Betrayal was nominated for Adapted Screenplay, by Harold Pinter, but the winner was James L. Brooks for “Terms of Endearment,” which also won Best Picture and other awards.

Kubrick's Lolita received one Oscar nominations, Adapted Screenplay by the writer Vladimir Nabokov, upon whose novel the movie is based; the
winner, however, was Horton Foote for “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

Each of the other 1976 Best Picture nominees was artistically more interesting. Pakula's “All the President's Men” was a good political thriller about the Watergate scandal, and Lumet's farce “Network,” about the potential power of television, was timely and outrageous. Scorsese followed up Mean Street with “Taxi Driver,” about political and social alienation. Of the five, however, “Rocky”'s message, the rise to stardom of an obscure “nobody,” which paralleled both the actor's life offscreen and President Carter's 1976 election, was the most upbeat and thus befitting of the nation's mood in its Bicentennial celebrations.

In 1974, two movies were nominated for 11 Oscars: The Godfather, Part II and Polanski's Depression-era, well-crafted noir “Chinatown.” While Coppola's second installment won the largest (6) number of awards, “Chinatown” received only one, for Original Screenplay.

The movie was nominated for three major Oscars, Picture (produced by Henry Fonda and Reginald Rose), director for Sidney Lumet, and Screenplay (Adapted) for Reginald Rose, but won none. David Lean's epic adventure “Bridge on the River Kwai” won in every category it was nominated but Supporting Actor.