1978 in film - Definition and Overview

Events

• February 1 - Bob Dylan's film Renaldo and Clara, a documentary of the "Rolling Thunder Revue" tour premieres in Los Angeles, California
• March 1 - Charlie Chaplin's coffin is stolen from a Swiss cemetery 3 months after burial
• March - Leigh Brackett completes the first draft for Star Wars' sequel, The Empire Strikes Back
• September - George Lucas purchases Bulltail Ranch, on Lucas Valley Road, for the development of Skywalker Ranch.
• November 17 - The Star Wars Holiday Special airs on CBS. The special gives fans their first glimpse of Boba Fett, a character from the upcoming sequel.
• US Supreme Court lists words that should not be used in movies.
• First Sundance Film Festival

Top grossing films

North America

1. Grease, starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John
2. Saturday Night Fever, starring John Travolta
3. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
4. National Lampoon's Animal House, starring John Belushi
5. Jaws 2
6. Heaven Can Wait
7. The Goodbye Girl
8. Star Wars
9. Hooper
10. Foul Play
11. Revenge of the Pink Panther
12. Up in Smoke

Academy Awards

• Best Picture: The Deer Hunter - EMI Films/Cimino, Universal
• Best Director: Michael Cimino - The Deer Hunter
• Best Actor: Jon Voight - Coming Home
• Best Actress: Jane Fonda - Coming Home
• Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Walken - The Deer Hunter
• Best Supporting Actress: Maggie Smith - California Suite

Births

• April 22 - Daniel Johns, singer/guitarist/songwriter
• June 1 - Danielle Harris, voice actress in The Wild Thornberrys
• August 9 - Audrey Tautou, French actress
• November 9 - Sisqo, rap singer/actor/songwriter

Deaths

• January 5 - Sally Eilers, actress
• March 24 - Leigh Brackett, science fiction writer
• August 24 - Louis Prima, bandleader, voice actor ("King Louie of the Apes" in The Jungle Book)
• August 26 - Charles Boyer, actor
• August 28 - Robert Shaw, actor
• September 9 - Jack Warner, Hollywood studio founder
• September 30 - Edgar Bergen, actor
• October 16 - Dan Dailey, actor
• October 19 - Gig Young, actor

Other movies released

• , starring William Holden
• The Lord of the Rings, animated film by Ralph Bakshi
• Midnight Express
• Battlestar Galactica (Canada and most European countries only; released in U.S. theatres the following year)
• Superman, starring Marlon Brando and Christopher Reeve
• Every Which Way But Loose
• The Deer Hunter
• Halloween, starring Jamie Lee Curtis
• The Late Great Palent Earth
• F.I.S.T.
• The Tree of Wooden Clogs Palme d'Or winner
• An Unmarried Woman
• Girlfriends, Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner
• The Trout Golden Bear winner
• Max's Words Golden Bear winner
• Get Out Your Handkerchiefs
• The Buddy Holly Story
• Autumn Sonata
• Bread and Chocolate
• Interiors
• The Boys From Brazil
• Death on the Nile
• Comes a Horseman
• Bye Bye Monkey
• Pretty Baby
• Invasion of the Body Snatchers, remake of 1956 movie