53rd Academy Awards


The 53rd Academy Awards, honoring the best in film for 1980, were presented March 31, 1981, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. The ceremonies, which were presided over by Johnny Carson, were originally scheduled for March 30 but were postponed due to the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan.
David Lynch's The Elephant Man and Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull, with eight nominations each, had the most nominations of this year's films. Their nominations included Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Director. Michael Apted's Coal Miner's Daughter received seven nominations while Ordinary People and Tess received six.
The year's winner of acting categories also marked as the closest span ever between the four winners, all of whom were under 40 when they won the award. Robert De Niro was 37 when awarded Best Actor, Sissy Spacek was 31 when awarded Best Actress, Timothy Hutton was 20 when awarded Best Supporting Actor, and Mary Steenburgen was 28 when awarded Best Supporting Actress. In addition, Hutton was the youngest ever Best Supporting Actor winner. His award was one of four that Ordinary People won, more than any other movie; the movie also won Best Picture, Best Director for Robert Redford and Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium for Alvin Sargent.
The lack of recognition for Christopher Tucker's make-up work on The Elephant Man prompted the creation of the Academy Award for Best Makeup the following year.
Henry Fonda was awarded an Academy Honorary Award during this ceremony. He received the Academy Award for Best Actor the following year. This feat would later be duplicated by Paul Newman who also was awarded the Honorary Award during the 58th Academy Awards in 1985, and subsequent would also win the Best Actor award the following year.
Best Supporting Actress nominee Eva Le Gallienne was born in 1899, which made her the last acting nominee to be born in the nineteenth century., this is the earliest Oscars for which all five directing nominees are still living.

Awards

Winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface and indicated with a double dagger.
Best PictureBest Director

  • Robert Redford – Ordinary People
  • *David Lynch – The Elephant Man
  • *Martin Scorsese – Raging Bull
  • *Richard Rush – The Stunt Man
  • *Roman Polanski – Tess
    • Best ActorBest Actress
  • Robert De Niro – Raging Bull as Jake LaMotta
  • * Robert Duvall – The Great Santini as Lt. Col. Wilbur "Bull" Meechum
  • * John Hurt – The Elephant Man as Joseph Merrick
  • * Jack Lemmon – Tribute as Scottie Templeton
  • * Peter O'Toole – The Stunt Man as Eli Cross
  • Sissy Spacek – Coal Miner's Daughter as Loretta Lynn
  • * Ellen Burstyn – Resurrection as Edna Mae McCauley
  • * Goldie Hawn – Private Benjamin as Judy Benjamin
  • * Mary Tyler Moore – Ordinary People as Beth Jarrett
  • * Gena Rowlands – Gloria as Gloria Swenson
    • Best Supporting ActorBest Supporting Actress
  • Timothy Hutton – Ordinary People as Conrad Jarrett
  • *Judd Hirsch – Ordinary People as Dr. Tyrone C. Berger
  • *Michael O'Keefe – The Great Santini as Ben
  • *Joe Pesci – Raging Bull as Joey LaMotta
  • *Jason Robards – Melvin and Howard as Howard Hughes
  • Mary Steenburgen – Melvin and Howard as Lynda West Dummar
  • *Eileen Brennan – Private Benjamin as Doreen Lewis
  • *Eva Le Gallienne – Resurrection as Pearl
  • *Cathy Moriarty – Raging Bull as Vikki Thailer Lamotta
  • *Diana Scarwid – Inside Moves as Louise
    • Best Screenplay Written Directly for the ScreenBest Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium
  • Melvin and Howard – Bo Goldman
  • *Brubaker – Screenplay by W. D. Richter; Story by W. D. Richter and Arthur Ross
  • *Fame – Christopher Gore
  • *Mon Oncle D'Amerique – Jean Gruault
  • *Private Benjamin – Nancy Meyers, Charles Shyer and Harvey Miller
  • Ordinary People – Alvin Sargent based on the novel by Judith Guest
  • *Breaker Morant – Jonathan Hardy, David Stevens and Bruce Beresford based on the play by Kenneth G. Ross
  • *Coal Miner's Daughter – Thomas Rickman based on the autobiography by Loretta Lynn with George Vecsey
  • *The Elephant Man – Christopher De Vore, Eric Bergren and David Lynch based on the books The Elephant Man and Other Reminiscences by Sir Frederick Treves and The Elephant Man: A Study in Human Dignity by Ashley Montagu
  • *The Stunt Man – Screenplay by Lawrence B. Marcus; Adaptation by Richard Rush based on the novel by Paul Brodeur
    • Best Foreign Language FilmBest Documentary Feature
  • Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears
  • *Confidence
  • *Kagemusha
  • *The Last Metro
  • *The Nest
  • – Murray Lerner
  • *Agee – Ross Spears
  • *The Day After Trinity – Jon H. Else
  • *Front Line – David Bradbury
  • *' – Bengt von zur Muehlen and Arthur Cohn
    • Best Documentary Short SubjectBest Live Action Short Film
  • – Roland Hallé and Peter Ladue
  • *Don't Mess with Bill – John Watson and Pen Densham
  • *The Eruption of Mount St. Helens! – George Casey
  • *It's the Same World – Dick Young
  • *Luther Metke at 94 – Richard Hawkins and Jorge Preloran
  • The Dollar Bottom – Lloyd Phillips
  • *Fall Line – Bob Carmichael and Greg Lowe
  • *A Jury of Her Peers – Sally Heckel
    • Best Animated Short FilmBest Original Score
  • The Fly – Ferenc Rofusz
  • *All Nothing – Frédéric Back
  • *History of the World in Three Minutes Flat – Michael Mills
  • Fame – Michael Gore
  • *Altered States – John Corigliano
  • *The Elephant Man – John Morris
  • *The Empire Strikes Back – John Williams
  • *Tess – Philippe Sarde
    • Best Original SongBest Sound
  • "Fame" from Fame – Music by Michael Gore; Lyrics by Dean Pitchford
  • *"9 to 5" from 9 to 5 – Music and Lyrics by Dolly Parton
  • *"On the Road Again" from Honeysuckle Rose – Music and Lyrics by Willie Nelson
  • *"Out Here on My Own" from Fame – Music by Michael Gore; Lyrics by Lesley Gore
  • *"People Alone" from The Competition – Music by Lalo Schifrin; Lyrics by Will Jennings
  • The Empire Strikes Back – Bill Varney, Steve Maslow, Gregg Landaker and Peter Sutton
  • *Altered States – Arthur Piantadosi, Les Fresholtz, Michael Minkler and Willie D. Burton
  • *Coal Miner's Daughter – Richard Portman, Roger Heman and Jim Alexander
  • *Fame – Michael J. Kohut, Aaron Rochin, Jay M. Harding and Chris Newman
  • *Raging Bull – Donald O. Mitchell, Bill Nicholson, David J. Kimball and Les Lazarowitz
    • Best Costume DesignBest Art Direction
  • Tess – Anthony Powell
  • *The Elephant Man – Patricia Norris
  • *My Brilliant Career – Anna Senior
  • *Somewhere in Time – Jean-Pierre Dorleac
  • *When Time Ran Out – Paul Zastupnevich
  • Tess – Art Direction and Set Decoration: Pierre Guffroy and Jack Stephens
  • *Coal Miner's Daughter – Art Direction: John W. Corso; Set Decoration: John M. Dwyer
  • *The Elephant Man – Art Direction: Stuart Craig and Robert Cartwright; Set Decoration: Hugh Scaife
  • *The Empire Strikes Back – Art Direction: Norman Reynolds, Leslie Dilley, Harry Lange and Alan Tomkins; Set Decoration: Michael Ford
  • *Kagemusha – Art Direction and Set Decoration: Yoshirō Muraki
    • Best CinematographyBest Film Editing
  • Tess – Geoffrey Unsworth and Ghislain Cloquet
  • *The Blue Lagoon – Néstor Almendros
  • *Coal Miner's Daughter – Ralf D. Bode
  • *The Formula – James Crabe
  • *Raging Bull – Michael Chapman
  • Raging Bull – Thelma Schoonmaker'
  • *Coal Miner's Daughter – Arthur Schmidt
  • *The Competition – David Blewitt
  • *The Elephant Man – Anne V. Coates
  • *Fame'' – Gerry Hambling

    • Academy Honorary Award

  • Henry Fonda

    Special Achievement Award

  • The Empire Strikes Back for Visual Effects

    Presenters and performers

    • The following individuals, listed in order of appearance, presented awards or performed musical numbers.

    Presenters

    Performers

    Multiple nominations and awards

    These films had multiple nominations:
    The following films received multiple awards.