One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest won Best Actor at the Academy Awards in 1978.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo 's Nest is a 1975 American comedy-drama film directed by Miloš Forman , based on the 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo 's Nest by Ken Kesey . The film was the second to win all five major Academy Awards ( Best Picture , Actor in Lead Role , Actress in Lead Role , Director , and Screenplay ) following It Happened One Night in 1934 , an accomplishment not repeated until 1991 by The Silence of the Lambs .