calm before the really bad year of 1970.

Oscar-Nominated Films I Have Not Seen:

• none

Other Award Nominated Films I Have Not Seen (in descending order of points total):

• Three Into Two Won’t Go  (BAFTA – Best Supporting Actress)
• Generation  (Golden Globe – Best Actress (Musical / Comedy))

note:  These are the two most recent acting nominations that I am missing from any awards group that I track.

Oscar Quality:

Best Picture:  A significant improvement over the year before and a solid improvement over the year before that.  This year ranks at #48.  That might not seem that great, but it’s a sign of improving times – this is the 42nd Annual Academy Awards and this year is the 8th best among those first 42.  There is one dud (Hello, Dolly!) and one film that drags (Anne of the Thousand Days), but there are two films in the Top 75 (Butch, Z).  This is only the fourth time in the 5 Best Picture Era that two Top 75 films have been in the same year and it will only happen twice more in the next 15 years.

The Winners:  Among the nominees, this is a slight improvement over the year before, with the average winner ranking at 1.94.  The only category which ranks lower than 3rd is Actor, where they chose the worst nominee.  Among all films, the average winner ranks at 4.22, which is almost twice as good as the year before.  All but five of the winners earn nominations from me, with three others being just outside my top 5 (Picture, Director, Costume Design).  The only two really bad choices are Actor and Sound, both of which are at #14 on my list.  Compare that to 1968 which had four categories that were at #19 or lower.  The only reason this year doesn’t rank higher is because there are only four categories where I completely agree with the Academy (Original Screenplay, Visual Effects, Song, Foreign Film).

The Nominees:  The winners may have been an improvement, but the nominees are actually weaker than each of the three previous years.  The total score is 57.7, higher than most years prior to this decade, but slightly below average for the decade.  This is primarily because of the 43.9 Tech score, the second worst of the decade.  The acting is a solid 77.9, higher than the year before, but still below average for the decade.  The major category score is 57.8, slightly lower than 1968 and significantly lower than 1966 or 1967 and slightly below the average for the decade.  The only scores that really stand out are Actress (93.8, highest since 1961) and Supporting Actress (92.0, highest since 1963).

Golden Globe Best Picture – Comedy / Musical:  The nominations this year are, quite frankly, terrible.  Now, to be fair, the potential nominees were already hampered by Globe rules and decisions.  The latter comes into play in classifying Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid as a Drama.  The rule that causes a problem is the one that makes foreign films, whether they be in English (Oh! What a Lovely War) or not, ineligible for Best Picture.  Once you eliminate those films, the only film in my Top 8 that is even eligible is Take the Money and Run (which was not nominated).  Now, given their eligibility requirements, my Top 5 would then be Take the Money and Run, Cactus Flower, Goodbye Columbus, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice and Sweet Charity.  Since only the first film is ***.5, that would leave this year in the mid-40’s all-time in this category.  Where it ends up is 62nd out of 65.  That’s because while they did nominate Cactus Flower and Goodbye Columbus and they nominated The Secret of Santa Vittoria (not far behind my list), they also nominated Hello, Dolly! (high **.5) and the terrible Paint Your Wagon.  So that means you have one mediocre film and one bad film without a single film above ***.  It is one of only 8 years that doesn’t have a single film in the Top 150 of Comedy / Musical BP nominees, and of those years it’s the only one that has a film outside the Top 300.  What’s strange is that they nominated Paint Your Wagon over John and Mary, which is not only a much better film but is the only Comedy in Globe history to earn Screenplay, Actor and Actress nominations but not one for Picture.  If they had nominated it instead of Wagon, it would have moved this year up to 50th place.

Top 5 Films of the Year:

1  –  The Wild Bunch  (reviewed here)

2  –  Chimes at Midnight  (reviewed here)

3  –  Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid  (reviewed here)

4  –  Z  (reviewed here)

5  –  Once Upon a Time in the West  (reviewed here)

5 Worst Films  (#1 being the worst):

1. Blood of Dracula’s Castle
2. Vixen
3. Krakatoa, East of Java
4. Attack of the Monsters
5. Destroy All Monsters

note:  What a grouping.  There’s Russ Meyer, there’s an AIP film, one of the all-time worst films ever nominated for an Oscar (yes, Krakatoa, with an idiotic title, since it’s west of Java, was nominated for its horrible visual effects), a couple of terrible monster movies (one of which is the AIP film) and none of them are even the worst of the year.

Blood of Dracula’s Castle  (dir. Al Adamson)

I, long ago, watched as many of the awards nominees I could get my hands on (I still do with every new year of awards and still desperately try to track down the older ones I am still missing).  I saw every film possible from all my contenders for the Top 100 Directors.  Then I watched every film I could from every director ever nominated for an Oscar.  I long ago eclipsed TSPDT Top 1000 list and have worked my way through over 80% of their initial 13,000 films from which they compile their list.  I’m trying to see as many films submitted for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars as I can (around 72% is where I’m averaging).  So, what is left, as I prepare these Nighthawk Awards?  Well, here’s what I do – I go through oscars.org and pull the complete list. I go through their list by “Source Author” to look for adapted scripts and see any films I can based on prominent books (or, non-prominent books by prominent authors).  I try to see any film that has a lot of eligible songs.  Then I just look down the list and see if there’s anything interesting.  Dracula always interests me.  So, that’s the long story of how I came to watch Blood of Dracula’s Castle, a film that earned 2 points from me on a scale of 100 (three points lower than Vixen or Krakatoa – East of Java) and managed the bottom spot out of all 140 films I’ve seen from 1969.

This film is just, well, sad.  It’s one thing to see Bela Lugosi co-starring with a gorilla.  But John Carradine was in Stagecoach.  He was in The Grapes of Wrath.  Here he’s playing a butler for Dracula and his wife.  He lures young woman to their castle, kills them, makes literal Bloody Marys from their blood and feeds his masters.  They could have done something more with Carradine in this film.  They should have done something more.  It’s clear he’s the only person involved in the film who has any talent.  Yet, he mumbles, he stumbles, he somehow appears to die after attempting to hit someone with a mace and missing.

I’m not just restricting that to the acting – Dracula and his wife perform line readings like they’re looking just past the camera to read their lines off cue cards – but all of the people involved with the film.  The direction is atrocious, the cinematography is pathetic (those two combine in shots where everyone stands around like they’re on a stage, because clearly the only camera has been placed in the other part of the room, there’s not a single line worth remembering (and I’m not just talking about remembering because of being any good, but even remembering because of being bad – they’re just forgotten as soon as they are said).  As for the construction of the film?  Well, as Wikipedia points out, the actual owners of their castle show up to toss Dracula and his wife out; they are accompanied by Johnny, who is either a werewolf or a serial killer depending on which version you see (werewolf for me).  The vampires themselves are dispatched off-screen because they apparently had no budget – they suddenly have become dust in the light of the sun (underground) and then fly away as bats.  Yes, you read that right – they dissolve into dust and then still fly away.  That’s how pathetically stupid this film is.  It just makes me feel bad for John Carradine that, for whatever reason, he participated.  He can’t have needed the money that badly – they clearly had no budget with which to pay him; either that or they used all the budget to pay him and had nothing left to do anything else.

Points:

• Most Nighthawk Nominations:  Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid  (13)
• Most Nighthawk Awards:  The Wild Bunch  (7)
• Most Nighthawk Points:  The Wild Bunch  (535)
• Worst Film Nominated for a Nighthawk Award:  More
  
• 2nd Place Award:  Chimes at Midnight  (Picture, Director)
• 6th Place Award:  Oh! What a Lovely War  (Picture, Director)
• Most Nighthawk Drama Nominations:  Midnight Cowboy  (6)
• Most Nighthawk Drama Awards:  The Wild Bunch  (3)
• Most Nighthawk Drama Points:  The Wild Bunch  (335)
• Worst Film Nominated for a Nighthawk Drama Award:  Last Summer
• Most Nighthawk Comedy Nominations:  Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid  (6)
• Most Nighthawk Comedy Awards:  Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid  (4)
• Most Nighthawk Comedy Points:  Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid  (405)
• Worst Film Nominated for a Nighthawk Comedy Award:  Goodbye Mr. Chips

Note:  * means a Nighthawk record up to this point; ** ties a Nighthawk record

Progressive Leaders:

• Most Nighthawk Nominations:  The Wizard of Oz  (18)
• Most Nighthawk Awards:  The Wizard of Oz  /  Bonnie and Clyde  (14)
• Most Nighthawk Points:  Bonnie and Clyde  (865)
• Most Nighthawk Awards without winning Best Picture:  Frankenstein  /  The Magnificent Ambersons  (6)
• Most Nighthawk Nominations without a Best Picture Nomination:  Yojimbo  (11)
• Most Nighthawk Nominations without a Nighthawk Award:  Throne of Blood (13)
• Actor:  Humphrey Bogart  (475)
• Actress:  Katharine Hepburn  (560)
• Director:   Billy Wilder  (585)
• Writer:  Billy Wilder  (960)
• Cinematographer:  Arthur Edeson  /  Gregg Toland / Sven Nykvist  (200)
• Composer:  Max Steiner  (450)
• Foreign Film:  Akira Kurosawa  (360)

Breakdown by Genre  (Foreign in parenthesis, best film in genre following, avg. score is afterwards, in parenthesis):

• Foreign:  51  –  Z  (62.4)
• Drama:  48 (14)  –  Chimes at Midnight  (64.3)
• Comedy:  25 (10)  –  Stolen Kisses  (64.5)
• Horror:  13 (7)  –  Night of the Living Dead  (40.3)
• Western:  12 (4)  –  The Wild Bunch  (66)
• Crime:  10 (8)  –  The Italian Job  (64)
• War:  7 (2)  –  Shame  (67.3)
• Musical:  6  –  Oh! What a Lovely War  (62.8)
• Suspense:  6 (1)  –  The Unfaithful Wife  (56)
• Sci-Fi:  4 (1)  –  Dr Who and the Daleks  (58.5)
• Kids:  4 (1)  –  Puss in Boots  (51.3)
• Action:  2 (1)  –  On Her Majesty’s Secret Service  (71)
• Fantasy:  2 (1)  –  One Thousand and One Nights  (58)
• Mystery:  1 (1)  –  Teorema  (66)
• Adventure:  1  –  Doctor Faustus  (58)

Analysis:  This is the big year for Westerns.  The Wild Bunch is only the second Western to win and the first more traditional Western to win (the other was Treasure of the Sierra Madre).  Only two previous years had even 3 Westerns in the Top 20 and only two previous years had even 2 in the Top 10.  This year has three in the Top 5.  Oh! What a Lovely War becomes the first Musical in the Top 10 in four years.
The two Action films are the fewest in six years while the 13 Horror films are the most in four years.  The genre films take over as Dramas / Comedies / Musicals account for only 56.43% of the films, the fewest in eight years and the third fewest to date.
With a number of sub-par Comedies and Horror films, the Foreign films have the lowest average since 1942, when there were only 3 Foreign films.  It is only the second time that the Foreign films have averaged less than ***.

Studio Note:  For the third out of four straight years, UA has the most films, this time with 13.  It’s again followed by Paramount, this time with 12.  The only other studio in double-digits is 20th Century-Fox, with 11.  The best of the studios is Columbia, whose 9 films average a 68, while Warners is the worst, their 8 films averaging a 58.  MGM and Universal really drop off – the 4 films from Universal is their lowest output (that I’ve seen) since 1938 while MGM’s 5 films makes this the first year where I’ve seen fewer than 8 MGM films.  The majors only account for 45.7% of the films I’ve seen, the lowest to date.
Warner Bros wins Best Picture again from the Nighthawks.  In 1966, it became only the third studio to win a fifth Best Picture, but with three wins in four years, it is now the first studio to reach 7 wins.  But it’s Paramount that’s the only studio with multiple Top 10 films; its 2 films mark the first time Paramount has had more than one film in the Top 10 since 1954.  It’s the first time Paramount has even had two Top 20 films since 1963 while Fox has two Top 20 films for the first time since 1960.  On the other hand, UA only has one Top 20 film, the first time it hasn’t had multiple Top 20 films since 1956.

59 Films Eligible for Best Foreign Film (alphabetical, with director and country in parenthesis – red are ****, blue are ***.5 – both those colors qualify for my Best Foreign Film Award; an asterisk means it was the Official selection for the Oscar, two asterisks were nominated, three asterisks won the Oscar):

• Adalen 31  (Widerberg, Sweden)  **
• All My Good Countrymen  (Jacny, Czechoslovakia)
• Andrei Rublev  (Tarkovsky, USSR)
• Antonio das Mortes  (Rocha, Brazil)  *
• Army of Shadows  (Melville, France)
• The Battle of Neretvna  (Bulajic, Yugoslavia)  **
• Belle Starr  (Wertmuller, Italy)
• Big Dig  (Kishon, Israel)
• Black Rose  (Fukasaku, Japan)
• Boy  (Oshima, Japan)
• The Brothers Karamazov  (Lavrov, USSR)  **
• Camille 2000  (Metzger, Italy)
• The Conspiracy of Torture  (Fulci, Italy)
• The Cow  (Mejrjui, Iran)
• The Cremator  (Herz, Czechoslovakia)  *
• The Damned  (Visconti, Italy)
• Deiva Magan  (Tirulokchandar, India)  *
• The Diamond Arm  (Gaidai, USSR)
• Diary of a Shinjuku Thief  (Oshima, Japan)
• Dillinger is Dead  (Ferreri, Italy)
• Double Suicide  (Shinoda, Japan)
• Everything for Sale  (Wajda, Poland)  *
• Fellini Satyricon  (Fellini, Italy)  *
• Une Femme Douce  (Bresson, France)
• Girls in the Sun  (Georgiadis, Greece)  *
• Go, Go Second Time Virgin  (Wakamatsu, Japan)
• God Forgives I Don’t  (Colizzi, Italy)
• Godzilla’s Revenge  (Honda, Japan)
• The Green Wall  (Godoy, Peru)
• Hibernatus  (Molinaro, France)
• Hunting Scenes from Bavaria  (Fleischmann, West Germany)  *
• It’s Touch Being a Man  (Yamada, Japan)
• The Jackal of Naheultoro  (Littin, Chile)
• The Joke  (Jires, Czechoslovakia)
• Katzelmacher  (Fassbinder, West Germany)
• Kuragejima — Legends from a Southern Island  (Imamura, Japan)  *
• The Land  (Chahine, Egypt)
• Love is a Funny Thing  (Lelouch, France)
• Love is Colder Than Death  (Fassbinder, West Germany)
• Macunaima  (de Andrade, Brazil)
• The Milky Way  (Buñuel, France)
• Mississippi Mermaid  (Truffaut, France)
• Monsieur Hawarden  (Kumel, Netherlands)  *
• Mr. Freedom  (Klein, France)
• My Night at Maud’s  (Rohmer, France)  **
• My Uncle Benjamin  (Molinaro, France)
• The Old Craftsman of Jar  (Ha-won, South Korea)  *
• One Thousand and One Nights  (Yamamoto, Japan)
• The Passion of Anna  (Bergman, Sweden)
• Porcile  (Pasolini, Italy)
• Puss in Boots  (Yabuki, Japan)
• The Rite  (Bergman, Sweden)
• Spirits of the Dead  (Vadim, France)
• This Man Must Die  (Chabrol, France)
• Under the Banner of Samurai  (Inagaki, Japan)
• The Unfaithful Wife  (Chabrol, France)
• The Wild Child  (Truffaut, France)
• A Woman for a Season  (Vitandis, Romania)  *
• Z  (Costa-Gavras, Algeria)  ***

Note:  I have my first film from Algeria (and like at the Oscars, it wins the Nighthawk).  I have my first film from South Korea in seven years.  I have only my second Dutch film and the first in ten years.  After a year when it didn’t have the most or second most, France is back on top with 13 films, followed by Japan with 11.  The 59 total films are a new high for a single year and won’t be beaten until 1983.

Foreign Films Submitted for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars That I Haven’t Seen:

• Austria:  Moss on the Stones  (dir. Lhotsky)
• Belgium:  Palaver  (dir. Degelin)
• Denmark:  Ballad of Carl-Henning  (dir. Gronlykke)
• Hong Kong:  The Arch  (dir. Shuen)
• Hungary:  The Upthrown Stone  (dir. Sara)
• Israel:  Siege  (dir. Tofano)
• Spain:  La Celestina  (dir. Fernandez Ardavin)

note:  At this point I am making a concerted effort to see as many submitted films as I can.  The full list can be found here.  This year I am 17 for 24.
The 24 countries are a new high by a considerable margin – four more than any previous year and six more than the year before; it won’t be matched until 1976 and won’t be exceeded until 1980.
As for the countries I am missing?  It’s the second submission from Austria and I’m missing both (I’ll also miss the third – I won’t see a submitted Austrian film until 1979).  Belgium is a country I’ll have a lot of trouble with – this is their second submission, and while I saw the first, I’ll miss this and the next three.  Denmark is always a problem – this is the third of six straight that I am missing.  It’s the third time I have a missed a submission from Hong Kong.  This is the first time I have missed a submission from Hungary.  Israel is another problem country – this is their fifth submission and the only one of those I have seen is their first.  This is the fifth time I have missed the Spanish submission, but that’s out of 12 submissions so far.

Films Eligible in This Year But Originally Released in a Different Year:

• Boudu Saved from Drowning  (1932)
• Sansho the Bailiff  (1954)
• Pickpocket  (1959)
• Doulos – the Finger Man  (1962)
• The Quare Fellow  (1962)
• Barren Lives  (1963)
• The Fire Within  (1963)
• Ghidrah, the Three Headed Monster  (1963)
• The Peach Thief  (1964)
• Bloody Pit of Horror  (1965)
• Chimes at Midnight  (1965)
• Dr Who and the Daleks  (1965)
• Simon of the Desert  (1965)
• Don’t Look Now We’re Being Shot At  (1966)
• Gammera the Invincible  (1966)
• Nightmare Castle  (1966)
• The Round-Up  (1966)
• Death Rides a Horse  (1967)
• Man Monster Party  (1967)
• The Sorcerers  (1967)
• Ace High  (1968)
• Baby Love  (1968)
• Les Biches  (1968)
• Black Lizard  (1968)
• The Blood of Fu Manchu  (1968)
• The Bofors Gun  (1968)
• The Boys of Paul Street  (1968)
• Danger: Diabolik  (1968)
• Decline and Fall of a Birdwatcher  (1968)
• Destroy All Monsters  (1968)
• Dracula Has Risen from the Grave  (1968)
• The Fireman’s Ball  (1968)
• Flesh  (1968)
• If…  (1968)
• The Love Bug  (1968)
• The Magus  (1968)
• Mayerling  (1968)
• The Night of the Living Dead  (1968)
• Once Upon a Time in the West  (1968)
• Shame  (1968)
• Stolen Kisses  (1968)
• Succubus  (1968)
• Teorema  (1968)
• Twisted Nerve  (1968)
• Vixen  (1968)
• Where Eagles Dare  (1968)

Note:  These 46 films average a 61.1.  The list includes a couple of the worst films of the year (Mad Monster Party, Vixen) but also five of the top eleven and two of the top five, which combine to win four Nighthawk awards.

Films Not Listed at Oscars.org:

• Age of Consent
• Antonio des Mortes
• The Appointment
• Attack of the Monsters
• Barren Lives
• Belle Starr
• The Cremator
• Deiva Magan
• The Diamond Arm
• Dillinger is Dead
• Don’t Look Now We’re Being Shot At
• Girls in the Sun
• Hibernatus
• The Land
• Love is Colder Than Death
• Monsieur Hawarden
• Mr. Freedom
• My Uncle Benjamin
• The Old Craftsman of Jar
• One Thousand and One Nights
• The Peach Thief
• Puss in Boots
• The Round-Up
• Sansho the Bailiff
• Tintin and the Temple of the Sun
• A Woman for a Season

Note:  I use the list at Oscars.org for deciding which year films are eligible in.  Some films, however, don’t appear in that database.  For those films, I use the IMDb.  These are the films that aren’t listed in the Oscars.org database but that end up in this year.
Seven of these films (Antonio das Mortes, The Cremator, Deiva Magan, Girls in the Sun, Monsieur Hawarden, The Old Craftsman of Jar and A Woman for a Season) were submitted at the Oscars for Best Foreign Film.  Nearly all of the rest are 1969 Foreign films that didn’t get a U.S. release.

Films Released This Year Originally But Eligible in a Different Year 

• Adalen 31  (1970)
• The Assassination Bureau  (1970)
• Beyond the Valley of the Dolls  (1970)
• Big Dig  (1970)
• Burn  (1970)
• Coming Apart  (1970)
• Double Suicide  (1970)
• Fellini Satyricon  (1970)
• Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed  (1970)
• The Joke  (1970)
• Kuragejima — Legends from a Southern Island  (1970)
• The Looking Glass War  (1970)
• Love is a Funny Thing  (1970)
• Mississippi Mermaid  (1970)
• My Night at Maud’s  (1970)
• The Passion of Anna  (1970)
• Putney Swope  (1970)
• Tell Them Willie Boy is Here  (1970)
• This Man Must Die  (1970)
• A Walk with Love and Death  (1970)
• The Wild Child  (1970)
• Women in Love  (1970)
• The Battle of Neretvna  (1971)
• Boy  (1971)
• Godzilla’s Revenge  (1971)
• The Red Tent  (1971)
• The Rite  (1971)
• Une Femme Douce  (1972)
• The Green Wall  (1972)
• Andrei Rublev  (1973)
• Diary of a Shinjuku Thief  (1973)
• Hunting Scenes from Bavaria  (1973)
• The Cow  (1974)
• It’s Tough Being a Man  (1974)
• The Jackal of Naheultoro  (1974)
• Macunaima  (1974)
• Porcile  (1975)
• The Conspiracy of Torture  (1976)
• Katzelmacher  (1977)
• Go, Go Second Time Virgin  (1979)
• The Brothers Karamazov  (1980)
• Everything for Sale  (1980)
• All My Good Countrymen  (1985)
• Army of Shadows  (2006)

Note:  These 44 films only average a 61.9.  Army of Shadows would eventually win several awards when it finally got a U.S. release in 2006.  Women in Love, though only a ***.5 film, will earn a number of Nighthawk (and Oscar) nominations in 1970 because that’s such a weak year.