1977

Rocky wins.

"And all of a sudden this movie came along and said, `You know, if you believe in yourself, you'll be OK.' And suddenly it became part of what America was about. I think maybe if the picture had come out two years later or two years earlier, it might not have caught on the way it did."
...
Sidney Lumet directed "Network," the darkly satirical portrait of TV news. It won three acting Oscars and best screenplay for Paddy Chayefsky, but the best-picture loss still stings for Lumet.

"I've been nominated five times," the director told The Associated Press last year. "But on two occasions, I got so pissed off about what beat us. With `Network,' we were beaten out by `Rocky' for Christ's sake." (Lumet, who was finally awarded an honorary Oscar in 2005, also mentions the best picture win for "Gandhi" over his "The Verdict" in 1983.)