Short answers, pulled from the story.
Miloš Forman directed One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Forman, a Czech filmmaker who had fled Communist Czechoslovakia, was originally hired by Kirk Douglas in the 1960s but only completed the film after escaping to the United States and being rehired by Michael Douglas and producer Saul Zaentz.
Yes. At the 48th Academy Awards, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest won Best Picture, Best Director (Miloš Forman), Best Actor (Jack Nicholson), Best Actress (Louise Fletcher), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman). It was only the second film to win all five major categories, following It Happened One Night (1934).
The film was shot primarily at the Oregon State Hospital in Salem, Oregon, an actual functioning psychiatric facility, as well as in the surrounding area and the coastal town of Depoe Bay. Principal photography ran from the 13th of January 1975 for roughly three months.
Kesey disagreed with the production over casting and narrative point of view. His own screenplay was written from the first-person perspective of Chief Bromden, as the novel is structured, but the producers used a third-person screenplay by Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman instead. Kesey filed suit against the production, won a settlement, and reportedly never watched the finished film.
The film grossed $109 million in the United States and Canada, making it the second-highest-grossing American release of 1975. Its worldwide gross reached $163,250,000, and it finished as the top-earning film for calendar year 1976 with rentals of $56.5 million. The total production budget was $4.4 million.
Lily Tomlin was originally cast in the role, but director Miloš Forman reconsidered after seeing Fletcher in the 1974 film Thieves Like Us. Four or five meetings over roughly a year followed before Fletcher secured the part. Her final audition was in late 1974, and she was told the day after Christmas to report to the Oregon State Hospital in Salem on the 4th of January to begin rehearsals.