Events

• January 19 - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer acquires beleaguered concurrent United Artists. UA was humiliated by the astronomical losses on the $40,000,000 movie Heaven's Gate, a major factor in the decision of owner Transamerica to sell it.
• November 29 - Off Santa Catalina Island, 43-year old actress Natalie Wood drowns during a boating accident.
• Tom Cruise makes his acting debut.

Top grossing films

North America

1. Raiders of the Lost Ark, starring Harrison Ford
2. Superman II, starring Gene Hackman and Christopher Reeve
3. Stir Crazy, starring Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder
4. Nine to Five, starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton
5. Stripes, starring Bill Murray and Warren Oates
6. Any Which Way You Can , starring Clint Eastwood
7. Arthur, starring Dudley Moore
8. The Cannonball Run, starring Burt Reynolds and Roger Moore
9. The Four Seasons, starring Alan Alda
10. For Your Eyes Only, starring Roger Moore

Awards

Best Picture: Chariots of Fire - Enigma, The Ladd Company/Warner Bros.

Best Director: Warren Beatty - Reds

Best Actor: Henry Fonda - On Golden Pond

Best Actress: Katharine Hepburn - On Golden Pond

Best Supporting Actor: John Gielgud - Arthur

Best Supporting Actress: Maureen Stapleton - Reds

Best Foreign Language Film: Mephisto, directed by Istvan Szabo, Hungary

Drama:

Best Picture: On Golden Pond

Best Actor: Henry Fonda - On Golden Pond

Best Actress: Meryl Streep - The French Lieutenant's Woman

Musical or comedy:

Best Picture: Arthur

Best Actor: Dudley Moore - Arthur

Best Actress: Bernadette Peters - Pennies from Heaven

Other

Best Director: Warren Beatty - Reds

Best Foreign Film: Chariots of Fire, United Kingdom

Man of Iron (Człowiek z żelaza), directed by Andrzej Wajda, Poland

Marianne and Juliane (Die Bleierne Zeit), directed by Margarethe von Trotta, W. Germany

Faster, Faster (Deprisa, deprisa / Vivre vite), directed by Carlos Saura, Spain / France

Films released in 1981

• Absence of Malice
• An American Werewolf in London
• Arthur
• ''Blow Out
• The Boat Is Full
• Bustin' Loose
• The Cannonball Run
• Clash of the Titans, starring Laurence Olivier and Maggie Smith
• Come on, Granpa's!
• Chariots of Fire
• Das Boot (1982 US release)
• Deadly Blessing starring Sharon Stone
• Deprisa, Deprisa, Golden Bear winner
• Dragonslayer
• Escape from New York, starring Kurt Russell
• Excalibur
• For Your Eyes Only
• Fort Apache the Bronx
• The Four Seasons
• The Fox and the Hound
• The French Lieutenant's Woman
• Friday the 13th Part 2
• Full Moon High
• The German Sisters, Golden Lion winner
• The Great Muppet Caper
• Halloween II, starring Jamie Lee Curtis
• The Hand, starring Michael Caine, directed by Oliver Stone
• Hardly Working, starring Jerry Lewis
• The Howling
• The Land of Hunger
• The Legend of the Lone Ranger
• Lola, a German film
• Looker
• (a)
• Man of Iron, Palme d'Or winner
• Mephisto
• Mommie Dearest, starring Faye Dunaway, Diana Scarwid
• My Dinner with Andre
• , starring Sam Neill, Rossano Brazzi
• On Golden Pond, starring Katharine Hepburn, Henry Fonda, and Jane Fonda
• Only When I Laugh
• Outland
• Pennies From Heaven, starring Steve Martin, based on the 1978 BBC Television serial by Dennis Potter.
• Pixote
• Prince of the City
• Quest for Fire also called La Guerre du feu
• Ragtime
• Raiders of the Lost Ark
• Reds
• Rich And Famous
• Sogni d'oro
• Stripes
• ''Sweet & Sour Cops
• The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie
• The Tale of Today, Tomorrow, and the Day After
• Taps starring George C. Scott and Timothy Hutton
• Tarzan, the Ape Man
• They Don't Wear Black Tie
• Thief
• Time Bandits
• Wolfen
• Women We Salute You!
• Zoot Suit, starring Edward James Olmos

Births

• January 28 – Elijah Wood, actor
• April 19 - Hayden Christensen , actor
• June 9 - Natalie Portman (Natalie Hershlag), actress
• September 12 - Jennifer Hudson, singer and actress

Deaths

• January 1 - Beulah Bondi, actress
• January 10 - Richard Boone, actor
• January 16 - Bernard Lee, actor
• February 1 - Wanda Hendrix, actress
• July 27 - William Wyler, director
• August 1 - Paddy Chayefsky, screenwriter
• August 4 - Melvyn Douglas, actor
• August 18 - Anita Loos, writer
• September 27 - Robert Montgomery, actor
• October 24 - Edith Head, costume designer
• November 12 - William Holden, actor
• November 27 - Lotte Lenya, actress
• November 29 - Natalie Wood, actress
• December 28 - Allan Dwan, pioneer film director