The year 1972 in film involved several significant events. Universal Pictures and Paramount Pictures celebrated their 60th anniversaries and the Motion Picture Association of America celebrated their 50th anniversary.
Highest-grossing films (U.S.)
The top ten 1972 released films by box office gross in North America are as follows:
+ Highest-grossing films of 1972 Rank Title Distributor Domestic rentals 1 The Godfather Paramount $86,300,000 2The Poseidon Adventure 20th Century Fox $42,000,000 3What's Up, Doc? Warner Bros. $28,000,000 4 Deliverance $22,500,000 5 Jeremiah Johnson $21,900,000 6Cabaret Allied Artists $20,250,000 7 Deep Throat Bryanston $20,000,000 8 The Getaway National General $18,000,000 9 Brother of the Wind Sun International $12,000,000 10 Lady Sings the Blues Paramount $9,666,000
Awards
Category/Organization 30th Golden Globe AwardsJanuary 28, 1973 26th BAFTA AwardsFebruary 28, 1973 45th Academy AwardsMarch 27, 1973 Drama Musical or Comedy Best Film The Godfather Cabaret The Godfather Best Director Francis Ford CoppolaThe Godfather Bob FosseCabaret Best Actor Marlon BrandoThe Godfather Jack LemmonAvanti! Gene HackmanThe Poseidon AdventureThe French Connection Marlon BrandoThe Godfather Best Actress Liv UllmannThe Emigrants Liza MinnelliCabaret Best Supporting Actor Joel GreyCabaret Ben JohnsonThe Last Picture Show Joel GreyCabaret Best Supporting Actress Shelley WintersThe Poseidon Adventure Cloris LeachmanThe Last Picture Show Eileen HeckartButterflies Are Free Best Screenplay, Adapted Francis Ford Coppola and Mario PuzoThe Godfather Paddy ChayefskyThe HospitalPeter Bogdanovich and Larry McMurtryThe Last Picture Show Francis Ford Coppola and Mario PuzoThe Godfather Best Screenplay, Original Jeremy LarnerThe Candidate Best Original Score Nino RotaThe Godfather Charlie Chaplin, Raymond Rasch and Larry RussellLimelightRalph BurnsCabaret Best Original Song "Ben"Ben N/A "The Morning After"The Poseidon Adventure Best Foreign Language Film The EmigrantsThe New Land N/A The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
Palme d'Or (Cannes Film Festival): The Working Class Goes to Heaven (La classe operaia va in paradiso), directed by Elio Petri, Italy The Mattei Affair (Il Caso Mattei), directed by Francesco Rosi, Italy
Golden Bear (Berlin Film Festival): The Canterbury Tales (I Racconti di Canterbury), directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italy / France
1972 films By country/region List of American films of 1972 List of Argentine films of 1972 List of Australian films of 1972 List of Bangladeshi films of 1972 List of British films of 1972 List of Canadian films of 1972 List of French films of 1972 List of Hong Kong films of 1972 List of Indian films of 1972 List of Hindi films of 1972 List of Kannada films of 1972 List of Malayalam films of 1972 List of Marathi films of 1972 List of Tamil films of 1972 List of Telugu films of 1972
List of Italian films of 1972 List of Japanese films of 1972 List of Mexican films of 1972 List of Pakistani films of 1972 List of South Korean films of 1972 List of Soviet films of 1972 List of Spanish films of 1972
By genre/medium List of action films of 1972 List of animated feature films of 1972 List of avant-garde films of 1972 List of comedy films of 1972 List of drama films of 1972 List of horror films of 1972 List of science fiction films of 1972 List of thriller films of 1972 List of western films of 1972
Births January 5 Simona Caparrini, Italian actress Luciana Pedraza, Argentine actress and director January 9 – Deon Cole, American actor January 11 Marc Blucas, American actor Konstantin Khabensky, Russian actor and director Amanda Peet, American actress January 12 - Zabryna Guevara, American actress January 15 – Kobe Tai, Taiwanese-American actress January 16 - Richard T. Jones, American actor January 20 - Adrian Martinez, American actor and comedian January 22 Gabriel Macht, American actor Romi Park, Japanese actress and singer January 23 - Léa Drucker, French actress Ewen Bremner, Scottish character actor January 26 - Cyia Batten, American dancer, model and actress January 28 Peter McDonald, Irish actor and director Gillian Vigman, American actress, comedian and screenwriter February 1 - Tego Calderón, Puerto Rican rapper, singer and actor February 6 - Richard Coyle, English actor February 7 - Robyn Lively, American actress February 8 - Guillaume Gallienne, French actor, screenwriter and director February 9 Crispin Freeman, American voice actor Darwin Shaw, British actor and director February 12 - Ajay Naidu, American actor and director February 14 - T.J. Storm, American actor, stuntman and martial artist February 16 - Sarah Clarke, American actress February 20 – Gareth Unwin, English producer83rd Academy Awards Official Website. February 24 - James Bachman, English comedian, actor and writer February 26 Keith Ferguson, American voice actor Maz Jobrani, American comedian and actor February 28 - Rory Cochrane, American actor March 4 – Garth Jennings, English film director, screenwriter, producer, actor and writer March 8 - Matt Nable, Australian actor and writer March 9 Jean Louisa Kelly, American actress and singer Kerr Smith, American actor March 11 - Jamal Duff, American actor March 13 – Common, American actor and singer March 16 - Nicolas Bro, Danish actor March 18 – Dane Cook, American comedian March 23 – Judith Godrèche, French actress March 24 Charlie Creed-Miles, English actor and musician Tony Leondis, Greek-American animator, filmmaker and voice actor March 26 – Leslie Mann, American actress March 28 Nick Frost, English actor, comedian, writer and producer David Vadim, Ukrainian-born American actor Ledisi, American singer-songwriter and actress March 29 - Sam Hazeldine, English actor March 31 – Alejandro Amenábar, Spanish director, writer and soundtrack composer April 1 Albert Hughes, American filmmaker Allen Hughes, American filmmaker April 2 - Stephen Saux, American actor April 3 - Catherine McCormack, English actress April 5 - Junko Takeuchi, Japanese actress and voice actress April 6 - Jason Hervey, American actor and producer April 8 - Sung Kang, American actor April 10 - Vincent Zhao, Chinese actor and martial artist April 15 - Lou Romano, American animator and voice actor April 17 – Jennifer Garner, American actress April 18 Maurice Compte, American actor Eli Roth, American director, screenwriter, producer and actor April 20 - Carmen Electra, American actress, singer and model April 21 - Liz Carr, English actress and comedian April 26 - Bronagh Gallagher, Irish actress and singer April 27 - David Lascher, American actor April 28 - Gabriel Casseus, American actor and screenwriter April 29 – Derek Mears, American actor and stuntman May 1 - Julie Benz, American actress May 2 – Dwayne Johnson, American actor May 3 - Joe Pingue, Canadian actor and filmmaker May 4 - John Rawls, New Zealand actor May 7 - Jennifer Yuh Nelson, South Korean-born American story artist and director May 10 - Cary Guffey, American former child actor May 12 Christian Campbell, Canadian actor Rhea Seehorn, American actress and director May 14 Gabriel Mann, American actor and model Ben Weber, American actor May 15 Ashley McGuire, British actress Tom Wu, Hong Kong-born British actor May 16 - Khary Payton, American actor May 20 - Busta Rhymes, American rapper and actor May 21 - Olga Sosnovska, Polish actress May 22 Max Brooks, American actor Alison Eastwood, American director and actress May 25 - Karan Johar, Indian director May 26 - Selenis Leyva, American actress May 28 Kate Ashfield, English actress Chiara Mastroianni, French actress Roland Møller, Danish actor May 29 - Laverne Cox, American actress May 30 - Joachim Rønning, Norwegian director May 31 - Archie Panjabi, British actress June 1 - Rick Gomez, American actor June 2 Wayne Brady, American actor, comedian, producer and game show host Wentworth Miller, American-British actor and screenwriter June 7 – Karl Urban, New Zealand actor June 16 - John Cho, American actor June 19 Jean Dujardin, French actor Robin Tunney, American actress June 23 – Selma Blair, American actress June 28 Brendan Hunt, American actor and writer Alessandro Nivola, American actor June 30 - Molly Parker, Canadian actress, writer and director July 3 - Matt Schulze, American actor and musician July 4 - Claire Price, English actress July 5 – Gilles Lellouche, French actor and director July 7 - Heather Kafka, American actress July 10 Christoph Hochhäusler, German film director and screenwriter Peter Serafinowicz, English actor, comedian, director and screenwriter Sofia Vergara, Colombian American actress, television producer, presenter and model John Viener, American actor, voice actor, writer and comedian July 11 - Michael Rosenbaum, American actor, director, producer, singer and comedian July 12 – Nenad Jezdić, Serbian actor July 14 - Deborah Mailman, Australian actress and singer July 15 Liza Colón-Zayas, American actress Scott Foley, American actor, director and screenwriter July 23 - Marlon Wayans, American actor, comedian, writer and producer July 26 - Spencer Wilding, Welsh actor and stuntman July 27 – Maya Rudolph, American actress and comedian July 28 Elizabeth Berkley, American actress Evan Farmer, American actor and musician July 29 Ato Essandoh, American actor Wil Wheaton, American actor August 1 Guri Weinberg, Israeli-American actor and writer Charles Malik Whitfield, American actor August 2 - Jacinda Barrett, Australian-American actress August 5 Darren Shahlavi, English actor, martial artist and stuntman (d. 2015) Reika Kirishima, Japanese actress August 7 Dan Payne, Canadian actor Greg Serano, American actor August 9 - Ryan Bollman, American actor August 10 - Angie Harmon, American actress August 13 - Michael Sinterniklaas, French voice actor August 15 Ben Affleck, American actor, director and writer Matthew Wood, American sound editor and voice actor August 24 - Ava DuVernay, American filmmaker, screenwriter and producer August 25 Scarlett Chorvat, American actress Joe Wright, English director August 30 – Cameron Diaz, American actress September 4 Carlos Ponce, Puerto Rican actor, musician, model and television personality Françoise Yip, Canadian actress September 6 Dylan Bruno, American actor Idris Elba, English actor Justina Machado, American actress Mait Malmsten, Estonian actor Anika Noni Rose, American actress and singer September 7 – Matthew Sleeth, Australian director September 8 Giovanni Frezza, Italian child actor Tomokazu Seki, Japanese voice actor September 9 Adam James, English actor Goran Visnjic, Croatian-American actor September 13 - Kyle Rankin, American screenwriter and filmmaker September 14 - Nakamura Shidō II, Japanese actor September 15 - John Schwab, American actor September 16 Mike Doyle, American actor Alex Rice, Aboriginal-Canadian actress September 21 Kevin Downes, American actor, writer, producer and director Erin Fitzgerald, Canadian voice actress September 24 Kate Fleetwood, English actress Finty Williams, English actress September 26 - Melanie Paxson, American actress September 27 – Gwyneth Paltrow, American actress September 29 - Robert Webb, English comedian, actor and writer October 5 - Tom Hooper, British-Australian filmmaker October 8 Enrique Arce, Spanish actor Tricia Vessey, American actress, writer and producer October 9 - Cocoa Brown, American actress, writer and comedian October 11 - Claudia Black, Australian actress October 12 - Sönke Möhring, German actor October 15 - Matt Keeslar, American former actor October 17 – Eminem, American rapper and actor October 18 - Christopher Knights, English voice actor, editor and cinematographer October 20 - Thor Freudenthal, German director, screenwriter, animator and special effects artist October 21 - Masakazu Morita, Japanese actor, voice actor and singer October 22 – Saffron Burrows, English-American actress October 23 - Kate del Castillo, Mexican-American actress