Events

• February 8 - Bob Dylan's hour long documentary film, Eat the Document, premieres at New York's Academy of Music. The film includes footage from Dylan's 1966 UK tour
• The first permanent IMAX projection system is installed at Ontario Place's "Cinesphere" in Toronto.
• April 23 - The film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song becomes the highest-grossing independent film of 1971.

Top grossing films (U.S.)

Awards

Best Picture: The French Connection - D'Antoni-Schine-Moore, 20th Century-Fox

Best Director: William Friedkin - The French Connection

Best Actor: Gene Hackman - The French Connection

Best Actress: Jane Fonda - Klute

Best Supporting Actor: Ben Johnson - The Last Picture Show

Best Supporting Actress: - Cloris Leachman - The Last Picture Show

Best Foreign Language Film: The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (Il Giardino dei Finzi-Contini), directed by Vittorio De Sica, Italy / W. Germany

Drama:

Best Picture: The French Connection

Best Actor: Gene Hackman - The French Connection

Best Actress: Jane Fonda - Klute

Musical or comedy:

Best Picture: Fiddler on the Roof

Best Actor: Topol - Fiddler on the Roof

Best Actress: Twiggy - The Boy Friend

Other

Best Director: William Friedkin - The French Connection

The Go-Between, directed by Joseph Losey, United Kingdom

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (Il Giardino dei Finzi-Contini), directed by Vittorio De Sica, Italy / W. Germany

Films released in 1971

• The Abominable Dr. Phibes, starring Vincent Price
• A Clockwork Orange
• And Now For Something Completely Different
• The Andromeda Strain
• Bananas - Woody Allen
• The Barefoot Executive
• Bedknobs and Broomsticks
• The Big Doll House
• Big Jake
• Billy Jack Re-Released in 1973
• Born to Win
• The Boy Friend
• Brian's Song
• Carnal Knowledge
• Carry On at Your Convenience
• Carry On Henry
• Countess Dracula
• Death in Venice (Morte a Venezia)
• The Devils
• Diamonds Are Forever
• Dirty Harry
• Duel
• The Emigrants
• Escape from the Planet of the Apes
• The French Connection
• Fiddler on the Roof
• Gamera vs. Zigra
• The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (Il Giardino dei Finzi-Contini)
• Gas-s-s-s
• The Go-Between Palme d'Or winner
• Godzilla vs. Hedorah
• Guddi
• Harold and Maude
• The Hired Hand
• The Hospital
• I, Monster
• Julius Caesar (U.S. release)
• Just avant la nuit (aka Just Before Nightfall)
• Klute, starring Jane Fonda
• Kotch, starring Walter Matthau
• The Last Picture Show
• Love
• Macbeth
• Made for Each Other
• McCabe & Mrs. Miller
• Melody
• Mon oncle Antoine, considered by critics the greatest Canadian film of all time
• A New Leaf, starring Elaine May and Walter Matthau
• Nicholas and Alexandra
• The Omega Man
• On the Buses
• The Panic in Needle Park starring Al Pacino
• Play Misty For Me starring Clint Eastwood
• Plaza Suite, starring Walter Matthau
• A Safe Place
• Shaft
• She Killed in Ecstasy
• Skin Game
• Something Big
• Straw Dogs
• Summer of '42
• Support Your Local Gunfighter
• Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song
• The Tales of Beatrix Potter
• They Call Me Trinity, spaghetti western with Terence Hill
• THX 1138
• The Touch of Satan
• Trafic
• Twitch of the Death Nerve
• Two-Lane Blacktop
• Up Pompeii
• Valdez Is Coming
• Vanishing Point
• Von Richthofen and Brown (a.k.a. The Red Baron)
• Wake in Fright
• Walkabout, directed by Nicolas Roeg
• Waterloo (U.S. release)
• Le Wazzou polygame
• Werewolves on Wheels
• Who Killed Mary What's 'Er Name?
• Wild Riders
• Willard
• Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
• The Working Class Goes to Heaven, Palme d'Or winner
• W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism

Births

• January 2 - Taye Diggs, actor
• January 11 - Mary J. Blige, musician
• January 15 - Regina King, actor
• January 17 - Kid Rock, musician
• February 1 - Michael C. Hall, actor
• February 1 - Jill Kelly, adult actress
• February 11 - Damien Lewis, actor
• February 15 - Alex Borstein, actress
• February 17 - Denise Richards, actress
• February 24 - Stephen Petit, actor and musician
• March 7 - Peter Sarsgaard, actor
• March 7 - Rachel Weisz, actress
• March 13 - Annabeth Gish, actress
• March 27 - Nathan Fillion, actor
• March 31 - Ewan McGregor actor
• April 1 - Method Man actor and musician
• April 12 - Shannon Doherty actress
• April 18 - David Tennant actor
• May 14 - Sofia Coppola, actress, writer, and director
• May 27 - Lisa "Left Eye" Lopez singer and actress
• May 27 - Paul Bettany actor
• June 4 - Noah Wyle actor
• June 5 - Mark Wahlberg actor and musician
• June 16 - Tupac Shakur actor and musician
• July 1 - Missy Elliott musician and actress
• July 16 - Corey Feldman actor
• August 10 - Justin Theroux, actor
• August 29 - Carla Gugino, actress.
• August 31 - Chris Tucker, actor
• September 16 - Amy Poehler, actress
• September 18 - Jada Pinkett-Smith, actress
• September 21 - Luke Wilson, actor
• October 20 - Snoop Dogg, musician and actor
• October 29 - Winona Ryder, actress
• November 25 - Christina Applegate actress
• December 1 - Emily Mortimer actress
• December 7 - Chasey Lain adult actress
• December 23 - Corey Haim, actor
• December 26 - Jared Leto, actor and musician

Deaths

• January 5 - Douglas Shearer, pioneer motion-picture sound engineer
• January 15 - John Dall, actor
• February 26 - Fernandel, actor
• March 8 – Harold Lloyd, silent screen comedian
• March 15 - Bebe Daniels, actress
• May 1 - Glenda Farrell, actress
• May 27 - Chips Rafferty, Australian actor
• May 28 - Audie Murphy, World War II hero became film actor after the war
• July 3 - Jim Morrison, songwriter, poet, musician
• July 6 - Louis Armstrong, musician, actor
• July 23 - Van Heflin, actor
• August 15 - Paul Lukas, actor
• September 7 - Spring Byington, actress
• September 10 - Pier Angeli, actress
• September 11 - Bella Darvi, actress
• October 11 - Chester Conklin, actor
• October 26 - Vincent Coleman, actor
• November 17 - Gladys Cooper, actress
• December 13 - Dita Parlo, actress
• December 18 - Diana Lynn, actress
• December 28 - Max Steiner, film composer
• December 30 - Dorothy Comingore, actress best known as Susan Kane in Citizen Kane
• December 31 - Pete Duel 31, actor (suicide)
• December 31 - Marin Sais, actress

Film Debuts

• Morgan Freeman