Die 50ste Oscar-toekenningsaand is op 3 April1978 deur die Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles gehou om erkenning te gee aan die rolprente van 1977. Bob Hope was vir die 18de en laaste keer die aanbieder.
Twee van die jaar se grootste wenners was Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, wat veral in die tegniese kategorieë uitgeblink het, en Annie Hall, wat vier van sy vyf benoemings gewen het, onder meer beste rolprent, aktrise en regisseur. Die seremonie word ook onthou vir die politiek gelaaide toespraak van Vanessa Redgrave.
The Turning Point het ’n nuwe rekord opgestel vir die prent met die meeste benoemings wat nie een Oscar gewen het nie met 11 benoemings. Die vorige rekord is gehou deur Peyton Place en The Little Foxes, elk met 9 benoemings. Nog net The Color Purple kon dit sedertdien ewenaar.
Annie Hall was die laaste beste prent wat net vyf benoemings gekry het tot The Departed 29 jaar later in 2006.
Tydens die seremonie het Vanessa Redgrave die Oscar vir beste vroulike byspeler gewen vir Julia. Sy het in haar toespraak die volgende aanmerkings gemaak:
My dear colleagues, I thank you very much for this tribute to my work. I think that Jane Fonda and I have done the best work of our lives, and I think this is in part due to our director, Fred Zinnemann.
And I also think it's in part because we believed and we believe in what we were expressing – two out of millions who gave their lives and were prepared to sacrifice everything in the fight against fascist and racist Nazi Germany.
And I salute you, and I pay tribute to you, and I think you should be very proud that in the last few weeks you've stood firm, and you have refused to be intimidated by the threats of a small bunch of Zionist hoodlums whose behavior is an insult to the stature of Jews all over the world and their great and heroic record of struggle against fascism and oppression.
And I salute that record and I salute all of you for having stood firm and dealt a final blow against that period when Nixon and McCarthy launched a worldwide witch-hunt against those who tried to express in their lives and their work the truth that they believe in. I salute you and I thank you and I pledge to you that I will continue to fight against anti-Semitism and fascism.
Twee uur later het[2] Paddy Chayefsky, toe hy die wenner vir beste skryfwerk moes aankondig, geantwoord:
Before I get on to the writing awards, there's a little matter I'd like to tidy up – at least if I expect to live with myself tomorrow morning. I would like to say, personal opinion, of course, that I'm sick and tired of people exploiting the occasion of the Academy Awards for the propagation of their own personal political propaganda.
I would like to suggest to Miss Redgrave that her winning an Academy Award is not a pivotal moment in history, does not require a proclamation and a simple 'thank you' would have sufficed.