The year 1974 in film involved some significant events.
John Holland Cazale was an American actor. He appeared in five films over seven years, each of which was nominated as Best Picture at their respective Academy Awards. Cazale started as a theater actor in New York City, ranging from regional, to off-Broadway, to Broadway acting alongside Al Pacino, Meryl Streep and Sam Waterston. Cazale soon became one of Hollywood's premier character actors, starting with his role as the doomed, weak-minded Fredo Corleone opposite longtime friend Pacino in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974). He acted in Coppola's The Conversation (1974) and Sidney Lumet's Dog Day Afternoon (1975). In 1977, Cazale was diagnosed with lung cancer, but he chose to complete his role in The Deer Hunter (1978). He died shortly after, in New York City on March 13, 1978.
The Kiryat Shmona massacre was an attack by three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command on civilians in Kiryat Shmona, Israel during the Jewish holiday of Passover on 11 April 1974. Eighteen people were killed, 8 of them children, and 16 people were wounded.
Kaveret, also known as Poogy, was an Israeli pop rock band, which operated originally from 1973 to 1976. Representing Israel in the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest, its songs featured humorous lyrics and ironic musical references. Kaveret is widely considered a breakthrough band in Israeli rock and pop history, and its members have had notable solo careers.
Moshé Mizrahi was an Israeli film director.
Abby Mann was an American film writer and producer.
Assaf "Assi" Dayan was an Israeli film director, actor, screenwriter, and producer.
Boaz Davidson is an Israeli film director, producer and screenwriter. He was born in Tel Aviv, Israel and studied film in London at London Film School.
The Odessa File is a 1974 thriller film, adapted from the 1972 novel of the same name by Frederick Forsyth, about a reporter's investigation into the ODESSA: an organisation set up to protect former members of the SS in post-Second World War West Germany. The film stars Jon Voight, Mary Tamm, Maximilian Schell and Maria Schell and was directed by Ronald Neame, with a score by Andrew Lloyd Webber. It was the only film that the Schell siblings made together.
Bourekas films were a genre of Israeli-made comic melodrama films popular in Israel in the 1960s and 1970s.
The Pedestrian is a 1973 film directed by Maximilian Schell. It is about the trial of an elderly war criminal. The film was a co-production between companies in Germany, Switzerland and Israel; the movie was distributed in the United States by Cinerama Releasing Corporation.
Etan Cohen is an Israeli-American screenwriter and film director who has written scripts for Hollywood movies, including Idiocracy, Tropic Thunder, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Men in Black 3, and The Bad Guys.
Dan Wolman is an Israeli filmmaker and lecturer in film studies.
Ze'ev Nachum Revach is an Israeli comedian, film and theatre actor, and filmmaker. He has been one of the stars of the Israeli film genre known as Bourekas films.
Kazablan is an early Israeli Hebrew language play, staged first as a 1954 drama followed by a 1964 screen adaptation, later as a 1966 musical comedy, and still later produced as a 1974 musical comedy film. The name Kazablan comes from Casablanca, the birthplace of the main character.
Lepke is a 1975 film starring Tony Curtis as the Jewish-American gangster Louis "Lepke" Buchalter. It is often regarded by film critics as one of Tony Curtis's most underrated movies and one of his finest performances
The Mainspring is a 1916 American silent drama film directed by Jack Conway and starring Ben F. Wilson, Wilbur Higby and Francelia Billington.
