50th Academy Awards

Woody Allen, Best Director winner and Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen Based on Factual Material or on Story Material Not Previously Published or Produced co-winner

Richard Dreyfuss, Best Actor winner

Diane Keaton, Best Actress winner

Jason Robards, Best Supporting Actor winner

Vanessa Redgrave, Best Supporting Actress winner

Alvin Sargent, Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium winner

Co Hoedeman, Best Animated Short Film winner

John Williams, Best Original Score winner

Roger Christian, Best Art Direction co-winner

Vilmos Zsigmond, Best Cinematography winner

Richard Chew, Best Film Editing co-winner

John Stears, Best Visual Effects co-winner

Richard Edlund, Best Visual Effects co-winner

Robert Blalack, Best Visual Effects co-winner

Winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface and indicated with a double dagger (‡).[3]

• Margaret Booth

• Charlton Heston

• Walter Mirisch

• Ben Burtt for the creation of the alien, creature and robot voices in Star Wars
• Frank Warner for sound effects editing in Close Encounters of the Third Kind

During the ceremony, Vanessa Redgrave won the Best Supporting Actress award for Julia (1977). Her nomination drew a lot of attention and backlash even prior to the ceremony, as in 1977 she had also produced and appeared in the film The Palestinian, which followed the activities of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Lebanon,[5][6] an organization that at the time was defined as a terrorist organization by Israel due to its responsibility for the deaths of thousands of civilians.[7] The film was criticized by many Jewish groups for its perceived anti-Israel slant,[6] and members of the Jewish Defense League (JDL) picketed Redgrave's nomination outside the Academy Awards ceremony while counter-protestors waved PLO flags.[5] Redgrave won the Oscar and made the following acceptance speech:

My dear colleagues, I thank you very much for this tribute to my work. I think that Jane Fonda and I have done the best work of our lives, and I think this is in part due to our director, Fred Zinnemann. [Audience applause.]

And I also think it's in part because we believed and we believe in what we were expressing—two out of millions who gave their lives and were prepared to sacrifice everything in the fight against fascist and racist Nazi Germany.

And I salute you, and I pay tribute to you, and I think you should be very proud that in the last few weeks you've stood firm, and you have refused to be intimidated by the threats of a small bunch of Zionist hoodlums [gasps from the audience, followed by a smattering of boos and clapping] whose behavior— [continuation of booing until it quieted down] whose behavior is an insult to the stature of Jews all over the world and their great and heroic record of struggle against fascism and oppression. [General applause]

And I salute that record and I salute all of you for having stood firm and dealt a final blow against that period when Nixon and McCarthy launched a worldwide witch hunt against those who tried to express in their lives and their work the truth that they believe in. [some boos and hissing] I salute you and I thank you and I pledge to you that I will continue to fight against anti-Semitism and fascism.

Two hours later,[8] when it came his turn to announce the winners for the two Best Screenplay awards, Paddy Chayefsky, perturbed by what he perceived as "cracks about Jews"[8] at the Academy Awards, replied:

Before I get on to the writing awards, there's a little matter I'd like to tidy up—at least if I expect to live with myself tomorrow morning. I would like to say—personal opinion, of course—that I'm sick and tired of people exploiting the occasion of the Academy Awards [loud applause] for the propagation of their own personal political propaganda. [Loud applause] I would like to suggest to Miss Redgrave that her winning an Academy Award is not a pivotal moment in history, does not require a proclamation, and a simple 'thank you' would have sufficed. [Loud applause]