Which award did the 1970 Woodstock film win at the Academy Awards?

The 1970 film Woodstock won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Directed by Michael Wadleigh, the movie documented the 1969 Woodstock Music and Art Fair and became both a major concert film and an important record of the era’s counterculture.

Woodstock was released in 1970 after the festival took place near Bethel, New York, in August 1969. Its production involved a large filmmaking crew and extensive concert footage, interviews, crowd scenes, and behind-the-scenes material. The film was a commercial and critical success, helping Warner Bros. financially at a difficult moment for the studio.

The movie is often associated with other Oscar categories because it also received nominations for Best Film Editing and Best Sound. Those nominations did not produce wins, however. The documentary award was the film’s Oscar victory. The original theatrical cut ran about 185 minutes; a 1994 director’s cut expanded the running time to 224 minutes and restored additional performances and material.