40 years on: Star Wars at the Oscars – part three

George Lucas (bottom right) breaks into a smile as the winner of the Best Director Oscar is announced

Today, we conclude our look at the Academy Awards of April 3, 1978. It was one of the most controversial, often uncomfortable, Oscar ceremonies ever. 

As the biggest awards of the night loomed, how would Star Wars fare against Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Julia, The Goodbye Girl and Annie Hall? 

The critics strike back: How Star Wars was blamed for the death of intelligent film-making

George Lucas: The man responsible for the death of
grown-up cinema, according to some commentators

As we saw in this post about the contemporary reviews of Star Wars, the film met with an overwhelmingly positive reception in 1977. But within a few years, Star Wars was being held responsible for everything that was wrong with cinema.