Arguably, 1977 marked the release of one of the greatest films of all time—certainly one of the most influential. But I don’t mean Annie Hall (1977, Jack Rollins and Charles H. Joffe Production; United Artists). No, I’m talking about George Lucas’s culture-altering masterpiece, Star Wars. The first installment of the Star Wars series cost Lucas and his team about $11 million to make. The Star Wars franchise is now estimated to be worth a cool $7.5 billion. Not only that, Star Wars entered the 1978 Academy Awards as one of the frontrunners with 11 nominations and emerged the night’s biggest winner with 6 competitive Oscars and 1 special achievement award for Benjamin Burtt, Jr. (“for the creation of the alien, creature and robot voices featured in Star Wars“), even though the film lost the highest prize to Annie Hall. However, most people could care less how many awards the Star Wars films have garnered over the years or how much money they’ve made. Whatever the accolades, there’s just something special about those films—from the iconic characters to the famous lines that we can’t forget, the epic struggle between good and evil portrayed in Star Wars strikes a chord with almost everyone. It says something about what it is to be human and to constantly face dilemmas in which you find yourself overlooked, outnumbered, and overwhelmed. And yet somehow…good always wins. That’s nice.

On the flip side of that mountain of morality, there’s Annie Hall, a film about a couple of pretty ordinary people who probably love each other. It’s an odd film—sometimes it’s funny, other times it’s dull or even annoying. The movie blends “interview scenes” with subtitled episodes, cartoon segments, and “normal” camera shots; and characters (namely Woody Allen’s Alvy Singer) frequently break the fourth wall and speak directly to the camera. Personally, I strongly dislike films that employ that technique…Yet Annie Hall both then and now frequently receives very positive reviews for portraying the reality of 1970s culture: “politics, drugs, East Coast/West Coast rivalry, narcissism, religion, [and] celebrity.”

Breaking the fourth wall in Annie Hall.

Although five other films at the Oscars in 1978 either tied or exceeded Annie Hall in nominations (Star Wars, Julia, and The Turning Point with 11; Close Encounters of the Third Kind with 9; and The Goodbye Girl with 5), Woody Allen’s film took home the highest prize and almost joined the ranks of It Happened One Night (1934) and One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) as a winner of the Big Five, falling just one Oscar short (when Woody Allen failed to win Best Actor). Out of its five nominations, Annie Hall took home statuettes for Best Picture, Writing (Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen—based on factual material or on story material not previously published or produced), Directing for Woody Allen, and Actress in a Leading Role for Diane Keaton as Annie Hall.

Diane Keaton, or Annie Hall…

Here are a couple of fun facts in closing today: Diane Keaton’s birth name is Diane Hall, and her nickname is Annie…and she had a brief romantic relationship with Woody Allen in 1970-71, so maybe Annie Hall is more than a bit autobiographical for Woody Allen. The couple/ex-couple have collaborated on eight films together to date: Play It Again, Sam (1972; an obvious nod to 1943’s Casablanca), Sleeper (1973), Love and Death (1975), Annie Hall (1977), Interiors (1978), Manhattan (1979), Radio Days (1987), and Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993). So it looks like Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper have some work to do if they want to collaborate as much as Keaton and Allen.

For more thoughts on Annie Hall and its significance, please check out the full post this weekend!