The 45th Academy Awards were presented Tuesday, March 27, 1973, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California, honoring the best films of 1972.

The ceremony was marked by Marlon Brando's boycott of the Oscars, and his sending of Sacheen Littlefeather to explain why he could not show up to collect his Best Actor award for The Godfather; and by Charlie Chaplin's only competitive Oscar win, for Best Original Dramatic Score for his 20-year-old film Limelight, which was eligible because it did not screen in Los Angeles until 1972.

This year was the first time that two African American women received nominations for Best Actress: Cicely Tyson and Diana Ross.

[4] Meanwhile, Edward G. Robinson, who died two months before the ceremony, became the second actor to receive his honorary Oscar posthumously, after Douglas Fairbanks (d. 1939) in 1940.

[14] The controversy arose, according to Academy President Daniel Taradash, because the love theme in The Godfather had previously been used by Rota in Fortunella, an Italian movie from several years earlier.

[16] It was later reported that the academy had been considering whether Curtis Mayfield's song "Freddie's Dead" from the film Super Fly should be eligible.

Notably, Charlton Heston was late for his role presenting the voting rules, reportedly due to a flat tire.

Heston's written dialogue leaned heavily on his role in the movie The Ten Commandments, leading Eastwood to quip, "Come on, flip the card, man.