Introduced by Peter Bogdanovich

The Last Picture Show, adapted from the novel by Larry McMurtry, is set in the tiny, dying town of Anarene, Texas, where the main-street movie house is about to close for good, and where a pair of high-school football players are coming of age and struggling to define their uncertain futures. There's little to do in Anarene, and while Sonny (Timothy Bottoms) engages in a passionless fling with his football coach's wife (Cloris Leachman), his best friend Duane (Jeff Bridges) enlists for service in the Korean War. Both boys fall for a manipulative high-school beauty (Cybill Shepherd) who's well aware of her sexual allure. But it's not so much what happens in The Last Picture Show as how it happens — and how Peter Bogdanovich and his excellent cast and crew (including Robert Surtees' expressive, high-contrast black-and-white cinematography) so effectively captured the melancholy mood of a ghost town in the making. Released in 1971 to critical acclaim, The Last Picture Show garnered eight Academy Award nominations, winning two Oscars. This print of The Last Picture Show is the definitive director's cut restoration which was completed in 1999 by Sony Pictures Entertainment. Columbia Pictures. Black-and-white. 124 minutes. Screened with permission by Columbia Pictures.

Academy Awards: Actor in a Supporting Role (Ben Johnson); Actress in a Supporting Role (Cloris Leachman).

Academy Award Nominations: Actor in a Supporting Role (Jeff Bridges); Actress in a Supporting Role (Ellen Burstyn); Cinematography (Robert Surtees); Director (Peter Bogdanovich); Best Picture (Stephen J. Friedman, producer); Writing, Screenplay-based on material from another medium (Larry McMurtry and Peter Bogdanovich).