The Lost Weekend
Sign in to save1945 film by Billy Wilder
Film · TMDB
7.6Longtime alcoholic Don Birnam has been sober for ten days and appears to be over the worst... but his craving has just become more insidious. Evading a country weekend planned by his brother and girlfriend, he begins a four-day bender that just might be his last – one way or another.
Released: 1945-11-29101 minDir: Billy WilderDrama
Cast
- Ray Milland as Don Birnam
- Jane Wyman as Helen St. James
- Phillip Terry as Wick Birnam
- Howard Da Silva as Nat the Bartender
- Doris Dowling as Gloria
- Frank Faylen as 'Bim' Nolan
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Ratings · OMDb
IMDb
7.9/10
41,583 votes
Rotten Tomatoes
97%
- Rated
- Approved
- Awards
- Won 4 Oscars. 18 wins & 3 nominations total
via OMDb · IMDb
Key facts
- Directed by
- Billy Wilder
- Screenplay by
- Charles Brackett Billy Wilder
- Based on
- The Lost Weekend , by Charles R. Jackson
- Produced by
- Charles Brackett
- Starring
- Ray Milland Jane Wyman Phillip Terry Howard da Silva Doris Dowling Frank Faylen
- Cinematography
- John F. Seitz
- Edited by
- Doane Harrison
- Music by
- Miklós Rózsa
- Color process
- Black and white
- Production company
- Paramount Pictures
- Distributed by
- Paramount Pictures
- Release date
- November 29, 1945 ( 1945-11-29 )
- Running time
Key dates
- Published
- 1 December 1945
via Wikidata · CC0
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- film
- Part of
- National Film Registry
- Genre
- film noir
- Country of origin
- United States
- Original language
- English language
- Main subject
- alcoholism
- Director
- Billy Wilder
- Screenwriter
- Billy Wilder
- Cast member
Article
The Lost Weekend is a 1945 American drama film noir directed by Billy Wilder, and starring Ray Milland and Jane Wyman. It was based on Charles R. Jackson's 1944 novel about an alcoholic writer. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won four: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay. It also shared the Grand Prix at the first Cannes Film Festival, making it one of only four films—the other three being Marty (1955), Parasite (2019) and Anora (2024)—to win both the Academy Award for Best Picture and the highest award at Cannes.
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 97% based on 70 reviews, with an average rating of 8.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Director Billy Wilder's unflinchingly honest look at the effects of alcoholism may have had some of its impact blunted by time, but it remains a powerful and remarkably prescient film." In 2011, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
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Categories
1945 American films1945 drama films1945 English-language films1945 filmsAmerican black-and-white filmsAmerican drama filmsBest Drama Picture Golden Globe winnersBest Picture Academy Award winnersEnglish-language drama filmsFilm noirFilms about alcoholismFilms about writersFilms based on American novels