The year 1975 in film involved some significant events, most notably the release of Steven Spielberg's Jaws, as well as the releases of two highly acclaimed films, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The 20th Century-Fox company celebrated its 40th anniversary.
Events January: The government of India sets up the National Film Development Company with an objective of planning, promoting and organizing an integrated and efficient development of the Indian Film Industry. March 26: The film version of The Who's Tommy premieres in London. May 26: In order to create the necessary special effects for his film, Star Wars, George Lucas forms Industrial Light and Magic. June 20: Jaws is released and becomes the highest-grossing movie of the year and the first movie to earn $100 million in US and Canadian theatrical rentals, setting the standard for future blockbusters. August 14: The cult classic film The Rocky Horror Picture Show premieres in London. August 15: Sholay, directed by Ramesh Sippy, produced by his father G. P. Sippy, and written by Salim–Javed, is released in Bombay. The film stars Dharmendra, Sanjeev Kumar, Hema Malini, Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, and Amjad Khan. When first released, Sholay receives negative critical reviews and a tepid commercial response, but favourable word-of-mouth publicity helps it to become a box office success. It breaks records for continuous showings in many theatres across India. It is the highest-grossing Indian film ever at this time, and is the highest-grossing film in India up until Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! (1994). By numerous accounts, Sholay remains one of the highest-grossing Indian films of all time, adjusted for inflation. Sholay is often regarded as one of the greatest and most influential Indian films of all time. November 2: Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini is brutally murdered in Ostia (Rome), apparently for political reasons. November 23: Sneak Previews, the first American film review show, premieres and launches the careers of critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. They remained as a team, and a staple among film critics, through various programs for the next twenty-four years. December: Warner Bros. reorganizes following John Calley's decision to step down as president-COO. Frank Wells returns as president and shares CEO duties with Ted Ashley, who also returns as chairman. December 23: Bernard Herrmann completes recording his film soundtrack for Taxi Driver, dying the following day.
Highest-grossing films North America
The top ten 1975 released films by box office gross in North America are as follows:
+ Highest-grossing films of 1975 Rank Title Distributor Domestic rentals 1 Jaws Universal $133,400,000 2One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest United Artists $59,200,000 3 The Rocky Horror Picture Show 20th Century Fox $50,420,000 4 Shampoo Columbia $23,822,000Top 20 Films of 1975 by Domestic Revenue 5 Dog Day Afternoon Warner Bros. $22,500,000 6 The Return of the Pink Panther United Artists $20,017,000 7 Three Days of the Condor Paramount $20,014,000 8 Funny Lady Columbia $19,313,000 9 The Other Side of the Mountain Universal $18,012,000 10 Tommy Columbia $17,793,000
International The highest-grossing 1975 films in countries outside of North America.
International market Film Admissions Revenue Production country Local currency US$ Brazil The Towering Inferno 10,377,230 United States France The Towering Inferno 4,466,376 United States West Germany Jaws 7,000,000 United States India Sholay 150,000,000+ $41,790,000 India Italy My Friends 10,467,254 Italy Japan The Towering Inferno United States Soviet Union Bobby 62,600,000 15,650,000 Rbls $21,440,000 India Spain Jaws 5,918,754 United States United Kingdom Jaws 16,200,000 £11,800,000 $,000,000United States United States & Canada Jaws 128,078,800 $260,000,000 $260,000,000United States
Worldwide gross The following table lists known worldwide gross figures for several high-grossing films that originally released in 1975. Note that this list is incomplete and is therefore not representative of the highest-grossing films worldwide in 1975. This list also includes gross revenue from later re-releases.
Title Admissions () Revenue Country Jaws 242,800,000 $470,653,000 United StatesOne Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest 78,706,404 The Rocky Horror Picture Show 58,431,570 $166,000,000 United Kingdom United States Sholay 250,000,000 $70,000,000 India Dog Day Afternoon 24,861,525 United States
Awards
Awards ceremonies
Academy Awards - March 29, 1976 (ABC) BAFTA Awards - March 17, 1976 Golden Globe Awards - January 24, 1976 Palme d'Or (Cannes Film Festival) 13 to 28 May 1976: Chronicle of the Years of Fire (Chronique des années de braise) Golden Bear (Berlin Film Festival) 25 June to 6 July 1976: Adoption (Örökbefogadás)
Notable awards Category/Organization Golden Globe AwardsJanuary 24, 1976 BAFTA AwardsFebruary 29, 1976 Academy AwardsMarch 29, 1976 Comedy or Musical Drama Best Film The Sunshine Boys One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Best Director Miloš FormanOne Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Stanley KubrickBarry Lyndon Miloš FormanOne Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Best Actor Walter MatthauThe Sunshine Boys Jack NicholsonOne Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Al PacinoDog Day Afternoon / The Godfather Part II Jack NicholsonOne Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Best Actress Ann-MargretTommy Louise FletcherOne Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Ellen BurstynAlice Doesn't Live Here Anymore Louise FletcherOne Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Best Supporting Actor Richard BenjaminThe Sunshine Boys Fred AstaireThe Towering Inferno George BurnsThe Sunshine Boys Best Supporting Actress Brenda VaccaroOnce Is Not Enough Diane LaddAlice Doesn't Live Here Anymore Lee GrantShampoo Best Screenplay, Adapted One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest<br/ >Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman Alice Doesn't Live Here AnymoreRobert Getchell One Flew Over the Cuckoo's NestLawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman Best Screenplay, Original Dog Day AfternoonFrank Pierson Best Original Score John WilliamsJaws John WilliamsJawsThe Towering Inferno John WilliamsJawsLeonard RosenmanBarry Lyndon Best Original Song "I'm Easy"Nashville N/A "I'm Easy"Nashville Best Foreign Language Film Lies My Father Told Me N/A Dersu Uzala
1975 films By country/region List of American films of 1975 List of Argentine films of 1975 List of Australian films of 1975 List of Bangladeshi films of 1975 List of British films of 1975 List of Canadian films of 1975 List of French films of 1975 List of Hong Kong films of 1975 List of Indian films of 1975 List of Hindi films of 1975 List of Kannada films of 1975 List of Malayalam films of 1975 List of Marathi films of 1975 List of Tamil films of 1975 List of Telugu films of 1975 List of Japanese films of 1975 List of Mexican films of 1975 List of Pakistani films of 1975 List of South Korean films of 1975 List of Soviet films of 1975 List of Spanish films of 1975
By genre/medium List of action films of 1975 List of animated feature films of 1975 List of avant-garde films of 1975 List of comedy films of 1975 List of drama films of 1975 List of horror films of 1975 List of science fiction films of 1975 List of thriller films of 1975 List of western films of 1975
Births January 1 Sonali Bendre, Indian actress Toni Ann Gisondi, American child actress January 2: Dax Shepard, American actor January 3 Jason Marsden, American actor Danica McKellar, American actress January 5: Bradley Cooper, American actor and film director January 6: Nicole DeHuff, American actress (d. 2005) January 9: Patrick Sabongui, Canadian actor and stunt performer January 15: Jorge R. Gutierrez, Mexican animator, director, writer and voice actor January 16: Julie Ann Emery, American actress January 18: Sean Huze, American actor and screenwriter Aleksandra Woźniak, Polish actress January 22: Balthazar Getty, American actor and musician January 25: Dat Phan, Vietnamese-American stand-up comedian and actor January 29: Kelly Packard, American actress January 31: Preity Zinta, Indian actress February 3: Terry Chen, Canadian actor February 4: Natalie Imbruglia, Australian-British singer and actress February 5: Alison Hammond, English television personality and actress February 7: Dan Green, American voice actor, voice director and screenwriter February 9: Rawson Marshall Thurber, American filmmaker and actor February 10: Scott Elrod, American former actor February 17: Raymond S. Persi, American animator, director, screenwriter, producer, storyboard artist and voice actor February 18: Hristo Zhivkov, Bulgarian actor (d. 2023) February 22: Drew Barrymore, American actress and director February 23: Callan Mulvey, Australian actor February 27: Quentin Kenihan, Australian writer and actor (d. 2018) March 2: Lee Sun-kyun, South Korean actor (d. 2023) March 3: Patric Chiha, Austrian film director and screenwriter Tiger Chen, Chinese martial artist, actor and stuntman March 9: Chaske Spencer, American actor and producer March 11: Josh Robert Thompson, American voice actor, actor, comedian and impressionist March 15: Eva Longoria, American actress, director and producer Will.i.am, American actor and singer/rapper March 16: Sienna Guillory, English actress March 17: Natalie Zea, American actress March 18: Charles Parnell, American actor March 21: Justin Pierce, American-British actor and skateboarder (d. 2000) March 22: Guillermo Diaz, American actor Nathan Greno, American director and writer Cole Hauser, American actor March 24: Brennan Elliott, Canadian actor April 2: Deedee Magno, Filipino-American actress and singer Pedro Pascal, Chilean and American actor Adam Rodriguez, American actor April 6: Zach Braff, American actor, director, screenwriter and producer April 10: David Harbour, American actor April 11: Gloria Calderón Kellett, American writer, producer, director and actress April 12: Camila Morgado, Brazilian actress April 13: Angus MacLane, American director, animator, screenwriter and voice actor April 14: Amy Birnbaum, American voice actress Anderson Silva, Brazilian mixed martial artist and boxer. April 15: Elissa Knight, American employee at Pixar and voice actress April 21: Charlie O'Connell, American actor April 27: Erica Schroeder, American voice actress April 30: Johnny Galecki, American actor May 2: Jenna Lamia, American actress and writer May 3: Christina Hendricks, American actress Dulé Hill, American actor May 4: Óscar Jaenada, Spanish actor May 8: Wilmer Calderon, Puerto Rican-American actor May 9: Chris Diamantopoulos, Greek-Canadian actor and voice artist May 22: Stephen Walters, English actor May 24: Will Sasso, Canadian-American actor, comedian, voice actor and podcaster May 26: Nicki Aycox, American actress and musician (d. 2022) May 27: André 3000, American singer, songwriter, rapper and actor June 4: Russell Brand, English comedian, actor and radio host Angelina Jolie, American actress June 6: Nina Kaczorowski, American actress and stuntwoman June 8: Shilpa Shetty, Indian actress June 10: Nicole Bilderback, Korean-born American actress June 19: Hugh Dancy, English actor June 22: Jeff Hephner, American actor June 23: Jeffrey Carlson, American actor and singer (d. 2023) June 25: Linda Cardellini, American actress June 27: Tobey Maguire, American actor June 28: Jeff Geddis, Canadian actor June 29: Șerban Pavlu, Romanian actor July 2: Elizabeth Reaser, American actress July 3: Ryan McPartlin, American actor July 5: Sope Aluko, Nigerian-born British-American actress Kip Gamblin, Australian actor July 6: 50 Cent, American actor and rapper July 7: Nina Hoss, German film and stage actress July 9: Nathaniel Marston, American actor and producer (d. 2015) July 10: Stefán Karl Stefánsson, Icelandic actor and singer (d. 2018) July 11: Bridgette Andersen, American actress (d. 1997) Bruno Gouery, French actor and writer