Academy Award for Best Picture

1974

The Godfather Part II

Release dates

December 20, 1974

Starring

Al Pacino

Robert Duvall

Diane Keaton

Robert De Niro

Talia Shire

Morgana King

John Cazale

Marianna Hill

Lee Strasberg

The Godfather Part II is a 1974 American crime epic produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola from a screenplay co-written with Mario Puzo, starring Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, and Robert De Niro. Partially based on Puzo's 1969 novel The Godfather, the film is both sequel and prequel to The Godfather, presenting parallel dramas: one picks up the 1958 story of Michael Corleone (Pacino), the new Don of the Corleone crime family, protecting his family business ventures in the aftermath of an attempt on his life; the prequel covers the journey of his father, Vito Corleone (De Niro), from his harrowing childhood escape from Sicily in 1901 to the desperate founding of his family enterprise in New York City.

The film was released in 1974 to great critical acclaim, some deeming it superior to the original. Nominated for eleven Academy Awards and the first sequel to win for Best Picture, its six Oscars included Best Director for Coppola, Best Supporting Actor for De Niro and Best Adapted Screenplay for Coppola and Puzo. Pacino won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Both this film and its predecessor remain highly influential films in the gangster genre. In 1997, the American Film Institute ranked it as the 32nd-greatest film in American film history and it kept its rank 10 years later. It was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry in 1993.

A sequel, The Godfather Part III, was released 16 years later in 1990.