The 1974 Critics Consensus Awards
If the 1970s were the premier decade for great American filmmaking, there's a strong argument for 1974 as the premier year of that decade. Yet the sheer plethora of brilliant titles from which the critics could choose that year led to a serious splitting of votes in their year-end awards and polls, and the movie that came out on top wasn't even American at all: Ingmar Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage wins both Best Picture and Screenplay in the 1974 Critics Consensus Awards. The year's two biggest Oscar contenders, and oft-mentioned among the greatest movies of all time - Chinatown and The Godfather: Part II - placed second across four of the seven categories, but first in none, and indeed only joint fifth in Best Picture. This is a notable year for the CCA in that none of these winners won their respective Oscars; in fact, only two of the seven were actually nominated, and Lenny's Valerie Perrine was recognized in different categories with the different awards. Gene Hackman wins his second CCA, the first male actor to do so after winning for The French Connection, and three of the seven awards go to non-English language pictures. All the 1974 winners below.
Best Picture
Scenes from a Marriage (Ingmar Bergman and Lars-Owe Carlberg)
Best Director
Francis Ford Coppola (The Conversation)
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Gena Rowlands (A Woman Under the Influence)
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Gene Hackman (The Conversation)
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Valerie Perrine (Lenny)
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Holger Lowenadler (Lacombe, Lucien)
Best Screenplay
Ingmar Bergman (Scenes from a Marriage)