# 1981 in film
1981 in film covers the motion pictures released that year and the industry events surrounding them. The year's releases included [Steven Spielberg](https://www.edgepedia.org/steven-spielberg)'s *Raiders of the Lost Ark*, Hugh Hudson's *Chariots of Fire*, Warren Beatty's *Reds*, [Wolfgang Petersen](https://www.edgepedia.org/wolfgang-petersen)'s *Das Boot*, and [Brian De Palma](https://www.edgepedia.org/brian-de-palma)'s *Blow Out*, and the 54th Academy Awards held in March 1982 honored this release year, naming *Chariots of Fire* Best Picture.[1](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1982/O)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Best Picture (54th Academy Awards) | *Chariots of Fire*, produced by David Puttnam; it won 4 Oscars from 7 nominations[1](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1982/O) |
| Highest-grossing film | *Raiders of the Lost Ark*, with $367,451,914 worldwide[2](https://www.whatsafterthemovie.com/movies/collection/best-1981-movies) • [15](https://www.the-numbers.com/box-office-records/worldwide/all-movies/cumulative/released-in-1981) |
| Top-ranked film by critics | *Raiders of the Lost Ark* (Steven Spielberg), first on the Film Index 1981 list at 86.7 from 8 of 8 sources[3](https://moviesranking.com/top?from=1981&limit=100&to=1981) |
| First-time Oscar category | Best Makeup, first awarded competitively for films of 1981, won by Rick Baker for *An American Werewolf in London*[4](https://www.filmsite.org/1981-filmhistory.html) • [1](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1982/O) |
| Industry milestone | MTV began broadcasting on August 1, 1981[4](https://www.filmsite.org/1981-filmhistory.html) |
| Studio consolidation | United Artists was merged with MGM in 1981 to form MGM/UA[5](https://www.filmsite.org/80sintro.html) |
## Major releases and critical standing
**Raiders of the Lost Ark** was the first collaboration between producer [George Lucas](https://www.edgepedia.org/george-lucas) and director Steven Spielberg, and it became the model escapist-adventure film of the early 1980s blockbuster era.[4](https://www.filmsite.org/1981-filmhistory.html) • [5](https://www.filmsite.org/80sintro.html) At the 54th Academy Awards it won four Oscars: Art Direction, Film Editing (Michael Kahn), Sound, and Visual Effects, plus a Special Achievement Award for Sound Effects Editing.[1](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1982/O) On aggregate critic rankings it placed first among 1981 releases, at 86.7 on the Film Index weighted-critic list.[3](https://moviesranking.com/top?from=1981&limit=100&to=1981)
**Chariots of Fire**, Hugh Hudson's drama about British runners at the 1924 Olympics, was shown in competition at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1981, where [Ian Holm](https://www.edgepedia.org/ian-holm) won the Best Supporting Actor award.[6](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/70952-CHARIOTS-OF-FIRE) It went on to win four Academy Awards: Best Picture, Original Screenplay (Colin Welland), Original Score (Vangelis), and Costume Design (Milena Canonero).[1](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1982/O) At the [National Board of Review](https://www.edgepedia.org/national-board-of-review) it tied for Best Picture with *Reds*.[7](https://nighthawknews.wordpress.com/2011/03/13/the-year-in-film-1981/)
**Reds**, [Warren Beatty](https://www.edgepedia.org/warren-beatty)'s epic about journalist John Reed, earned Beatty the Oscar for Best Directing, and [Maureen Stapleton](https://www.edgepedia.org/maureen-stapleton) won Supporting Actress for the film.[1](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1982/O) *On Golden Pond* led the nominations with 10, winning three acting and screenplay awards, including a fourth Best Actress Oscar for Katharine Hepburn, a record for a single performer at the time.[1](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1982/O) • [4](https://www.filmsite.org/1981-filmhistory.html)
Other releases drew strong critical followings. *Blow Out* (Brian De Palma) topped one blended critic-and-audience ranking of the year at a rank value of 84/100, ahead of *Raiders of the Lost Ark* at 83.[2](https://www.whatsafterthemovie.com/movies/collection/best-1981-movies) *Das Boot* (Wolfgang Petersen), *My Dinner with Andre* ([Louis Malle](https://www.edgepedia.org/louis-malle)), *Diva* (Jean-Jacques Beineix), *Mad Max 2* ([George Miller](https://www.edgepedia.org/george-miller)), *Thief* ([Michael Mann](https://www.edgepedia.org/michael-mann)), and *Mephisto* (István Szabó) all placed in the top tier of 1981 critic rankings.[3](https://moviesranking.com/top?from=1981&limit=100&to=1981) *Mephisto* went on to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for Hungary.[1](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1982/O) Genre entries included John Landis's *An American Werewolf in London* and John Carpenter's *Escape from New York*, set in a future 1997 after a third world war.[8](https://www.filmsite.org/1981.html) Peter Hyams's science-fiction drama *Outland*, starring in a space-station setting and heavily indebted to *High Noon*, was released by Warner Bros. on May 22, 1981.[9](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/outland)
## The 54th Academy Awards
The ceremony honoring 1981's films was held on Monday, March 29, 1982, at the [Dorothy Chandler Pavilion](https://www.edgepedia.org/dorothy-chandler-pavilion).[1](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1982/O) Henry Fonda won Best Actor for *On Golden Pond* and [John Gielgud](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-gielgud) won Supporting Actor for *Arthur*, which also took Original Song for "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)".[1](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1982/O) The year also marked the first time a competitive Oscar category for Best Makeup existed; [Rick Baker](https://www.edgepedia.org/rick-baker) won for *An American Werewolf in London*.[4](https://www.filmsite.org/1981-filmhistory.html) • [1](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1982/O) Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award went to Bond producer Albert R. Broccoli, and Danny Kaye received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.[1](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1982/O)
## Industry events and firsts
**New technology and distribution.** The music-video cable network MTV began broadcasting on August 1, 1981, at 12:01 am, with the Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star" as the first video aired; producer [Don Simpson](https://www.edgepedia.org/don-simpson) later became the first producer to exploit the channel's significance for film marketing.[4](https://www.filmsite.org/1981-filmhistory.html) • [5](https://www.filmsite.org/80sintro.html) Michael Crichton's high-tech thriller *Looker* (1981) was the first major film to create 3D shading with a computer, producing the first CGI human character, a model named "Cindy" played by Susan Dey.[4](https://www.filmsite.org/1981-filmhistory.html)
**Independent film.** The 3rd Annual U.S. Film and Video Festival, the event later renamed the Sundance Film Festival, opened in Park City, Utah, on January 25, 1981; Roger Ebert reported from it that attendees could not agree on a single definition of an "independent filmmaker," with budgets ranging from the $70,000 of *The Haunting of M* to the $700,000 of *Heartland*.[10](https://www.rogerebert.com/features/sundance-before-it-was-sundance) Robert Redford's Sundance Institute, established in 1980, took over the Utah/US Film Festival later in the decade and renamed it.[5](https://www.filmsite.org/80sintro.html) Jessie Maple's *Will* (1981), preserved in a joint 4K restoration by the Black Film Center & Archive, the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the Center for African American Media Arts, has since been shown at MoMA's film preservation festival.[11](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/10208)
**Studio business.** United Artists, still reeling from Michael Cimino's *Heaven's Gate*, whose re-cut re-release in 1981 still failed and which lost at least $40 million, was merged with MGM in 1981 to form MGM/UA.[5](https://www.filmsite.org/80sintro.html) The Korean War epic *Inchon* (1981), produced by the Reunification Church, cost about $50 million and earned only about $5 million in the United States before being withdrawn.[5](https://www.filmsite.org/80sintro.html) Milos Forman's *Ragtime* (1981) brought James Cagney back to the screen after 20 years of retirement.[5](https://www.filmsite.org/80sintro.html)
## Box office and popular culture
The year's biggest commercial hit was *Superman II*, which earned $216.4 million worldwide; by contrast, the best-rated film on one aggregated ranking, *Blow Out*, earned $12 million worldwide.[2](https://www.whatsafterthemovie.com/movies/collection/best-1981-movies) One film database lists 1,441 films released in 1981, of which 98 have enough ratings to be ranked.[2](https://www.whatsafterthemovie.com/movies/collection/best-1981-movies) Sheena Easton's "For Your Eyes Only," the theme from the 1981 Bond film, reached the top 10.[12](https://time.com/4079504/james-bond-facts-trivia/) British music cinema flourished: Madness's *Take It Or Leave It* (1981), produced and directed by Stiff Records' Dave Robinson with no written script and improvised dialogue, was released alongside the band's third album *Seven*, and the concert film *Dance Craze* also dates from 1981.[13](https://www.bfi.org.uk/news/take-it-or-leave-it-starring-madness-coming-back-cinemas-new-restoration) In India, *Love Story* (1981) focused for the first time in that cinema's romantic line on teenage romance.[14](https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/the-art-of-bollywood)
## References
1. [The 54th Academy Awards (1982), Oscars.org](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1982/O)
2. [Best Movies of 1981, Ranked, What's After the Movie](https://www.whatsafterthemovie.com/movies/collection/best-1981-movies)
3. [Best 500 Films · 1981, The Film Index](https://moviesranking.com/top?from=1981&limit=100&to=1981)
4. [Film History Milestones – 1981, Filmsite](https://www.filmsite.org/1981-filmhistory.html)
5. [Film History of the 1980s, Filmsite](https://www.filmsite.org/80sintro.html)
6. [Chariots of Fire, AFI Catalog](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/70952-CHARIOTS-OF-FIRE)
7. [The Year in Film: 1981, Nighthawk News](https://nighthawknews.wordpress.com/2011/03/13/the-year-in-film-1981/)
8. [Greatest Films of 1981, Filmsite](https://www.filmsite.org/1981.html)
9. [Outland, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/outland)
10. [Sundance before it was Sundance, RogerEbert.com](https://www.rogerebert.com/features/sundance-before-it-was-sundance)
11. [Will. 1981. Directed by Jessie Maple, MoMA](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/10208)
12. [50 Things You Didn't Know About James Bond, TIME](https://time.com/4079504/james-bond-facts-trivia/)
13. [Take It Or Leave It, starring Madness, coming back to cinemas in a new restoration, BFI](https://www.bfi.org.uk/news/take-it-or-leave-it-starring-madness-coming-back-cinemas-new-restoration)
14. [The art of Bollywood, V&A](https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/the-art-of-bollywood)
15. [The Numbers - Where Data and the Movie Business Meet](https://www.the-numbers.com/box-office-records/worldwide/all-movies/cumulative/released-in-1981)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › National and regional cinemas by year*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license