45th Academy Awards

The 45th Academy Awards were presented Tuesday, March 27, 1973, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California, honoring the best films of 1972. The ceremonies were presided over by Carol Burnett, Michael Caine, Charlton Heston, and Rock Hudson.

The ceremony was marked by Marlon Brando's boycott of the Oscars, and his sending of Sacheen Littlefeather to explain why he could not show up to collect his Best Actor award for The Godfather; and by Charlie Chaplin's only competitive Oscar win, for Best Original Dramatic Score for his 20-year-old film Limelight, which was eligible because it did not screen in Los Angeles until 1972. Prior to this ceremony, Chaplin had received 2 Academy Honorary Awards: in 1972 for his lifetime of work; and in 1929 (after having revoked his nominations for Best Director, Actor, and Writing (Original), thereby presenting him with a special award celebrating his multifaceted achievements).

With eight wins for Cabaret, adapted from the Broadway stage musical by Bob Fosse, the film set a record for most Oscar prizes without winning Best Picture. Best Picture winner The Godfather received three Academy Awards.

This year was the first time that two African American women received nominations for Best Actress: Cicely Tyson and Diana Ross. Minnelli accepted her Oscar despite a slight scrape she had incurred while riding a motorcycle. Ross was criticized for running a promotional ad campaign demanding that she win the Best Actress Oscar. Meanwhile, Edward G. Robinson, who died two months before the ceremony, became the second actor to receive his honorary Oscar posthumously, after Douglas Fairbanks (d. 1939) in 1940.

This was also the first year when all Oscar winners were brought on stage at the end of the ceremony. The show drew a television audience of 85 million viewers.

Nominees were announced on February 12, 1973. Winners are listed first in boldface.

^ § Was also nominated in the previous year for Best Foreign Language Film.

It was initially announced, on February 12, 1973, that The Godfather received 11 nominations, more than any other film that year. This was reduced to 10 nominations (tied with Cabaret for the most) after a new vote by the academy's music branch, following a controversy over whether Nino Rota's score for The Godfather was eligible for the nomination it received. For the re-balloting, members of the music branch chose from six films: The Godfather and the five films that had been on the shortlist for best original dramatic score but did not get nominated. John Addison's score for Sleuth won this new vote, and thus replaced Rota's score on the official list of nominees. The controversy arose, according to Academy President Daniel Taradash, because the love theme in The Godfather had previously been used by Rota in Fortunella, an Italian movie from several years earlier. Pacino also did not attend the ceremony; he was allegedly insulted at being nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, when he had more screen time than his co-star and Best Actor-winner Brando, and thus should have received the nomination for Best Actor. Pacino denies this, saying in his memoir, Sonny Boy, that he was "scared" of his sudden fame and never heard the rumor until much later in his life.