An evolving list of ★★★★ / ★★★★★ films released during the 1970’s. The following are my awards (as they currently stand):

Hutch d’Or (Best Film)
The Spirit of the Beehive (Director: Victor Erice)

Best Director (tied): 
Martin Scorsese for Taxi Driver and Mean Streets
Francis Ford Coppola for The Godfather Parts I and II, The Conversation, and Apocalypse Now

Best Actor:
Robert De Niro for Taxi Driver, Mean Streets and The Godfather Part II

Best Actress:
Diane Keaton for Annie Hall and Manhattan

Best Supporting Actor:
Harvey Keitel for Taxi Driver and Mean Streets

Best Supporting Actress:
Ana Torrent for The Spirit of the Beehive

Best Screenplay:
Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola for The Godfather Parts I and II

Best Cinematography:
Vittorio Storaro for The Conformist and Apocalypse Now

Best Original Score:
Bernard Herrmann for Taxi Driver

Best Soundtrack:
Apocalypse Now

Best Documentary:
Pictures of The Old World (Director: Dušan Hanák)

Best Animation:
Hedgehog in the Fog (Director: Yuri Norstein)

Best Short:
From a Night Porter’s Point of View (Director: Krzysztof Kieślowski)

Best Debut: 
The Spirit of the Beehive (Director: Victor Erice)

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A Brief Review of the Decade:

Sixteen ★★★★★ films. I think of the 70’s as a consistently high quality body of films. I’ve chosen The Spirit of the Beehive as my best of the decade, but any of the top 11 are worthy alternatives.

As a young man in the early 90’s, when I was first discovering the riches of cinema, the 70’s represented the modern classics. They spoke loudly and clearly to me, being near enough to my generation to resonate with my world. They were exciting times. Many of the old masters were still making quality films, but there was this sense of young filmmakers coming through, shaking up what cinema was capable of. There was an energy and potency to the new wave of young American auteurs who truly promised to make American film great again. 

Because of these filmmakers - Scorsese and Coppola, in particular - mine is a very masculine best of the decade list. Films about men, by men, with powerful male performances. It’s not surprising that they appealed so much to me as a young man myself. You have to mostly look away from Hollywood for sensitive portrayals of women (Mirror, The Spirit of the Beehive). The exception is Woody Allen, who stands our for writing and directing some interesting roles for female actors, most notably for Diane Keaton.

In many ways the 70’s was a foundation decade for modern cinema as we know it today. It asserted auteur cinema and established careers, some of which are only now entering their twilight. Francis Ford Coppola excelled with four great films. Equally notable was the emergence of Martin Scorsese with two of his early masterpieces. Whereas Coppola peaked in the 70’s, Scorsese has been the more consistent and enduring. Both thrived working with a talented crop of young and exciting male actors. De Niro and Keitel became synonymous with early Scorsese, whereas Coppola worked with the likes of Pacino, De Niro, Hackman, Sheen and Brando. 

Away from these two heavyweight Italian-American directors, the 70’s were also notable for European auteurs at or near their peaks. Bertolucci, Tarkovsky, Wenders, Herzog, Kubrick, Erice, Scola and the Taviani brothers all directing fantastic films. I adored the New German Cinema of Wenders and Herzog and enjoyed the fascinating vein of experimental animation coming out of Russia and Eastern Europe, perhaps best epitomised by Yuri Norstein and Jan Svankmajer. In Japan, the slowly setting sun of the great era of Japanese cinema saw fine releases by Kurosawa and Oshima. And back in America, perhaps inspired by European arthouse lyricism, Malick arrived with two early and enigmatic masterworks.

With world cinema in good health and the rise of the American auteurs, the 1980’s were ready for lift off. 

Best of the 1960's <<< >>> Best of the 1980's