The 1971 Academy Awards were presented April 10, 1972 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles.
| Best Picture | A Clockwork Orange, Stanley Kubrick, producer (Warner Bros.) |
| Fiddler on the Roof, Norman Jewison, producer (United Artists) |
| The French Connection, Philip D'Antoni, producer (Twentieth Century-Fox) |
| The Last Picture Show, Stephen J. Friedman, producer (Columbia) |
| Nicholas and Alexandra, Sam Spiegel, producer (Columbia) |
| Best Actor | Peter Finch, Sunday Bloody Sunday |
| Gene Hackman, The French Connection |
| Walter Matthau, Kotch |
| George C. Scott, The Hospital |
| Topol, Fiddler on the Roof |
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 Gene Hackman, The French Connection Archive Photos |
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| Best Actress | Julie Christie, McCabe & Mrs. Miller |
| Jane Fonda, Klute |
| Glenda Jackson, Sunday Bloody Sunday |
| Vanessa Redgrave, Mary, Queen of Scots |
| Janet Suzman, Nicholas and Alexandra |
| Actor in a Supporting Role | Jeff Bridges, The Last Picture Show |
| Leonard Frey, Fiddler on the Roof |
| Richard Jaeckel, Sometimes a Great Notion |
| Ben Johnson, The Last Picture Show |
| Roy Scheider, The French Connection |
| Actress in a Supporting Role | Ellen Burstyn, The Last Picture Show |
| Barbara Harris, Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? |
| Cloris Leachman, The Last Picture Show |
| Margaret Leighton, The Go-Between |
| Ann-Margret, Carnal Knowledge |
| Directing | Peter Bogdanovich, The Last Picture Show |
| William Friedkin, The French Connection |
| Norman Jewison, Fiddler on the Roof |
| Stanley Kubrick, A Clockwork Orange |
| John Schlesinger, Sunday Bloody Sunday |
| Writing | | Screenplay Based on Material From Another Medium | Bernardo Bertolucci, The Conformist | | Stanley Kubrick, A Clockwork Orange | | Larry McMurtry and Peter Bogdanovich, The Last Picture Show | | Ugo Pirro and Vittorio Bonicelli, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis | | Ernest Tidyman, The French Connection | | Original Screenplay | Paddy Chayefsky, The Hospital | | Penelope Gilliatt, Sunday Bloody Sunday | | Andy Lewis and Dave Lewis, Klute | | Elio Petri and Ugo Pirro, Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion | | Herman Raucher, Summer of '42 |
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| Cinematography | Oswald Morris, Fiddler on the Roof |
| Owen Roizman, The French Connection |
| Robert Surtees, The Last Picture Show |
| Robert Surtees, Summer of '42 |
| Freddie Young, Nicholas and Alexandra |
| Art Direction | John Box, Ernest Archer, Jack Maxsted and Gil Parrondo, art direction; Vernon Dixon, set decoration, Nicholas and Alexandra |
| Robert Boyle and Michael Stringer, art direction; Peter Lamont, set decoration, Fiddler on the Roof |
| Boris Leven and William Tuntke, art direction; Ruby Levitt, set decoration, The Andromeda Strain |
| John B. Mansbridge and Peter Ellenshaw, art direction; Emile Kuri and Hal Gausman, set decoration, Bedknobs and Broomsticks |
| Terence Marsh and Robert Cartwright, art direction; Peter Howitt, set decoration, Mary, Queen of Scots |
| Sound | Bob Jones and John Aldred, Mary, Queen of Scots |
| Gordon K. McCallum and David Hildyard, Fiddler on the Roof |
| Gordon K. McCallum, John Mitchell and Alfred J. Overton, Diamonds Are Forever |
| Richard Portman and Jack Solomon, Kotch |
| Theodore Soderberg and Christopher Newman, The French Connection |
| Music | | Song | “The Age of Not Believing,” Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, music and lyrics | | “All His Children,” Sometimes a Great Notion, Henry Mancini, music; Alan and Marilyn Bergman, lyrics | | “Bless the Beasts and Children,” Bless the Beasts and Children, Barry DeVorzon and Perry Botkin, Jr., music and lyrics | | “Life Is What You Make It,” Kotch, Marvin Hamlisch, music; Johnny Mercer, lyrics | | “Theme From Shaft,” Shaft, Isaac Hayes, music and lyrics | | Original Dramatic Score | John Barry, Mary, Queen of Scots | | Richard Rodney Bennett, Nicholas and Alexandra | | Jerry Fielding, Straw Dogs | | Isaac Hayes, Shaft | | Michel Legrand, Summer of '42 | | Scoring: Adaptation and Original Song Score | Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley, song; Walter Scharf, adaptation, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory | | Peter Maxwell Davies and Peter Greenwell, The Boy Friend | | Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, song; Irwin Kostal, adaptation, Bedknobs and Broomsticks | | Dimitri Tiomkin, Tchaikovsky | | John Williams, Fiddler on the Roof |
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| Film Editing | Folmar Blangsted, Summer of '42 |
| Bill Butler, A Clockwork Orange |
| Stuart Gilmore and John W. Holmes, The Andromeda Strain |
| Jerry Greenberg, The French Connection |
| Ralph E. Winters, Kotch |
| Costume Design | Yvonne Blake and Antonio Castillo, Nicholas and Alexandra |
| Margaret Furse, Mary, Queen of Scots |
| Morton Haack, What's the Matter With Helen? |
| Bill Thomas, Bedknobs and Broomsticks |
| Piero Tosi, Death in Venice |
| Special Visual Effects | Jim Danforth and Roger Dicken, When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth |
| Alan Maley, Eustace Lycett and Danny Lee, Bedknobs and Broomsticks |
| Short Subjects | | Animated | The Crunch Bird (Maxwell-Petok-Petrovich Productions; Regency Film Distributing Corp.) | | Evolution (National Film Board of Canada; Columbia) | | The Selfish Giant (Potterton Productions; Pyramid Films) | | Live Action | Good Morning (E/G Films; Seymour Borde and Associates) | | The Rehearsal (Cinema Verona Production; Schoenfeld Film Distributing Corp.) | | Sentinels of Silence (Producciones Concord; Paramount) |
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| Documentary | | Short Subject | Adventures in Perception (Hans van Gelder Filmproduktie; Netherlands Information Service) | | Art Is… (Henry Strauss Associates; Sears, Roebuck Foundation) | | The Numbers Start With the River (WH Picture; U.S. Information Agency) | | Sentinels of Silence (Producciones Concord; Paramount) | | Somebody Waiting (Snider Productions; University of California Medical Film Library) | | Feature | Alaska Wilderness Lake (Alan Landsburg, producer; Alan Landsburg Productions) | | The Hellstrom Chronicle (David L. Wolper Productions; Cinema 5, Ltd.) | | On Any Sunday (Bruce Brown-Solar; Cinema 5, Ltd.) | | The RA Expeditions (Swedish Broadcasting Company; Interwest Film Corp.) | | The Sorrow and the Pity (Television Rencontre-Norddeutscher Rundfunk-Television Swiss Romande; Cinema 5, Ltd.) |
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| Foreign Language Film | Dodes'Ka-Den, Japan |
| The Emigrants, Sweden |
| The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, Italy |
| The Policeman, Israel |
| Tchaikovsky, U.S.S.R. |
| Honorary Award | To Charles Chaplin for the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century |
