Kon Ichikawa was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. His work displays a vast range in genre and style, from the anti-war films The Burmese Harp (1956) and Fires on the Plain (1959), to the documentary Tokyo Olympiad (1965), which won two BAFTA Film Awards, and the 19th-century revenge drama An Actor's Revenge (1963). His film Odd Obsession (1959) won the Jury Prize at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival.
Helene Bertha Amalie Riefenstahl was a German director, producer, screenwriter, editor, photographer and actress known for producing Nazi propaganda.
Masaki Kobayashi was a Japanese film director and screenwriter, best known for the epic trilogy The Human Condition (1959–1961), the samurai films Harakiri (1962) and Samurai Rebellion (1967), and the horror anthology Kwaidan (1964). Senses of Cinema described him as "one of the finest depicters of Japanese society in the 1950s and 1960s."
A Man and a Woman is a 1966 French romantic drama film directed by Claude Lelouch and starring Anouk Aimée and Jean-Louis Trintignant. Written by Pierre Uytterhoeven and Lelouch, the film concerns a young widow and widower who meet by chance at their children's boarding school and whose budding relationship is complicated by the memories of their deceased spouses. The film is known for its lush photography, which features frequent segues among full color, black-and-white, and sepia-toned shots, and for its music score by Francis Lai.
Dreams is a 1990 magical realist anthology film of eight vignettes written and directed by Akira Kurosawa, starring Akira Terao, Martin Scorsese, Chishū Ryū, Mieko Harada and Mitsuko Baisho. It was inspired by actual recurring dreams that Kurosawa said he had repeatedly. It was his first film in 45 years in which he was the sole author of the screenplay. An international co-production of Japan and the United States, Dreams was made five years after Ran, with assistance from George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, and funded by Warner Bros. The film was screened out of competition at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival, and has consistently received positive reviews.
John Richard Schlesinger was an English film and stage director, and actor. He emerged in the early 1960s as a leading light of the British New Wave, before embarking on a successful career in Hollywood, often directing films dealing frankly in provocative subject matter, combined with his status as one of the only openly-gay directors working in mainstream films.
Claude Barruck Joseph Lelouch is a French film director, writer, cinematographer, actor and producer. Lelouch grew up in an Algerian Jewish family. He emerged as a prominent director in the 1960s. Lelouch gained critical acclaim for his 1966 romantic melodrama film A Man and A Woman. At the 39th Academy Awards in 1967, A Man and a Woman won Best Original Screenplay and Best Foreign Language Film. Lelouch was also nominated for Best Director. While his films have gained him international recognition since the 1960s, Lelouch's methods and style of film are known for attracting criticism.
The Ballad of Narayama is a 1958 Japanese historical drama film directed by Keisuke Kinoshita. It is based on the 1956 novella of the same name by Shichirō Fukazawa. The film explores the legendary practice of ubasute, in which elderly people were carried to a mountain and abandoned to die.
Arthur Hiller Penn was an American director and producer of film, television and theater. Closely associated with the American New Wave, Penn directed critically acclaimed films throughout the 1960s such as the drama The Chase (1966), the biographical crime film Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and the comedy Alice's Restaurant (1969). He also received attention for his acclaimed revisionist Western Little Big Man (1970). Night Moves (1975) and The Missouri Breaks (1976), though commercially unsuccessful, generated positive reviews.
Eraclio Petri, commonly known as Elio Petri, was an Italian film and theatre director, screenwriter and film critic. The Museum of Modern Art described him as "one of the preeminent political and social satirists of 1960s and early 1970s Italian cinema". His film Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion won the 1971 Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language Film, and his subsequent film The Working Class Goes to Heaven received the Palme d'Or at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival.
Tokyo Olympiad, also known in Japan as Tōkyō Olympic, is a 1965 Japanese documentary film directed by Kon Ichikawa which documents the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Like Leni Riefenstahl's Olympia, which documented the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Ichikawa's film was considered a cinematographic milestone in documentary filmmaking. However, Tokyo Olympiad keeps its focus far more on the atmosphere of the games and the human side of the athletes rather than concentrating on winning and the results. It is one of the few sports documentaries included in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.
Koko: A Talking Gorilla is a 1978 French documentary film directed by Barbet Schroeder that focuses on Francine Patterson and her work with Koko, the gorilla. Patterson claims to have taught Koko to communicate with humans using symbols taken from American Sign Language. The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival.
Fires on the Plain is a 1959 Japanese war film directed by Kon Ichikawa, starring Eiji Funakoshi. The screenplay, written by Natto Wada, is based on the novel Nobi by Shōhei Ōoka, translated as Fires on the Plain. It initially received mixed reviews from both Japanese and international critics concerning its violence and bleak theme. In following decades, however, it has become highly regarded.
The Grand Olympics is a 1961 Italian documentary film, directed by Romolo Marcellini, made in 1961. It was nominated as Best Documentary Feature at 34th Academy Awards in 1961.
The 26th Cannes Film Festival was held from 10 to 25 May 1973. The Grand Prix du Festival International du Film went to Scarecrow by Jerry Schatzberg and The Hireling by Alan Bridges. At this festival two new non-competitive sections were added: 'Étude et documents' and 'Perspectives du Cinéma Français'.
Her Brother is a 1960 Japanese drama film directed by Kon Ichikawa. It is based on the novel Otōto by Aya Koda.
Birds Do It, Bees Do It is a 1974 American documentary film covering sexuality in the animal kingdom. It was directed by Nicolas Noxon and Irwin Rosten, and co-produced by David L. Wolper.
Jeffrey Friedman is an American filmmaker. In 2021, he and Rob Epstein won a Grammy Award for their work on the documentary film Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice
"13 jours en France" is a French film from 1968. Its English title is "13 Days in France." The film was directed by French filmmakers Claude Lelouch and François Reichenbach. It takes the form of a documentary-style film, featuring scenes shot in various regions of France.
David Lloyd Wolper was an American television and film producer, responsible for shows such as Roots, The Thorn Birds, and North and South, and the theatrically-released films Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) and L.A. Confidential. He was awarded the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the 57th Academy Awards in 1985 for his work producing the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, as well as helping to bring the games there. His 1971 film about the study of insects, The Hellstrom Chronicle, won an Academy Award.
