The year 1945 in film involved some significant events.

Events

• Paramount Studios releases theatrical short cartoon titled The Friendly Ghost, featuring a ghost named Casper.
• With Rossellini's Roma Citt aperta, Italian neorealist cinema begins.
• October 5 - A strike between the set decorators' union and the studios boils over and became what is now considered Hollywood Black Friday.
• December 28 - Spellbound is released.
• Son of Lassie, the 2nd Lassie film, becomes the first movie ever to be filmed using the Technicolor Monobook method, where a single magazine of film was used to record all of the primary colors. Prior to this method, the most popular recording method was 3-Strip Technicolor, which simultaneously used 3 individual film magazines to record the primary colors.

Top grossing films (U.S.)

(*) Road show revenue from several continuous years; figure is approximate

Awards

Academy Awards:

Best Picture: The Lost Weekend - Paramount

Best Director: Billy Wilder - The Lost Weekend

Best Actor: Ray Milland - The Lost Weekend

Best Actress: Joan Crawford - Mildred Pierce

Best Supporting Actor: James Dunn - A Tree Grows In Brooklyn

Best Supporting Actress: Anne Revere - National Velvet

Golden Globe Awards:

Best Picture: The Lost Weekend

Best Director: Billy Wilder - The Lost Weekend

Best Actor: Ray Milland - The Lost Weekend

Best Actress: Ingrid Bergman - The Bells of St. Mary's

Best Film for Promoting International Good Will: The House I Live In (short film)

Films released in 1945

U.S.A. unless stated

• Abbott and Costello in Hollywood, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello
• Along Came Jones, starring Gary Cooper and Loretta Young
• Anchors Aweigh, starring Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra
• And Then There Were None, starring Barry Fitzgerald and Walter Huston
• Back to Bataan, directed by Edward Dmytryk, with John Wayne
• A Bell For Adano, starring Gene Tierney and John Hodiak
• The Bells of St. Mary's, starring Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman
• Blithe Spirit, directed by David Lean, starring Rex Harrison and Constance Cummings, based on the play by No l Coward - (U.K.)
• Blood on the Sun, starring James Cagney
• The Body Snatcher
• Brief Encounter, starring Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard, and directed by David Lean - (U.K.)
• Caesar and Cleopatra, directed by Gabriel Pascal, starring Vivien Leigh and Claude Rains - (U.K.)
• Captain Kidd, starring Charles Laughton
• The Cheaters, starring Joseph Schildkraut and Billie Burke
• The Cherokee Flash, starring Sunset Carson and Linda Stirling
• Children of Paradise (Les Enfants du Paradis), by Marcel Carn , starring Arletty, released following the liberation of France
• Christmas in Connecticut, starring Barbara Stanwyck
• The Clock, starring Judy Garland
• Confidential Agent, Charles Boyer and Lauren Bacall
• Conflict, starring Humphrey Bogart
• The Corn Is Green, starring Bette Davis and John Dall
• Cornered, directed by Edward Dmytryk, starring Dick Powell
• Les dames du Bois de Boulogne, directed by Robert Bresson - (France)
• Dead of Night, Ealing Studios chiller compendium starring Mervyn Johns and Googie Withers - (U.K.)
• Detour, starring Tom Neal and Ann Savage
• Diamond Horseshoe, starring Betty Grable
• Dillinger, starring Lawrence Tierney
• The Dolly Sisters, starring Betty Grable
• The Enchanted Cottage, starring Dorothy McGuire and Robert Young
• Fallen Angel, directed by Otto Preminger, starring Alice Faye in her last major film role, Dana Andrews and Linda Darnell
• Flame of Barbary Coast, starring John Wayne
• Guest Wife, starring Claudette Colbert and Don Ameche
• Gun Smoke, starring Johnny Mack Brown and Jennifer Holt
• Hangover Square, starring Laird Cregar, Linda Darnell and George Sanders
• Here Come the Co-Eds, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello
• The House I Live In (short film)
• House of Dracula
• The House on 92nd Street, produced by Louis de Rochemont
• I Know Where I'm Going!, directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, starring Wendy Hiller and Roger Livesey - (U.K.)
• I Live in Grosvenor Square, starring Anna Neagle, Rex Harrison and Robert Morley - (U.K.)
• Incendiary Blonde, starring Betty Hutton
• Kiss and Tell
• Lady on a Train
• Leave Her to Heaven, starring Gene Tierney and Cornel Wilde
• The Lost Weekend, directed by Billy Wilder, starring Ray Milland and Jane Wyman
• Love Letters, starring Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotten
• Madonna of the Seven Moons, starring Phyllis Calvert and Stewart Granger - (U.K.)
• A Medal for Benny, starring Dorothy Lamour
• The Men who Tread on the Tiger's Tail, directed by Akira Kurosawa - (Japan)
• Mildred Pierce, starring Joan Crawford and Ann Blyth
• Mom and Dad, a hygiene documentary
• Momotaro, Sacred Sailors, the first feature length animated film from Japan
• My Name is Julia Ross
• The Naughty Nineties, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello
• Objective, Burma!
• Our Vines Have Tender Grapes, starring Edward G. Robinson and Margaret O'Brien
• Perfect Strangers, starring Robert Donat and Deborah Kerr - (U.K.)
• The Picture of Dorian Gray, starring George Sanders
• La porta del cielo, directed by Vittorio De Sica - (Italy)
• Pride of the Marines
• Pursuit to Algiers, starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce
• The Rake's Progress, starring Rex Harrison - (U.K.)
• Rhapsody in Blue, a biopic of George Gershwin starring Robert Alda
• Rome, Open City (Roma Citt aperta), directed by Roberto Rossellini, starring Anna Magnani and Aldo Fabrizi - (Italy)
• A Royal Scandal, starring Tallulah Bankhead
• Rustlers' Hideout, starring Buster Crabbe and Al St. John
• San Antonio
• Saratoga Trunk, starring Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman
• Scarlett Street, directed by Fritz Lang, starring Edward G. Robinson and Joan Bennett
• La selva de fuego (The Forest Fire), starring Dolores del R o - (Mexico)
• The Seventh Veil, starring James Mason and Ann Todd - (U.K.)
• Sherlock Holmes and the House of Fear, starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce
• Son of Lassie
• A Song to Remember, a biopic of Fr d ric Chopin starring Cornel Wilde
• The Southerner, starring Zachary Scott
• The Spanish Main
• Spellbound, starring Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck
• State Fair, starring Dana Andrews and Jeanne Crain
• The Story of G.I. Joe, starring Burgess Meredith and Robert Mitchum
• They Were Expendable, starring Robert Montgomery and John Wayne
• The Thin Man Goes Home, starring William Powell and Myrna Loy
• Thrill of a Romance, directed by Richard Thorpe
• Tonight and Every Night, starring Rita Hayworth
• A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, directed by Elia Kazan
• The Valley of Decision, starring Greer Garson and Gregory Peck
• La vida en un hilo - (Spain)
• A Walk in the Sun, starring Dana Andrews
• Waterloo Road, starring John Mills and Stewart Granger - (U.K.)
• The Way to the Stars, starring John Mills and Michael Redgrave, written by Terence Rattigan - (U.K.)
• The Wicked Lady, starring Margaret Lockwood and James Mason - (U.K.)
• The Woman in Green, starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce
• Wonder Man, starring Danny Kaye and Virginia Mayo
• Yolanda and the Thief
• Ziegfeld Follies, with an MGM all-star cast

Serials

• Brenda Starr, Reporter, starring Joan Woodbury
• Federal Operator 99, starring Marten Lamont
• Jungle Queen, starring Edward Norris and Eddie Quillan
• Jungle Raiders
• Manhunt on Mystery Island, starring Richard Bailey and Linda Stirling
• The Master Key, starring Dennis Moore
• The Monster and the Ape, starring Robert Lowery
• The Purple Monster Strikes, starring Dennis Moore and Linda Stirling
• The Royal Mounted Rides Again
• Secret Agent X-9, starring Lloyd Bridges
• Who's Guilty?

Short film series

• Mickey Mouse (1928–1953)
• Looney Tunes (1930–1969)
• Terrytoons (1930–1964)
• Merrie Melodies (1931–1969)
• Scrappy (1931–1941)
• Popeye (1933–1957)
• Color Rhapsodies (1934–1949)
• Donald Duck (1937–1956)
• Goofy (1939–1955)
• Andy Panda (1939–1949)
• Tom and Jerry (1940–1958)
• Bugs Bunny (1940–1962)
• Woody Woodpecker (1941–1949)
• Swing Symphonies (1941-1945)
• The Fox and the Crow (1941–1950)
• Red Hot Riding Hood (1943–1949)
• Droopy (1943–1958)
• Screwball Squirrel (1944–1946)
• Yosemite Sam (1945-1963)

Births

• January 25 - Leigh Taylor-Young, actress
• January 29 - Tom Selleck, actor
• February 9 - Mia Farrow, actress
• February 12 - Maud Adams, Swedish actress
• February 16 - Jeremy Bulloch, English actor
• February 17 - Brenda Fricker, Irish actress
• February 24 - Barry Bostwick, actor
• March 7 - John Heard, actor
• April 2 - Linda Hunt, actress
• May 24 - Priscilla Presley, actress
• May 31 - Rainer Werner Fassbinder, German director, producer and screenwriter (died 1982)
• June 2 - Jon Peters, producer
• June 6 - David Dukes, actor (died 2000)
• June 11 - Adrienne Barbeau, actress
• July 26 - Helen Mirren, English actress
• August 2 - Joanna Cassidy, actress
• August 5 - Loni Anderson, actress
• August 14 - Steve Martin, actor and comedian
  • Wim Wenders, German director, producer and screenwriter
• August 23 - Bob Peck, English actor (died 1999)
• August 24 - Jeffrey P. Grant, American actor (died 2001)
• September 21 - Jerry Bruckheimer, producer
• October 19 - John Lithgow, actor
• October 27 - Carrie Snodgress, actress (died 2004)
• October 30- Henry Winkler, actor
• October 31 - Brian Doyle-Murray, actor and comedian
• November 21 - Goldie Hawn, actress
• December 1 - Bette Midler, actress, comedienne and singer
• December 17 - Ernie Hudson, actor
• December 24 - Nicholas Meyer, screenwriter, director and producer
• December 31 - Barbara Carrera, Nicaraguan-born actress

Deaths

• January 14 - Heinrich Schroth, German actor (born 1871)
• March 4 - Lucille La Verne, American actress (born 1872)
• May 4 - Anna Dodge, American actress (born 1867)
• July 13 - Alla Nazimova, Ukrainian-born stage and film actress (born 1879)

Debuts

• Silvana Mangano

Notes

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