# An Unmarried Woman
*An Unmarried Woman* is a 1978 American comedy-drama written and directed by [Paul Mazursky](https://www.edgepedia.org/paul-mazursky), starring [Jill Clayburgh](https://www.edgepedia.org/jill-clayburgh) as Erica Benton, a Manhattan woman who rebuilds her life after her husband leaves her for a younger woman.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/57048-AN-UNMARRIED-WOMAN) The film was a commercial and critical success, earned three Academy Award nominations, and won Jill Clayburgh a share of the Best Actress award at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival.[2](https://watch.afi.com/movie/an-unmarried-woman) • [3](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/an-unmarried-woman/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director and writer | Paul Mazursky, who also produced with Tony Ray[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/57048-AN-UNMARRIED-WOMAN) |
| Lead cast | Jill Clayburgh (Erica), Alan Bates (Saul Kaplan), Michael Murphy (Martin Benton)[4](https://www.criterion.com/films/29597-an-unmarried-woman) |
| Release | New York opening 5 March 1978; Los Angeles opening 8 March 1978; produced by Twentieth Century-Fox[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/57048-AN-UNMARRIED-WOMAN) |
| Format | 124 minutes, color, rated R, English language[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/57048-AN-UNMARRIED-WOMAN) |
| Cannes | Award for Best Actress (ex-aequo), 1978[3](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/an-unmarried-woman/) |
| Academy Awards | Nominated for Best Picture, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay[2](https://watch.afi.com/movie/an-unmarried-woman) |
| Domestic box office | $24,000,000[5](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Unmarried-Woman-An) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Erica Benton lives on Manhattan's Upper East Side with her husband Martin (Michael Murphy), a stockbroker, and their teenage daughter Patti (Lisa Lucas); Erica works at a SoHo art gallery.[2](https://watch.afi.com/movie/an-unmarried-woman) After sixteen years of marriage, Martin breaks down on the street and tells Erica he has been having an affair for over a year with a younger woman and wants to live with her.[6](https://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/films/reviews/view/7279/an-unmarried-woman)
At the urging of her female therapist, Erica ventures into single life, finding support in her circle of women friends and beginning to explore her independence.[2](https://watch.afi.com/movie/an-unmarried-woman) Her friends are each at different stages of marriage and divorce: Elaine ([Kelly Bishop](https://www.edgepedia.org/kelly-bishop)) is divorced, Jeannette (Linda Miller) is having an affair with a nineteen-year-old, and Sue (Pat Quinn) tolerates rather than enjoys her marriage.[6](https://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/films/reviews/view/7279/an-unmarried-woman) Erica comes to like her freedom, but when she falls in love with the artist Saul Kaplan ([Alan Bates](https://www.edgepedia.org/alan-bates)), she must choose between a lucrative job offer and spending the summer with him in Vermont.[2](https://watch.afi.com/movie/an-unmarried-woman) The film ends on what the [American Film Institute](https://www.edgepedia.org/american-film-institute)'s synopsis calls a note of reserved affirmation, and it provoked audience debate over Erica's final choice and its meaning for women.[2](https://watch.afi.com/movie/an-unmarried-woman)
## Origins and production
**The title.** Mazursky conceived the story idea between 1974 and 1975, after one of his wife's friends, who was divorced, bought a house and was instructed to sign "an unmarried woman" next to her name on the deed. He felt the phrase would make a strong title while also indicating a stigma attached to single women.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/57048-AN-UNMARRIED-WOMAN) He then interviewed women in his circle who had experienced upheavals in long-term marriages, conversations that formed the basis of the script; he said he did not want to create a guide to women's liberation, believing men could also identify with the story, and emphasized that the cheating spouse was not essential to the plot.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/57048-AN-UNMARRIED-WOMAN)
**Casting and shooting.** Mazursky wrote the script in May and June of 1976 and spent about six months in New York preparing, looking for locations in SoHo.[7](https://www.filmcomment.com/article/paul-mazursky-interview/) Production began on 5 April 1977 in New York City.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/57048-AN-UNMARRIED-WOMAN) He chose Jill Clayburgh over better-known actresses after she read for him on two earlier films and then impressed friends who saw her in the television film *Hustling*; he later said she turned out to be better than he could have expected.[8](https://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/paul-mazursky-an-unmarried-woman) The end credits carry the dedication "For Betsy," in honor of Mazursky's twenty-fifth wedding anniversary with his wife.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/57048-AN-UNMARRIED-WOMAN)
The crew included cinematographer Arthur Ornitz, editor Stuart H. Pappé, production designer Pato Guzman, and composer [Bill Conti](https://www.edgepedia.org/bill-conti).[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/57048-AN-UNMARRIED-WOMAN) The critic Richard Brody, writing in *The New Yorker*, described the film's documentary-style geographical specificity, a catalog of Manhattan locations, and Mazursky's choreographic staging of his characters in motion.[9](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/an-unmarried-woman)
## Reception and significance
The film was a hit with 1978 audiences and was praised for Clayburgh's performance, though some critics, including feminists, complained that the character of Saul was too much of a romantic fantasy.[2](https://watch.afi.com/movie/an-unmarried-woman) At Cannes it received the Award for Best Actress (ex-aequo), shared by Clayburgh with [Isabelle Huppert](https://www.edgepedia.org/isabelle-huppert) for *Violette*; the film was also in competition for the main prize.[3](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/an-unmarried-woman/) • [10](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6975-an-unmarried-woman-the-business-of-being-a-woman) In the United States it earned Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay, and five Golden Globe nominations for 1979: Best Motion Picture (Drama), Best Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Director, and Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama), with no wins.[2](https://watch.afi.com/movie/an-unmarried-woman) • [11](https://goldenglobes.com/film/unmarried-woman-an/) The domestic box office was $24,000,000.[5](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Unmarried-Woman-An)
**A feminist landmark.** The film is grouped with the women's pictures made in the wake of post-1960s feminism, alongside *Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore* (1974) and *The Turning Point* (1977), and it updated the genre by turning the heroine's unwedded status into a positive growth experience.[2](https://watch.afi.com/movie/an-unmarried-woman) [The Criterion Collection](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-criterion-collection) describes it as candidly addressing sex, intimacy, loneliness, and divorce from an unabashedly feminist perspective, asserting that a woman's most important relationship is the one she has with herself.[4](https://www.criterion.com/films/29597-an-unmarried-woman) The *San Francisco Chronicle* called it "the defining feminist film of the decade and one of the most important women's vehicles in popular American cinema."[12](https://www.austinfilm.org/films/an-unmarried-woman/) Feminist film criticism has also offered reservations: one essay noted that it is "simply too easy to make a film about the liberation of an upper-class career woman with a lucrative position in the fashionable art world," and grouped the film with *Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore* as the two Hollywood films generally singled out to represent feminism.[13](https://publish.iupress.indiana.edu/read/issues-in-feminist-film-criticism/section/9ef46df0-afc2-4cbd-9892-fac666b3c175)
The film also marked a turning point in Clayburgh's career, bringing her first Academy Award nomination.[10](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6975-an-unmarried-woman-the-business-of-being-a-woman) A 2011 article in *American Journal of Psychoanalysis* placed the film alongside *Eat, Pray, Love* (2010) and *Kramer vs. Kramer* (1979) as movies whose protagonists grow through the process of divorce, each achieving a level of autonomy that seemed unattainable within their marriage.[14](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21673691/) The Criterion Collection released a 4K restoration on Blu-ray as Spine #1032, with a 2005 audio commentary from Mazursky and Clayburgh and new interviews with Michael Murphy and Lisa Lucas.[4](https://www.criterion.com/films/29597-an-unmarried-woman)
## References
1. [An Unmarried Woman (1978), AFI Catalog](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/57048-AN-UNMARRIED-WOMAN)
2. [An Unmarried Woman, American Film Institute (synopsis by Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide)](https://watch.afi.com/movie/an-unmarried-woman)
3. [An Unmarried Woman, Festival de Cannes](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/an-unmarried-woman/)
4. [An Unmarried Woman (1978), The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/films/29597-an-unmarried-woman)
5. [An Unmarried Woman (1978), The Numbers](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Unmarried-Woman-An)
6. [An Unmarried Woman, film review, Spirituality & Practice](https://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/films/reviews/view/7279/an-unmarried-woman)
7. [Interview: Paul Mazursky, Film Comment (Mar-Apr 1978)](https://www.filmcomment.com/article/paul-mazursky-interview/)
8. [Paul Mazursky: "An unmarried woman…", RogerEbert.com](https://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/paul-mazursky-an-unmarried-woman)
9. [An Unmarried Woman, The New Yorker (Richard Brody, 2015)](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/an-unmarried-woman)
10. [An Unmarried Woman: The Business of Being a Woman, The Criterion Collection (Angelica Jade Bastién, 2020)](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6975-an-unmarried-woman-the-business-of-being-a-woman)
11. [Unmarried Woman, An, Golden Globes Awards Database](https://goldenglobes.com/film/unmarried-woman-an/)
12. [An Unmarried Woman, Austin Film Society](https://www.austinfilm.org/films/an-unmarried-woman/)
13. [Issues in Feminist Film Criticism, Indiana University Press](https://publish.iupress.indiana.edu/read/issues-in-feminist-film-criticism/section/9ef46df0-afc2-4cbd-9892-fac666b3c175)
14. [Psychological tasks associated with divorce: Eat, Pray, Love (2010), An Unmarried Woman (1978), and Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), American Journal of Psychoanalysis](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21673691/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of the 1970s › Released 1977 to 1979*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 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