To Kill a Mockingbird (film)

To Kill a Mockingbird
Theatrical release poster
Directed byRobert Mulligan
Screenplay byHorton Foote
Based onTo Kill a Mockingbird
1960 novel
by Harper Lee
Produced byAlan J. Pakula
Starring
Narrated byKim Stanley
CinematographyRussell Harlan, A.S.C.
Edited byAaron Stell, A.C.E.
Music byElmer Bernstein
Production
company
Distributed byUniversal-International Pictures
Release date
  • December 25, 1962 (1962-12-25) (United States)
Running time
129 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$2 million
Box office$13.1 million

To Kill a Mockingbird is a 1962 American legal drama crime film directed by Robert Mulligan, starring Gregory Peck and Mary Badham. Adapted from Harper Lee's 1960 Pulitzer Prize–winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the film follows lawyer Atticus Finch in Depression-era Alabama educating his children against prejudice while defending a black man who is falsely charged with the rape of a white woman.

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

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. The film was restored and released on Blu-ray and DVD in 2012, as part of the 100th anniversary of Universal Pictures.