Once Upon a Time in America
Award Category Nominee Result
38th British Academy Film Awards Best Costume Design Gabriella Pescucci Won
38th British Academy Film Awards Best Film Music Ennio Morricone Won
38th British Academy Film Awards Best Direction Sergio Leone Nominated
38th British Academy Film Awards Best Actress in a Supporting Role Tuesday Weld Nominated
38th British Academy Film Awards Best Cinematography Tonino Delli Colli Nominated
42nd Golden Globe Awards Best Director Sergio Leone Nominated
42nd Golden Globe Awards Best Original Score Ennio Morricone Nominated
8th Japan Academy Prize Outstanding Foreign Language Film - Won
10th Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards Best Film - Nominated
10th Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards Best Director Sergio Leone Nominated
10th Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards Best Music Score Ennio Morricone Won
Critical reception -- Accolades
Despite its modern critical success , the initial American release did not fare well with critics and received no Academy Award nominations . [ 46 ] The film 's music was disqualified from Oscar consideration for a technicality , [ 47 ] as the studio accidentally omitted the composer 's name from the opening credits when trimming its running time for the American release . [ 24 ]
Once Upon a Time in America (Italian: C'era una volta in America) is a 1984 epic crime drama film co-written and directed by Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone and starring Robert De Niro and James Woods. The film is an Italian-American venture produced by The Ladd Company, Embassy International Pictures, PSO Enterprises, and Rafran Cinematografica, and distributed by Warner Bros. Based on Harry Grey's novel The Hoods, it chronicles the lives of best friends David Noodles Aaronson and Maximilian Max Bercovicz as they lead a group of Jewish ghetto youths who rise to prominence as Jewish gangsters in New York City's world of organized crime. The film explores themes of childhood friendships, love, lust, greed, betrayal, loss, broken relationships, together with the rise of mobsters in American society. It was the final film directed by Leone before his death five years later, and the first feature film he had directed in 13 years. It is also the third film of Leone's Once Upon a Time Trilogy, which includes Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) and Duck, You Sucker! (1971). The cinematography was by Tonino Delli Colli, and the film score by Ennio Morricone. Leone originally envisaged two three-hour films, then a single 269-minute (4 hours and 29 minutes) version, but was convinced by distributors to shorten it to 229 minutes (3 hours and 49 minutes). The American distributors, The Ladd Company, further shortened it to 139 minutes, and rearranged the scenes into chronological order, without Leone's involvement. The shortened version was a critical and commercial flop in the United States, and critics who had seen both versions harshly condemned the changes that were made. The original European cut has remained a critical favorite and frequently appears in lists of the greatest gangster films of all time.