The year 1969 in film involved some significant events.

Events

• Cannes Film Festival opens, but closes in support of a French general strike without awarding any prizes.
• Last year for the Venice Film Festival until it is revived in 1980.

Top grossing films (U.S.)

(*) After theatrical re-issue(s)
source: http://www.boxofficereport.com/database/1969.shtml

Awards

Academy Awards:

Best Picture: Midnight Cowboy - Hellman-Schlesinger, United Artists

Best Director: John Schlesinger, Midnight Cowboy

Best Actor: John Wayne - True Grit

Best Actress: Maggie Smith - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Best Supporting Actor : Gig Young, They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

Best Supporting Actress : Goldie Hawn, Cactus Flower

Best Foreign Language Film: Z, directed by Costa-Gavras, Algeria

Golden Globe Awards:

Drama:

Best Picture: Anne of the Thousand Days

Best Actor: John Wayne - True Grit

Best Actress: Geneviève Bujold - Anne of the Thousand Days

Musical or comedy:

Best Picture: The Secret of Santa Vittoria

Best Actor: Peter O'Toole - Goodbye, Mr. Chips

Best Actress: Patty Duke - Me, Natalie

Other

Best Director: Charles Jarrott - Anne of the Thousand Days

Palme d'Or (Cannes Film Festival):

If...., directed by Lindsay Anderson, United Kingdom

Golden Lion (Venice Film Festival): Not awarded

Golden Bear (Berlin Film Festival):

Rani Radovi (Early Works), directed by Zelimir Zilnik, Yugoslavia

Films released in 1969

• Alice's Restaurant
• All Monsters Attack
• Angel in My Pocket
• Andrei Rublev (screening in Moscow and at the Cannes Film Festival 1969 / Official USSR release, 20 min. shorter, in 1971)
• Anne of the Thousand Days
• The April Fools
• Army of Shadows, starring Lino Ventura
• The Assassination Bureau
• Funeral Parade of Roses by Toshio Matsumoto
• Bambi Meets Godzilla (very short cult film)
• Battle of Britain, starring Laurence Olivier, Trevor Howard, Michael Caine and Christopher Plummer
• The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, by Dario Argento
• Blood of Dracula's Castle
• Blue Movie by Andy Warhol
• Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice
• A Boy Named Charlie Brown
• The Bridge at Remagen
• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
• Cactus Flower
• Che!
• The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes
• De Sade
• Death Rides a Horse (U.S. release)
• Downhill Racer, starring Robert Redford
• Duffy
• Easy Rider
• The First Time, starring Jacqueline Bisset, Wes Stern
• Gamera vs. Guiron
• Goodbye, Columbus
• Goodbye, Mr. Chips
• Hello, Dolly!, starring Barbra Streisand, Walter Matthau, and Michael Crawford
• Hook, Line & Sinker, starring Jerry Lewis
• If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium
• The Italian Job starring Michael Caine
• John and Mary
• Last Summer, starring Barbara Hershey, Richard Thomas, Bruce Davison, Catherine Burns
• The Love Bug
• The Magic Christian
• Marooned
• Medium Cool, directed by Haskell Wexler
• Midnight Cowboy
• Monte Carlo or Bust
• Mosquito Squadron, a British WWII action film
• My Night at Maud's
• Oh! What a Lovely War directed by Richard Attenborough with Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson and John Mills
• On Her Majesty's Secret Service
• Once Upon a Time in the West (U.S. release)
• Paint Your Wagon
• The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
• The Promise
• Rani Radovi (Early Years), Golden Bear winner
• The Reivers, starring Steve McQueen -(film only mentioned in article)
• Ring of Bright Water
• The Secret of Santa Vittoria
• The Sterile Cuckoo, starring Liza Minelli
• Support Your Local Sheriff!
• Sweet Charity
• Take the Money and Run
• They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
• This Man Must Die
• Topaz by director Alfred Hitchcock
• True Grit
• The Undefeated
• The Valley of Gwangi
• Where Eagles Dare (U.S. release)
• The Wild Bunch
• Winning ? starring Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward
• Women in Love
• Z, directed by Costa Gavras

Short Film Series

• Looney Tunes (1930-1969)
• Merrie Melodies (1931-1969)

Births

• February 11 - Jennifer Aniston, American actress
• April 23 - Byron Thames, American actor
• April 25 - Renée Zellweger, American actress
• May 14 - Cate Blanchett, Australian actress
• July 24 - Jennifer Lopez, American actress, singer
• August 18 - Edward Norton, American actor
• October 19- Trey Parker, American actor, creator of South Park
• December 21 - Julie Delpy, French actress

Film Debuts

• Sylvester Stallone
• Jon Voight

Deaths

• January 4 - Violet and Daisy Hilton, conjoined twins, actresses, appeared in film Freaks
• January 8 - Leslie Goodwins, director
• February 2 - Boris Karloff, actor
• February 4 - Thelma Ritter, actress
• February 11 - James Lanphier, actor
• February 27 - John Boles, actor
• May 24 - Mitzi Green, actress
• May 27 - Jeffrey Hunter, actor
• June 8 - Robert Taylor, actor
• June 10 - Frank Lawton, actor
• June 13 - Martita Hunt, actress
• June 19 - Natalie Talmadge, silent screen actress
• June 22 - Judy Garland, actress
• July 5 - Leo McCarey, director
• July 8 - Gladys Swarthout, actress
• August 9 - Sharon Tate, actress, murdered by Charles Manson Family, wife of director Roman Polanski
• August 14 - Sigrid Gurie, actress
• August 15 - William Goetz, producer, studio executive
• October 12 - Sonja Henie, actress, former Olympic ice skater
• October 15 - Rod La Roque, silent screen actor

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