To Kill a Mockingbird (film)

To Kill a Mockingbird
American theatrical release poster
Directed by	Robert Mulligan
Screenplay by	Horton Foote
Based on	To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Produced by	Alan J. Pakula
Starring	Gregory Peck Mary Badham Phillip Alford Ruth White Paul Fix Brock Peters Frank Overton James Anderson
Narrated by	Kim Stanley
Cinematography	Russell Harlan, A.S.C.
Edited by	Aaron Stell, A.C.E.
Music by	Elmer Bernstein
Production company	Brentwood Productions
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	December 25, 1962 (1962-12-25) (United States)
Running time	129 minutes[1]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$2 million[2]
Box office	$13.1 million[2]

To Kill a Mockingbird is a 1962 American coming-of-age legal drama crime film directed by Robert Mulligan starring Gregory Peck and Mary Badham, with Phillip Alford, John Megna, Frank Overton, James Anderson, and Brock Peters in supporting roles. It marked the film debut of Robert Duvall, William Windom, and Alice Ghostley. Adapted by Horton Foote, from Harper Lee's 1960 Pulitzer Prize–winning novel of the same name, it follows a lawyer (Peck) in Depression-era Alabama defending a black man (Peters) charged with rape while educating his children (Badham and Alford) against prejudice.

It gained overwhelmingly positive reception from both the critics and the public; a box-office success, it earned more than six times its budget. The film won three Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Peck and Best Adapted Screenplay for Foote, and was nominated for eight, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actress for Badham.

In 1995, the film was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In 2003, the American Film Institute named Atticus Finch the greatest movie hero of the 20th century. In 2007, the film ranked twenty-fifth on the AFI's 10th anniversary list of the greatest American movies of all time. In 2008, the film ranked first on the AFI's list of the ten greatest courtroom dramas. In 2020, the British Film Institute included it in their list of the 50 films you should see by the age of 15.^[3] The film was restored and released on Blu-ray and DVD in 2012, as part of the 100th anniversary of Universal Pictures.^[4] It is considered to be one of the greatest movies ever made.