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.

Plot

On Thursday, alcoholic New York writer Don Birnam is packing for a weekend vacation with his brother Wick. Although they are leaving mid-afternoon, when Don's girlfriend Helen drops by with gifts for him and two tickets for a concert that afternoon, Don suggests that Wick attends with her; the brothers can then catch a later train. His motive is self-serving: he has a bottle hanging by a rope outside the window and wants to retrieve it and secure it in his suitcase. Wick eventually discovers the bottle. Don claims to have forgotten it was there; Wick pours it down the drain. Now, knowing that all the liquor Don had hidden in the apartment has been disposed of, and believing that he has no money for more, Helen and Wick go to the concert.

Awards