12th Academy Awards
Encyclopedia
The 12th Academy Awards, honoring the best in film for 1939
1939 in film
The year 1939 in motion pictures can be justified as being called the most outstanding one ever, when it comes to the high quality and high attendance at the large set of the best films that premiered in the year .- Events :Motion picture historians and film often rate...

, was held on February 29, 1940, at a banquet in the Coconut Grove at The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

. It was hosted by Bob Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...

 (for the first of eighteen times).

David O. Selznick
David O. Selznick
David O. Selznick was an American film producer. He is best known for having produced Gone with the Wind and Rebecca , both of which earned him an Oscar for Best Picture.-Early years:...

's production Gone with the Wind
Gone with the Wind (film)
Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...

received the most nominations of the year with thirteen. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a 1939 American drama film starring Jean Arthur and James Stewart about one man's effect on American politics. It was directed by Frank Capra and written by Sidney Buchman, based on Lewis R. Foster's unpublished story. Mr...

, Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights (1939 film)
Wuthering Heights is a 1939 American black-and-white film directed by William Wyler and produced by Samuel Goldwyn. It is based on the novel, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. The film depicts only sixteen of the novel's thirty-four chapters, eliminating the second generation of characters. The...

, Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939 film)
Goodbye, Mr. Chips is a 1939 British film based on the novel of the same name by James Hilton. It was directed by Sam Wood, and starred Robert Donat, Greer Garson, Terry Kilburn, John Mills, and Paul Henreid. The screenplay was adapted from the novel by R. C. Sherriff, Claudine West and Eric...

, Stagecoach, Love Affair, The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...

, The Rains Came
The Rains Came
The Rains Came is the title of a novel by Louis Bromfield, published in 1937, as well as the 1939 20th Century Fox film version which followed it...

, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex is a 1939 historical romantic drama film. It is based on the relationship between Queen Elizabeth I, portrayed by Bette Davis, and Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, played by Errol Flynn...

, Ninotchka
Ninotchka
Ninotchka is a 1939 American film made for Metro Goldwyn Mayer by producer and director Ernst Lubitsch which stars Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas. It was written by Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett and Walter Reisch, based on a screen story by Melchior Lengyel. Ninotchka is Greta Garbo's first full...

, Of Mice and Men
Of Mice and Men
Of Mice and Men is a novella written by Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck. Published in 1937, it tells the tragic story of George Milton and Lennie Small, two displaced migrant ranch workers during the Great Depression in California, USA....

, and Dark Victory
Dark Victory
Dark Victory is a 1939 American drama film directed by Edmund Goulding and starring Bette Davis, George Brent, Humphrey Bogart, and Ronald Reagan...

were among the other films with multiple nominations.

This was the first year in which an Oscar was awarded for visual effects.

This was also the first time that two awards for cinematography were presented (the prize was split into a color and a black-and-white category).

Awards

Winners are listed first and highlighted in boldface.
Best Picture
Academy Award for Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...

Best Director
  • Gone With the Wind
    Gone with the Wind (film)
    Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...

    • Dark Victory
      Dark Victory
      Dark Victory is a 1939 American drama film directed by Edmund Goulding and starring Bette Davis, George Brent, Humphrey Bogart, and Ronald Reagan...

    • Goodbye, Mr. Chips
      Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939 film)
      Goodbye, Mr. Chips is a 1939 British film based on the novel of the same name by James Hilton. It was directed by Sam Wood, and starred Robert Donat, Greer Garson, Terry Kilburn, John Mills, and Paul Henreid. The screenplay was adapted from the novel by R. C. Sherriff, Claudine West and Eric...

    • Love Affair
    • Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
      Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
      Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a 1939 American drama film starring Jean Arthur and James Stewart about one man's effect on American politics. It was directed by Frank Capra and written by Sidney Buchman, based on Lewis R. Foster's unpublished story. Mr...

    • Ninotchka
      Ninotchka
      Ninotchka is a 1939 American film made for Metro Goldwyn Mayer by producer and director Ernst Lubitsch which stars Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas. It was written by Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett and Walter Reisch, based on a screen story by Melchior Lengyel. Ninotchka is Greta Garbo's first full...

    • Of Mice and Men
      Of Mice and Men (1939 film)
      Of Mice and Men is a 1939 film based on the novella of the same title by American author John Steinbeck. It stars Burgess Meredith, Betty Field, Lon Chaney, Jr., Charles Bickford, Roman Bohnen, Bob Steele and Noah Beery, Jr...

    • Stagecoach
    • The Wizard of Oz
      The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
      The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...

    • Wuthering Heights
      Wuthering Heights (1939 film)
      Wuthering Heights is a 1939 American black-and-white film directed by William Wyler and produced by Samuel Goldwyn. It is based on the novel, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. The film depicts only sixteen of the novel's thirty-four chapters, eliminating the second generation of characters. The...

  • Victor Fleming
    Victor Fleming
    Victor Lonzo Fleming was an American film director, cinematographer, and producer. His most popular films were The Wizard of Oz , and Gone with the Wind , for which he won an Academy Award for Best Director.-Life and career:Fleming was born in La Canada, California, the son of Elizabeth Evaleen ...

     – Gone With the Wind
    Gone with the Wind (film)
    Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...

    • Frank Capra
      Frank Capra
      Frank Russell Capra was a Sicilian-born American film director. He emigrated to the U.S. when he was six, and eventually became a creative force behind major award-winning films during the 1930s and 1940s...

       –
      Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
      Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
      Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a 1939 American drama film starring Jean Arthur and James Stewart about one man's effect on American politics. It was directed by Frank Capra and written by Sidney Buchman, based on Lewis R. Foster's unpublished story. Mr...

    • John Ford
      John Ford
      John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...

       –
      Stagecoach
    • Sam Wood
      Sam Wood
      Samuel Grosvenor "Sam" Wood was an American film director, and producer, who was best known for directing such Hollywood hits as A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, and The Pride of the Yankees...

       –
      Goodbye, Mr. Chips
      Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939 film)
      Goodbye, Mr. Chips is a 1939 British film based on the novel of the same name by James Hilton. It was directed by Sam Wood, and starred Robert Donat, Greer Garson, Terry Kilburn, John Mills, and Paul Henreid. The screenplay was adapted from the novel by R. C. Sherriff, Claudine West and Eric...

    • William Wyler
      William Wyler
      William Wyler was a leading American motion picture director, producer, and screenwriter.Notable works included Ben-Hur , The Best Years of Our Lives , and Mrs. Miniver , all of which won Wyler Academy Awards for Best Director, and also won Best Picture...

       –
      Wuthering Heights
      Wuthering Heights (1939 film)
      Wuthering Heights is a 1939 American black-and-white film directed by William Wyler and produced by Samuel Goldwyn. It is based on the novel, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. The film depicts only sixteen of the novel's thirty-four chapters, eliminating the second generation of characters. The...

  • Best Actor
    Academy Award for Best Actor
    Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...

    Best Actress
    Academy Award for Best Actress
    Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...

  • Robert Donat
    Robert Donat
    Robert Donat was an English film and stage actor. He is best-known for his roles in Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps and Goodbye, Mr...

     – Goodbye, Mr. Chips
    Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939 film)
    Goodbye, Mr. Chips is a 1939 British film based on the novel of the same name by James Hilton. It was directed by Sam Wood, and starred Robert Donat, Greer Garson, Terry Kilburn, John Mills, and Paul Henreid. The screenplay was adapted from the novel by R. C. Sherriff, Claudine West and Eric...

    • Clark Gable
      Clark Gable
      William Clark Gable , known as Clark Gable, was an American film actor most famous for his role as Rhett Butler in the 1939 Civil War epic film Gone with the Wind, in which he starred with Vivien Leigh...

       – Gone With the Wind
      Gone with the Wind (film)
      Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...

    • Laurence Olivier
      Laurence Olivier
      Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...

       – Wuthering Heights
      Wuthering Heights (1939 film)
      Wuthering Heights is a 1939 American black-and-white film directed by William Wyler and produced by Samuel Goldwyn. It is based on the novel, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. The film depicts only sixteen of the novel's thirty-four chapters, eliminating the second generation of characters. The...

    • Mickey Rooney
      Mickey Rooney
      Mickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...

       – Babes in Arms
      Babes in Arms (film)
      Babes in Arms is the 1939 film version of the 1937 Broadway musical of the same name. The film version stars Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Charles Winninger, Guy Kibbee, June Preisser, Grace Hayes and Betty Jaynes.-Production:...

    • James Stewart
      James Stewart
      James Stewart was a Hollywood movie actor and USAF brigadier general.James Stewart may also refer to:-Noblemen:*James Stewart, 5th High Steward of Scotland*James Stewart, the Black Knight of Lorn James Stewart (1908–1997) was a Hollywood movie actor and USAF brigadier general.James Stewart...

       – Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
      Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
      Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a 1939 American drama film starring Jean Arthur and James Stewart about one man's effect on American politics. It was directed by Frank Capra and written by Sidney Buchman, based on Lewis R. Foster's unpublished story. Mr...

  • Vivien Leigh
    Vivien Leigh
    Vivien Leigh, Lady Olivier was an English actress. She won the Best Actress Academy Award for her portrayal of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire , a role she also played on stage in London's West End, as well as for her portrayal of the southern belle Scarlett O'Hara, alongside Clark...

     – Gone With the Wind
    Gone with the Wind (film)
    Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...

    • Bette Davis
      Bette Davis
      Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...

       –
      Dark Victory
      Dark Victory
      Dark Victory is a 1939 American drama film directed by Edmund Goulding and starring Bette Davis, George Brent, Humphrey Bogart, and Ronald Reagan...

    • Irene Dunne
      Irene Dunne
      Irene Dunne was an American film actress and singer of the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s. Dunne was nominated five times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for her performances in Cimarron , Theodora Goes Wild , The Awful Truth , Love Affair and I Remember Mama...

       –
      Love Affair
    • Greta Garbo
      Greta Garbo
      Greta Garbo , born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson, was a Swedish film actress. Garbo was an international star and icon during Hollywood's silent and classic periods. Many of Garbo's films were sensational hits, and all but three were profitable...

       –
      Ninotchka
      Ninotchka
      Ninotchka is a 1939 American film made for Metro Goldwyn Mayer by producer and director Ernst Lubitsch which stars Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas. It was written by Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett and Walter Reisch, based on a screen story by Melchior Lengyel. Ninotchka is Greta Garbo's first full...

    • Greer Garson
      Greer Garson
      Greer Garson, CBE was a British-born actress who was very popular during World War II, being listed by the Motion Picture Herald as one of America's top ten box office draws in 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, and 1946. As one of MGM's major stars of the 1940s, Garson received seven Academy Award...

       –
      Goodbye, Mr. Chips
      Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939 film)
      Goodbye, Mr. Chips is a 1939 British film based on the novel of the same name by James Hilton. It was directed by Sam Wood, and starred Robert Donat, Greer Garson, Terry Kilburn, John Mills, and Paul Henreid. The screenplay was adapted from the novel by R. C. Sherriff, Claudine West and Eric...

  • Best Supporting Actor
    Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
    Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...

    Best Supporting Actress
    Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
    Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...

  • Thomas Mitchell
    Thomas Mitchell (actor)
    Thomas Mitchell was an American actor, playwright and screenwriter. Among his most famous roles in a long career are those of Gerald O'Hara, the father of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, the drunken Doc Boone in John Ford's Stagecoach, and Uncle Billy in It's a Wonderful Life...

     – Stagecoach
    • Brian Aherne
      Brian Aherne
      Brian Aherne was a British actor of both stage and screen, who found success in Hollywood.-Early life and stage career:...

       – Juarez
    • Harry Carey – Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
      Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
      Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a 1939 American drama film starring Jean Arthur and James Stewart about one man's effect on American politics. It was directed by Frank Capra and written by Sidney Buchman, based on Lewis R. Foster's unpublished story. Mr...

    • Brian Donlevy
      Brian Donlevy
      Brian Donlevy was an Irish-born American film actor, noted for playing tough guys from the 1930s to the 1960s. He usually appeared in supporting roles. Among his best known films are Beau Geste and The Great McGinty...

       – Beau Geste
      Beau Geste (1939 film)
      Beau Geste is a 1939 film produced by Paramount Pictures based on the novel of the same name by P. C. Wren. It was directed and produced by William A. Wellman from a screenplay by Robert Carson...

    • Claude Rains
      Claude Rains
      Claude Rains was an English stage and film actor whose career spanned 66 years. He was known for many roles in Hollywood films, among them the title role in The Invisible Man , a corrupt senator in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington , Mr...

       – Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
      Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
      Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a 1939 American drama film starring Jean Arthur and James Stewart about one man's effect on American politics. It was directed by Frank Capra and written by Sidney Buchman, based on Lewis R. Foster's unpublished story. Mr...

  • Hattie McDaniel
    Hattie McDaniel
    Hattie McDaniel was the first African-American actress to win an Academy Award. She won the award for Best Supporting Actress for her role of Mammy in Gone with the Wind ....

     – Gone With the Wind
    Gone with the Wind (film)
    Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...

    • Olivia de Havilland
      Olivia de Havilland
      Olivia Mary de Havilland is a British American film and stage actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1946 and 1949. She is the elder sister of actress Joan Fontaine. The sisters are among the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s.-Early life:Olivia de Havilland...

       –
      Gone With the Wind
      Gone with the Wind (film)
      Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...

    • Geraldine Fitzgerald
      Geraldine Fitzgerald
      Geraldine Fitzgerald, Lady Lindsay-Hogg was an Irish-American actress and a member of the American Theatre Hall of Fame.-Early life:...

       –
      Wuthering Heights
      Wuthering Heights (1939 film)
      Wuthering Heights is a 1939 American black-and-white film directed by William Wyler and produced by Samuel Goldwyn. It is based on the novel, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. The film depicts only sixteen of the novel's thirty-four chapters, eliminating the second generation of characters. The...

    • Edna May Oliver
      Edna May Oliver
      Edna May Oliver was an American stage and film actress. During the 1930s, she was one of the best-known character actresses in American films, often playing tart-tongued spinsters.-Early life:...

       –
      Drums Along the Mohawk
      Drums Along the Mohawk
      Drums Along the Mohawk is a 1939 historical Technicolor film based upon a 1936 novel of the same name by American author, Walter D. Edmonds. The film was produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and directed by John Ford. Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert portray settlers on the New York frontier during the...

    • Maria Ouspenskaya
      Maria Ouspenskaya
      Maria Alekseyevna Ouspenskaya was a Russian actress and acting teacher. She achieved success as a stage actress as a young woman in Russia, and as an elderly woman in Hollywood films.-Life and career:...

       –
      Love Affair
  • Best Story
    Academy Award for Best Story
    The Academy Award for Best Story was an Academy Award given from the beginning of the Academy Awards until 1957, when it was eliminated in favor of the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay, which had been introduced in 1940.-1920s:...

    Best Screenplay
  • Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
    Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
    Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a 1939 American drama film starring Jean Arthur and James Stewart about one man's effect on American politics. It was directed by Frank Capra and written by Sidney Buchman, based on Lewis R. Foster's unpublished story. Mr...

     – Lewis R. Foster
    Lewis R. Foster
    Lewis R. Foster was an American screenwriter, film/television director, and film/television producer. He directed and wrote over one hundred films and television series between 1926 and 1960.-Director:...

    • Love Affair – Mildred Cram
      Mildred Cram
      Mildred Cram was a popular American writer.Her short story "Stranger Things" was included in the O. Henry Award story collection for 1921. A number of her stories and novels were made into films...

       and Leo McCarey
      Leo McCarey
      Thomas Leo McCarey was an American film director, screenwriter and producer. During his lifetime he was involved in nearly 200 movies, especially comedies...

    • Bachelor Mother
      Bachelor Mother
      Bachelor Mother is an American comedy film directed by Garson Kanin, and starring Ginger Rogers , David Niven, and Charles Coburn. The screenplay was written by Norman Krasna based on a Academy Award nominated story by Felix Jackson...

       – Felix Jackson
    • Ninotchka
      Ninotchka
      Ninotchka is a 1939 American film made for Metro Goldwyn Mayer by producer and director Ernst Lubitsch which stars Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas. It was written by Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett and Walter Reisch, based on a screen story by Melchior Lengyel. Ninotchka is Greta Garbo's first full...

       – Melchior Lengyel
      Melchior Lengyel
      Melchior Lengyel was a Hungarian writer, dramatist, and film screenwriter.-Biography:Lengyel was born Lebovics Menyhért in Balmazújváros, Hungary. He started his career as a journalist...

    • Young Mr. Lincoln
      Young Mr. Lincoln
      Young Mr. Lincoln is a 1939 partly fictionalized biography about the early life of President Abraham Lincoln, directed by John Ford and starring Henry Fonda. Ford and producer Darryl F. Zanuck fought for control of the film, to the point where Ford destroyed unwanted takes for fear the studio...

       – Lamar Trotti
      Lamar Trotti
      Lamar Jefferson Trotti was an American screenwriter, producer, and motion picture executive.- Early life and education :Trotti was born in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. He became the first graduate of the Henry W...

  • Gone With the Wind
    Gone with the Wind (film)
    Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...

     – Sidney Howard
    Sidney Howard
    Sidney Coe Howard was an American playwright and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1925 and a posthumous Academy Award in 1940 for the screenplay for Gone with the Wind.-Early life:...

    • Ninotchka
      Ninotchka
      Ninotchka is a 1939 American film made for Metro Goldwyn Mayer by producer and director Ernst Lubitsch which stars Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas. It was written by Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett and Walter Reisch, based on a screen story by Melchior Lengyel. Ninotchka is Greta Garbo's first full...

       – Charles Brackett
      Charles Brackett
      Charles William Brackett was an American novelist, screenwriter, and film producer.-Biography:Born on November 26, 1892 in Saratoga Springs, New York, Charles William Brackett was the son of New York State Senator, lawyer, and banker Edgar Truman Brackett...

      , Walter Reisch
      Walter Reisch
      Walter Reisch was an Austrian-born director and screenwriter. He also wrote lyrics to several songs featured in his films, one popular title is "Flieger, grüß mir die Sonne".-Selected filmography:...

      , and Billy Wilder
      Billy Wilder
      Billy Wilder was an Austro-Hungarian born American filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, artist, and journalist, whose career spanned more than 50 years and 60 films. He is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age...

    • Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
      Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
      Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a 1939 American drama film starring Jean Arthur and James Stewart about one man's effect on American politics. It was directed by Frank Capra and written by Sidney Buchman, based on Lewis R. Foster's unpublished story. Mr...

       – Sidney Buchman
      Sidney Buchman
      Sidney Robert Buchman was a screenwriter and producer who worked on 38 films from the late 1920s to the early 1970s. He is also sometimes credited as Sydney Buchman.-Career:...

    • Wuthering Heights
      Wuthering Heights (1939 film)
      Wuthering Heights is a 1939 American black-and-white film directed by William Wyler and produced by Samuel Goldwyn. It is based on the novel, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. The film depicts only sixteen of the novel's thirty-four chapters, eliminating the second generation of characters. The...

       – Ben Hecht
      Ben Hecht
      Ben Hecht was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, and novelist. Called "the Shakespeare of Hollywood", he received screen credits, alone or in collaboration, for the stories or screenplays of some 70 films and as a prolific storyteller, authored 35 books and created some of...

       and Charles MacArthur
      Charles MacArthur
      Charles Gordon MacArthur was an American playwright and screenwriter.-Biography:Charles MacArthur was the second youngest of seven children born to stern evangelist William Telfer MacArthur and Georgiana Welsted MacArthur. He early developed a passion for reading...

    • Goodbye, Mr. Chips
      Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939 film)
      Goodbye, Mr. Chips is a 1939 British film based on the novel of the same name by James Hilton. It was directed by Sam Wood, and starred Robert Donat, Greer Garson, Terry Kilburn, John Mills, and Paul Henreid. The screenplay was adapted from the novel by R. C. Sherriff, Claudine West and Eric...

       – Eric Maschwitz
      Eric Maschwitz
      Albert Eric Maschwitz OBE , known as Eric Maschwitz and sometimes credited as Holt Marvell, was an English entertainer, writer, broadcaster and broadcasting executive.-Life and work:...

      , R. C. Sherriff
      R. C. Sherriff
      -External links:**...

       and Claudine West
  • Best Live Action Short Film, One-Reel
    Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film
    This name for the Academy Award for Live Action Short Film was introduced in 1974. For the three preceding years it was known as "Short Subjects, Live Action Films." The term "Short Subjects, Live Action Subjects" was used from 1957 until 1970. From 1936 until 1956 there were two separate...

    Best Live Action Short Film, Two-Reel
    Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film
    This name for the Academy Award for Live Action Short Film was introduced in 1974. For the three preceding years it was known as "Short Subjects, Live Action Films." The term "Short Subjects, Live Action Subjects" was used from 1957 until 1970. From 1936 until 1956 there were two separate...

  • Busy Little Bears
    Busy Little Bears
    Busy Little Bears is a 1939 short family film directed by John A. Haeseler. It won an Academy Award at the 12th Academy Awards in 1940 for Best Short Subject ....

     – Paramount Pictures
    Paramount Pictures
    Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...

    • Information Please – RKO Radio
    • Prophet Without Honor
      Prophet Without Honor
      Prophet Without Honor is a 1939 short documentary film that was nominated for an Academy Award in 1940 for Best Live Action Short Film, One-Reel. It was directed by Felix E. Feist...

       – MGM
    • Sword Fishing
      Sword Fishing
      Sword Fishing is a 1939 short documentary film. It was nominated for an Academy Award in 1940 for Best Live Action Short Film, One-Reel....

       – Warner Bros.
      Warner Bros.
      Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

  • Sons of Liberty
    Sons of Liberty (film)
    Sons of Liberty is a 1939 short drama film directed by Michael Curtiz, which tells the story of Haym Solomon. It won an Academy Award in 1940 for Best Short Subject .-Cast:* Claude Rains - Haym Salomon* Gale Sondergaard - Rachel Salomon...

     – Warner Bros.
    Warner Bros.
    Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

    • Drunk Driving
      Drunk Driving (film)
      Drunk Driving is a 1939 short drama film directed by David Miller. It was nominated for an Academy Award at the 12th Academy Awards in 1940 for Best Live Action Short Film, Two-Reel.-Cast:* Dick Purcell as John Jones* Jo Ann Sayers as Mrs. Jones...

       – MGM
    • Five Times Five
      Five Times Five
      Five Times Five is a 1939 short documentary film directed by Frank P. Donovan. It was nominated for an Academy Award in 1940 for Best Live Action Short Film, Two-Reel.-Cast:* Alexander Woollcott – Commentary...

       – RKO Radio
  • Best Animated Short Film
    Academy Award for Animated Short Film
    The Academy Award for Animated Short Film is an award which has been given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as part of the Academy Awards every year since the 5th Academy Awards, covering the year 1931-32, to the present....

    Best Score
    Academy Award for Best Original Score
    The Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:...

  • The Ugly Duckling – Walt Disney Productions and RKO Radio
    • Detouring America – Warner Bros.
      Warner Bros.
      Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

    • Peace on Earth – MGM
    • The Pointer
      The Pointer
      The Pointer is a 1939 American animated short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The cartoon follows Mickey Mouse as he tries to teach his dog Pluto to be a pointer dog during a quail hunt...

       – Walt Disney Productions and RKO Radio
  • Stagecoach – Richard Hageman
    Richard Hageman
    Richard Hageman was a Dutch-born American conductor, pianist, composer, and actor.- Biography :...

    , Frank Harling, John Leipold, and Leo Shuken
    Leo Shuken
    Leo Shuken was an American film music composer, arranger, and musical director....

    • The Great Victor Herbert
      The Great Victor Herbert
      -Cast:* Allan Jones as John Ramsey* Mary Martin as Louise Hall* Walter Connolly as Victor Herbert* Lee Bowman as Dr. Richard Moore* Susanna Foster as Peggy* Judith Barrett as Marie Clark* Jerome Cowan as Barney Harris* John Garrick as Warner Bryant...

       – Phil Boutelje
      Phil Boutelje
      Phil Boutelje was an American pianist, songwriter, composer, author and conductor.-Biography:...

       and Arthur Lange
      Arthur Lange
      Arthur Lange was a United States bandleader and Tin Pan Alley composer of popular music. He composed music for over 120 films, including Grand Canary and Woman on the Run. Lange shared an Oscar nomination with Hugo Friedhofer for the film The Woman in the Window...

    • Of Mice and Men
      Of Mice and Men (1939 film)
      Of Mice and Men is a 1939 film based on the novella of the same title by American author John Steinbeck. It stars Burgess Meredith, Betty Field, Lon Chaney, Jr., Charles Bickford, Roman Bohnen, Bob Steele and Noah Beery, Jr...

       – Aaron Copland
      Aaron Copland
      Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...

    • Babes in Arms
      Babes in Arms (film)
      Babes in Arms is the 1939 film version of the 1937 Broadway musical of the same name. The film version stars Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Charles Winninger, Guy Kibbee, June Preisser, Grace Hayes and Betty Jaynes.-Production:...

       – Roger Edens
      Roger Edens
      Roger Edens was a Hollywood composer, arranger and associate producer, and is considered one of the major creative figures in Arthur Freed's musical film production unit at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer during the "golden era of Hollywood".-Early career and work with Judy Garland:Edens was born in...

       and George E. Stoll
    • She Married a Cop – Cy Feuer
      Cy Feuer
      Cy Feuer was an American theatre producer, director, composer, and musician.Born Seymour Arnold Feuerman in Brooklyn, New York,he studied trumpet privately with Max Schlossberg, he became a professional trumpeter at the age of fifteen, working at clubs on weekends to help support his family while...

    • Intermezzo
      Intermezzo (1939 film)
      Intermezzo is a romantic film made in the USA by Selznick International Pictures. It was directed by Gregory Ratoff and produced by David O. Selznick. It is a remake of the Swedish film Intermezzo . The screenplay by George O'Neil was based on the screenplay of the original film by Gösta Stevens...

       – Lou Forbes
    • The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
      The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
      The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex is a 1939 historical romantic drama film. It is based on the relationship between Queen Elizabeth I, portrayed by Bette Davis, and Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, played by Errol Flynn...

       – Erich Wolfgang Korngold
      Erich Wolfgang Korngold
      Erich Wolfgang Korngold was an Austro-Hungarian film and romantic music composer. While his compositional style was considered well out of vogue at the time he died, his music has more recently undergone a reevaluation and a gradual reawakening of interest...

    • The Hunchback of Notre Dame
      The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939 film)
      The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a 1939 American monochrome film starring Charles Laughton as Quasimodo and Maureen O'Hara as Esmeralda. It was directed by William Dieterle and produced by Pandro S. Berman...

       – Alfred Newman
      Alfred Newman
      Alfred Newman was an American composer, arranger, and conductor of music for films.In a career which spanned over forty years, Newman composed music for over two hundred films. He was one of the most respected film score composers of his time, and is today regarded as one of the greatest...

    • They Shall Have Music
      They Shall Have Music
      They Shall Have Music is a 1939 musical film starring famed violinist Jascha Heifetz , Joel McCrea, Andrea Leeds, and Gene Reynolds...

       – Alfred Newman
      Alfred Newman
      Alfred Newman was an American composer, arranger, and conductor of music for films.In a career which spanned over forty years, Newman composed music for over two hundred films. He was one of the most respected film score composers of his time, and is today regarded as one of the greatest...

    • First Love
      First Love (1939 film)
      First Love is a 1939 Oscar nominated Universal musical film directed by Henry Koster. The film is a rewriting of the fairy tale Cinderella. It was released on both VHS and DVD .-Plot:...

       – Charles Previn
      Charles Previn
      Charles Previn was an American film composer who was highly active at Universal in Hollywood during the 1940s and 1950s...

    • Swanee River
      Swanee River (film)
      Swanee River is a biopic about Stephen Foster, a songwriter from Pittsburgh who falls in love with the South, marries a Southern girl, then is accused of sympathizing when the Civil War breaks out...

       – Louis Silvers
      Louis Silvers
      Louis "Lou" Silvers was an American film score composer whose work has been used in more than 250 movies. In 1935, he won an Academy Award for Best Original Score for One Night of Love.-Early life and career:...

    • Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
      Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
      Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a 1939 American drama film starring Jean Arthur and James Stewart about one man's effect on American politics. It was directed by Frank Capra and written by Sidney Buchman, based on Lewis R. Foster's unpublished story. Mr...

       – Dimitri Tiomkin
      Dimitri Tiomkin
      Dimitri Zinovievich Tiomkin was a Russian-born Hollywood film score composer and conductor. He is considered "one of the giants of Hollywood movie music." Musically trained in Russia, he is best known for his westerns, "where his expansive, muscular style had its greatest impact." Tiomkin...

    • Way Down South
      Way Down South (film)
      Way Down South is a 1939 film by Clarence Muse, who also acts in the film, and Langston Hughes. It was directed by Bernard Vorhaus and produced by Sol Lesser. The story deals with slavery on a plantation in pre-Civil War Louisiana....

       – Victor Young
      Victor Young
      Victor Young was an American composer, arranger, violinist and conductor. He was born in Chicago.-Biography:...

  • Best Original Score
    Academy Award for Best Original Score
    The Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:...

    Best Song
    Academy Award for Best Original Song
    The Academy Award for Best Original Song is one of the awards given annually to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences . It is presented to the songwriters who have composed the best original song written specifically for a film...

  • The Wizard of Oz
    The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
    The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...

     – Herbert Stothart
    Herbert Stothart
    Herbert Stothart was a song writer, arranger, conductor, and composer. He was also nominated for nine Oscars, winning Best Original Score for The Wizard of Oz.-Biography:...

    • Nurse Edith Cavell
      Nurse Edith Cavell
      Nurse Edith Cavell is a 1939 American film directed by Herbert Wilcox.The film was nominated at the 1939 Oscars for Best Original Score.- Cast :*Anna Neagle as Nurse Edith Cavell*Edna May Oliver as Countess de Mavon*George Sanders as Capt. Heinrichs...

       – Anthony Collins
    • Of Mice and Men
      Of Mice and Men (1939 film)
      Of Mice and Men is a 1939 film based on the novella of the same title by American author John Steinbeck. It stars Burgess Meredith, Betty Field, Lon Chaney, Jr., Charles Bickford, Roman Bohnen, Bob Steele and Noah Beery, Jr...

       – Aaron Copland
      Aaron Copland
      Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...

    • The Man in the Iron Mask
      The Man in the Iron Mask (1939 film)
      The Man in the Iron Mask is a 1939 American film very loosely adapted from the last section of the novel The Vicomte de Bragelonne by Alexandre Dumas, père, which is itself based on the French legend of the Man in the Iron Mask....

       – Lud Gluskin
      Lud Gluskin
      Ludwig Elias Gluskin was a jazz bandleader.Gluskin drummed for bands in France in the 1920s, including at the Casino de Paris...

       and Lucien Moraweck
    • Eternally Yours
      Eternally Yours (film)
      Eternally Yours is a 1939 American comedy film made by Walter Wanger and released by United Artists. The film was produced and directed by Tay Garnett with Walter Wanger as executive producer, from a screenplay by C. Graham Baker and Gene Towne....

       – Werner Janssen
      Werner Janssen
      Hans-Werner Janssen was an American conductor of classical music, and composer of classical music and film scores.-Biography:...

    • The Rains Came
      The Rains Came
      The Rains Came is the title of a novel by Louis Bromfield, published in 1937, as well as the 1939 20th Century Fox film version which followed it...

       – Alfred Newman
      Alfred Newman
      Alfred Newman was an American composer, arranger, and conductor of music for films.In a career which spanned over forty years, Newman composed music for over two hundred films. He was one of the most respected film score composers of his time, and is today regarded as one of the greatest...

    • Wuthering Heights
      Wuthering Heights (1939 film)
      Wuthering Heights is a 1939 American black-and-white film directed by William Wyler and produced by Samuel Goldwyn. It is based on the novel, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. The film depicts only sixteen of the novel's thirty-four chapters, eliminating the second generation of characters. The...

       – Alfred Newman
      Alfred Newman
      Alfred Newman was an American composer, arranger, and conductor of music for films.In a career which spanned over forty years, Newman composed music for over two hundred films. He was one of the most respected film score composers of his time, and is today regarded as one of the greatest...

    • Dark Victory
      Dark Victory
      Dark Victory is a 1939 American drama film directed by Edmund Goulding and starring Bette Davis, George Brent, Humphrey Bogart, and Ronald Reagan...

       – Max Steiner
      Max Steiner
      Max Steiner was an Austrian composer of music for theatre productions and films. He later became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Trained by the great classical music composers Brahms and Mahler, he was one of the first composers who primarily wrote music for motion pictures, and as...

    • Gone With the Wind
      Gone with the Wind (film)
      Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...

       – Max Steiner
      Max Steiner
      Max Steiner was an Austrian composer of music for theatre productions and films. He later became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Trained by the great classical music composers Brahms and Mahler, he was one of the first composers who primarily wrote music for motion pictures, and as...

    • Golden Boy
      Golden Boy (film)
      Golden Boy is a 1939 black-and-white Columbia Pictures drama film based on the Clifford Odets play of the same name. It features William Holden in the role that made him a star: a promising violinist who wants to be a boxer. Barbara Stanwyck plays his love interest. The supporting cast included Lee J...

       – Victor Young
      Victor Young
      Victor Young was an American composer, arranger, violinist and conductor. He was born in Chicago.-Biography:...

    • Gulliver's Travels
      Gulliver's Travels (1939 film)
      Gulliver's Travels is a 1939 American cel-animated Technicolor feature film, directed by Dave Fleischer and produced by Max Fleischer for Fleischer Studios. The film was released on Friday, December 22, 1939 by Paramount Pictures, who had the feature produced as an answer to the success of Walt...

       – Victor Young
      Victor Young
      Victor Young was an American composer, arranger, violinist and conductor. He was born in Chicago.-Biography:...

    • Man of Conquest
      Man of Conquest
      Man of Conquest is a 1939 Western film directed by George Nichols Jr.. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards for Best Score, Best Sound and Best Art Direction .-Cast:* Richard Dix - Sam Houston...

       – Victor Young
      Victor Young
      Victor Young was an American composer, arranger, violinist and conductor. He was born in Chicago.-Biography:...

  • "Over the Rainbow
    Over the Rainbow
    "Over the Rainbow" is a classic Academy Award-winning ballad song with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by E.Y. Harburg. It was written for the movie The Wizard of Oz, and was sung by Judy Garland in the movie...

    " from The Wizard of Oz
    The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
    The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...

     – Music by Harold Arlen
    Harold Arlen
    Harold Arlen was an American composer of popular music, having written over 500 songs, a number of which have become known the world over. In addition to composing the songs for The Wizard of Oz, including the classic 1938 song, "Over the Rainbow,” Arlen is a highly regarded contributor to the...

    ; Lyric by E. Y. Harburg
    • "Faithful Forever" from Gulliver's Travels
      Gulliver's Travels (1939 film)
      Gulliver's Travels is a 1939 American cel-animated Technicolor feature film, directed by Dave Fleischer and produced by Max Fleischer for Fleischer Studios. The film was released on Friday, December 22, 1939 by Paramount Pictures, who had the feature produced as an answer to the success of Walt...

       – Music by Ralph Rainger
      Ralph Rainger
      Ralph Rainger was an American composer of popular music principally for films.-Biography:Born Ralph Reichenthal in New York City, Rainger embarked on a legal career before escaping to Broadway where he became Clifton Webb's accompanist...

      ; Lyric by Leo Robin
      Leo Robin
      Leo Robin was an American composer, lyricist and songwriter. He is probably best known for collaborating with Ralph Rainger on the 1938 Oscar-winning song "Thanks for the Memory," sung by Bob Hope in the film The Big Broadcast of 1938.-Biography:Robin was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and...

    • "I Poured My Heart Into a Song" from Second Fiddle
      Second Fiddle (1939 film)
      Second Fiddle is a 1939 American musical romance film directed by Sidney Lanfield and starring Sonja Henie, Tyrone Power, Rudy Vallee and Lyle Talbot. The score was composed by Irving Berlin. A Hollywood publicity agent falls in love with a new actress he helped to discover. The film parodies the...

       – Music and Lyric by Irving Berlin
      Irving Berlin
      Irving Berlin was an American composer and lyricist of Jewish heritage, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history.His first hit song, "Alexander's Ragtime Band", became world famous...

    • "Wishing" from Love Affair – Music and Lyric by Buddy de Sylva
      Buddy De Sylva
      George Gard "Buddy" DeSylva was an American songwriter, film producer and record executive. He wrote or co-wrote many popular songs and along with Johnny Mercer and Glenn Wallichs he founded Capitol Records.-Biography:...

  • Best Sound Recording Best Art Direction
    Academy Award for Best Art Direction
    The Academy Awards are the oldest awards ceremony for achievements in motion pictures. The Academy Award for Best Art Direction recognizes achievement in art direction on a film. The films below are listed with their production year, so the Oscar 2000 for best art direction went to a film from 1999...

  • When Tomorrow Comes
    When Tomorrow Comes (film)
    When Tomorrow Comes is a 1939 romantic drama film starring Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer. A waitress falls in love with a man who later turns out to be a married concert pianist. Bernard B...

     – Bernard B. Brown
    Bernard B. Brown
    Bernard B. Brown was an American sound engineer. He won an Academy Award in the category Sound Recording and was nominated for seven more in the same category. He was also nominated three times in the category Best Visual Effects...

    , Universal Studio Sound Department
    Universal Studios
    Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....

    • Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
      Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
      Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a 1939 American drama film starring Jean Arthur and James Stewart about one man's effect on American politics. It was directed by Frank Capra and written by Sidney Buchman, based on Lewis R. Foster's unpublished story. Mr...

       – John Livadary, Columbia Studio Sound Department
    • Goodbye, Mr. Chips
      Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939 film)
      Goodbye, Mr. Chips is a 1939 British film based on the novel of the same name by James Hilton. It was directed by Sam Wood, and starred Robert Donat, Greer Garson, Terry Kilburn, John Mills, and Paul Henreid. The screenplay was adapted from the novel by R. C. Sherriff, Claudine West and Eric...

       – A. W. Watkins
      A. W. Watkins
      A. W. Watkins was a British sound engineer. He was nominated for four Academy Awards in the category Sound Recording.-Selected filmography:* Goodbye, Mr. Chips * Knights of the Round Table...

      , Denham Studio Sound Department
    • Of Mice and Men
      Of Mice and Men (1939 film)
      Of Mice and Men is a 1939 film based on the novella of the same title by American author John Steinbeck. It stars Burgess Meredith, Betty Field, Lon Chaney, Jr., Charles Bickford, Roman Bohnen, Bob Steele and Noah Beery, Jr...

       – Elmer A. Raguse
      Elmer A. Raguse
      Elmer A. Raguse was an American sound engineer mostly associated with the Hal Roach Studios. He was nominated for eight Academy Awards in the categories Best Sound Recording and Best Effects.-Selected filmography:Best Sound...

      , Hal Roach Studio Sound Department
    • Balalaika
      Balalaika (film)
      Balalaika is a 1939 American musical romance film based on the 1936 London stage musical of the same name. Produced by Lawrence Weingarten and directed by Reinhold Schunzel, it starred Nelson Eddy and Ilona Massey....

       – Douglas Shearer
      Douglas Shearer
      Douglas G. Shearer was a Canadian-born pioneer sound designer and recording director who played a key role in the advancement of sound technology for motion pictures.-Early life and career:...

      , MGM Studio Sound Department
    • The Great Victor Herbert
      The Great Victor Herbert
      -Cast:* Allan Jones as John Ramsey* Mary Martin as Louise Hall* Walter Connolly as Victor Herbert* Lee Bowman as Dr. Richard Moore* Susanna Foster as Peggy* Judith Barrett as Marie Clark* Jerome Cowan as Barney Harris* John Garrick as Warner Bryant...

       – Loren L. Ryder
      Loren L. Ryder
      Loren L. Ryder was an American sound engineer. He was nominated for 14 Academy Awards in the categories Best Sound Recording and Best Effects.-Selected filmography:Best Sound* Wells Fargo...

      , Paramount Studio Sound Department
    • Man of Conquest
      Man of Conquest
      Man of Conquest is a 1939 Western film directed by George Nichols Jr.. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards for Best Score, Best Sound and Best Art Direction .-Cast:* Richard Dix - Sam Houston...

       – Charles L. Lootens
      Charles L. Lootens
      Charles L. Lootens was an American sound engineer. He was nominated for four Academy Awards in the category Sound Recording.-Selected filmography:* Army Girl * Man of Conquest...

      , Republic Studio Sound Department
    • The Hunchback of Notre Dame
      The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939 film)
      The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a 1939 American monochrome film starring Charles Laughton as Quasimodo and Maureen O'Hara as Esmeralda. It was directed by William Dieterle and produced by Pandro S. Berman...

       – John Aalberg, RKO Radio Studio Sound Department
      RKO Pictures
      RKO Pictures is an American film production and distribution company. As RKO Radio Pictures Inc., it was one of the Big Five studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheum theater chains and Joseph P...

    • Gone With the Wind
      Gone with the Wind (film)
      Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...

       – Thomas T. Moulton
      Thomas T. Moulton
      Thomas T. Moulton was an American sound engineer. He won five Academy Awards in the category Sound Recording and was nominated for eleven more in the same category...

      , Samuel Goldwyn Studio Sound Department
      Samuel Goldwyn Studio
      Samuel Goldwyn Studio was the name that Samuel Goldwyn used to refer to the Pickford-Fairbanks Studios lot and the offices and stages that his company, Goldwyn Pictures, rented there during the 1920s and 1930s...

    • The Rains Came
      The Rains Came
      The Rains Came is the title of a novel by Louis Bromfield, published in 1937, as well as the 1939 20th Century Fox film version which followed it...

       – E. H. Hansen, Fox Studio Sound Department
      20th Century Fox
      Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...

    • The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
      The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
      The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex is a 1939 historical romantic drama film. It is based on the relationship between Queen Elizabeth I, portrayed by Bette Davis, and Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, played by Errol Flynn...

       – Nathan Levinson
      Nathan Levinson
      Nathan Levinson was an American sound engineer. He won an Academy Award in the category Sound Recording for the film Yankee Doodle Dandy and was nominated for 16 more in the same category...

      , Warner Bros. Studio Sound Department
      Warner Bros.
      Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

  • Gone With the Wind
    Gone with the Wind (film)
    Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...

     – Lyle Wheeler
    • Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
      Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
      Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a 1939 American drama film starring Jean Arthur and James Stewart about one man's effect on American politics. It was directed by Frank Capra and written by Sidney Buchman, based on Lewis R. Foster's unpublished story. Mr...

       – Lionel Banks
      Lionel Banks
      With over 200 films to his credit, Lionel Banks was a hard-working art director from 1935 to 1949...

    • Wuthering Heights
      Wuthering Heights (1939 film)
      Wuthering Heights is a 1939 American black-and-white film directed by William Wyler and produced by Samuel Goldwyn. It is based on the novel, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. The film depicts only sixteen of the novel's thirty-four chapters, eliminating the second generation of characters. The...

       – James Basevi
      James Basevi
      James Basevi was a British born art director and special effects expert....

    • The Rains Came
      The Rains Came
      The Rains Came is the title of a novel by Louis Bromfield, published in 1937, as well as the 1939 20th Century Fox film version which followed it...

       – William S. Darling
      William S. Darling
      William S. Darling was a Hungarian-born art director. He was born as Wilhelm Sándorházi. He won three Academy Awards and was nominated for a further four in the category Best Art Direction...

       and George Dudley
      George Dudley (art director)
      George Dudley was an American art director. He was nominated an Academy Award in the category Best Art Direction for the film The Rains Came.-Filmography:* The Caribbean Mystery...

    • Beau Geste
      Beau Geste (1939 film)
      Beau Geste is a 1939 film produced by Paramount Pictures based on the novel of the same name by P. C. Wren. It was directed and produced by William A. Wellman from a screenplay by Robert Carson...

       – Hans Dreier
      Hans Dreier
      Hans Dreier was a film art director.Born in Bremen, Germany, Dreier began his career in German film in 1919 and by the end of the 1920s had relocated to Hollywood....

       and Robert Odell
      Robert Odell
      Robert Odell was an American art director. He was nominated an Academy Award in the category Best Art Direction for the film Beau Geste.-External links:...

    • The Wizard of Oz
      The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
      The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...

       – Cedric Gibbons
      Cedric Gibbons
      Austin Cedric Gibbons was an Irish American art director who was one of the most important and influential in the field in the history of American film. He also made a great impact on motion picture theater architecture through the 1930s to 1950s, the period considered the golden-era of theater...

       and William A. Horning
      William A. Horning
      William A. Horning was a multiple Academy Award winner. He was married to Esther Montgomery until his death....

    • The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
      The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
      The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex is a 1939 historical romantic drama film. It is based on the relationship between Queen Elizabeth I, portrayed by Bette Davis, and Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, played by Errol Flynn...

       – Anton Grot
      Anton Grot
      Anton Grot was a Polish art director. He was born in Kelbasin, Poland and died in Stanton, California.-Awards:Grot was nominated for five Academy Awards for Best Art Direction:* The Sea Hawk...

    • Captain Fury
      Captain Fury
      Captain Fury is a 1939 adventure film directed by Hal Roach. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Art Direction by Charles D. Hall.-Cast:* Brian Aherne - Captain Michael Fury* Victor McLaglen - Blackie* Paul Lukas - Francois Dupre...

       – Charles D. Hall
      Charles D. Hall
      Charles D. Hall was a British-American art director and production designer. He is perhaps best remembered for his tenure at Universal Pictures, where he began his career during the silent era...

    • Man of Conquest
      Man of Conquest
      Man of Conquest is a 1939 Western film directed by George Nichols Jr.. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards for Best Score, Best Sound and Best Art Direction .-Cast:* Richard Dix - Sam Houston...

       – John Victor Mackay
      John Victor Mackay
      John Victor Mackay was an American art director. He was nominated for three Academy Awards in the category Best Art Direction...

    • First Love
      First Love (1939 film)
      First Love is a 1939 Oscar nominated Universal musical film directed by Henry Koster. The film is a rewriting of the fairy tale Cinderella. It was released on both VHS and DVD .-Plot:...

       – Jack Otterson
      Jack Otterson
      Jack Otterson was an American art director. He was nominated for eight Academy Awards in the category Best Art Direction...

       and Martin Obzina
      Martin Obzina
      Martin Obzina was an American art director. He was nominated for two Academy Awards in the category Best Art Direction.He was born in Chicago, Illinois and died in New York, New York.-Selected filmography:...

    • Love Affair – Van Nest Polglase
      Van Nest Polglase
      Van Nest Polglase was an American art director. He was nominated for six Academy Awards in the category Best Art Direction. Best remembered as head of the design department at RKO Pictures, he worked on 333 films between 1925 and 1957.He was born in Brooklyn, New York and died in Los Angeles,...

       and Alfred Herman
      Alfred Herman
      Alfred Herman was an American art director. He was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Art Direction for the film Love Affair....

    • Stagecoach – Alexander Toluboff
      Alexander Toluboff
      Alexander Toluboff was a Polish-born American art director. He was nominated for three Academy Awards in the category Best Art Direction.He was born in Lublin, Poland and died in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.-Selected filmography:...

  • Best Cinematography, Black and White
    Academy Award for Best Cinematography
    The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:...

    Best Cinematography, Color
    Academy Award for Best Cinematography
    The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:...

  • Wuthering Heights
    Wuthering Heights (1939 film)
    Wuthering Heights is a 1939 American black-and-white film directed by William Wyler and produced by Samuel Goldwyn. It is based on the novel, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. The film depicts only sixteen of the novel's thirty-four chapters, eliminating the second generation of characters. The...

     – Gregg Toland
    Gregg Toland
    Gregg Toland, A.S.C. was an American cinematographer noted for his innovative use of lighting and techniques such as deep focus, an example of which can be found in his work on Orson Welles' Citizen Kane.-Career:...

    • Gunga Din
      Gunga Din (film)
      Gunga Din is a 1939 RKO adventure film directed by George Stevens, loosely based on the poem of the same name by Rudyard Kipling, combined with elements of his novel Soldiers Three...

       – Joseph H. August
      Joseph H. August
      Joseph H. August, A.S.C. was an American cinematographer and co-founder of the American Society of Cinematographers....

    • Lady of the Tropics – Norbert Brodine
      Norbert Brodine
      Nobert Brodine was a film cinematographer...

    • Juarez – Tony Gaudio
      Tony Gaudio
      Tony Gaudio was an Italian American cinematographer and the first to create a montage sequence for a film....

    • Stagecoach – Bert Glennon
      Bert Glennon
      Bert Glennon was an American cinematographer and film director.He was nominated for three Academy Awards in Best Cinematography categories for the films Stagecoach , Drums Along the Mohawk , and Dive Bomber .Glennon worked as a cinematographer on over a hundred films for directors including John...

    • The Rains Came
      The Rains Came
      The Rains Came is the title of a novel by Louis Bromfield, published in 1937, as well as the 1939 20th Century Fox film version which followed it...

       – Arthur Charles Miller
    • The Great Victor Herbert – Victor Milner
      Victor Milner
      Victor Milner, A.S.C. was an American cinematographer. He was nominated for ten cinematography Academy Awards, winning once for 1934's Cleopatra...

    • Intermezzo
      Intermezzo (1939 film)
      Intermezzo is a romantic film made in the USA by Selznick International Pictures. It was directed by Gregory Ratoff and produced by David O. Selznick. It is a remake of the Swedish film Intermezzo . The screenplay by George O'Neil was based on the screenplay of the original film by Gösta Stevens...

       – Gregg Toland
      Gregg Toland
      Gregg Toland, A.S.C. was an American cinematographer noted for his innovative use of lighting and techniques such as deep focus, an example of which can be found in his work on Orson Welles' Citizen Kane.-Career:...

    • First Love
      First Love (1939 film)
      First Love is a 1939 Oscar nominated Universal musical film directed by Henry Koster. The film is a rewriting of the fairy tale Cinderella. It was released on both VHS and DVD .-Plot:...

       – Joseph Valentine
    • Only Angels Have Wings
      Only Angels Have Wings
      Only Angels Have Wings is a movie directed by Howard Hawks, starring Cary Grant and Jean Arthur. It is generally regarded as being among Hawks' finest films, particularly in its portrayal of the professionalism of the pilots, its atmosphere, and the flying sequences.It inspired the 1983 television...

       – Joseph Walker
      Joseph Walker (cinematographer)
      Joseph Walker, A.S.C. was an American cinematographer who worked on 145 films during a career that spanned thirty-three years....

  • Gone With the Wind
    Gone with the Wind (film)
    Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...

     – Ernest Haller
    Ernest Haller
    Ernest Haller, A.S.C. also credited as Ernie B. Haller, , was an American cinematographer.Born in Los Angeles, California, Haller joined Biograph Studios as an actor in 1914, then began to freelance as a cinematographer...

     and Ray Rennahan
    Ray Rennahan
    Ray Rennahan, A.S.C. was a movie cinematographer.For his work in movies, he became one of the only six cinematographers to have a "Star" on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The other five are: Haskell Wexler, Conrad L. Hall, J...

    • The Four Feathers
      The Four Feathers (1939 film)
      The Four Feathers is a 1939 adventure film directed by Zoltan Korda, starring John Clements, Ralph Richardson, June Duprez, C. Aubrey Smith. Set in the 1890s during the reign of Queen Victoria, it tells the story of a man accused of cowardice. It is one of a number of adaptations of the 1902 novel...

       – Georges Périnal
      Georges Périnal
      Georges Périnal was a French cinematographer.- Partial filmography :* The Blood of a Poet * Under the Roofs of Paris * À nous la liberté * Catherine the Great...

       and Osmond Borradaile
      Osmond Borradaile
      Osmond H. Borradaile was a Canadian cameraman, cinematographer and veteran of First and Second World War.Osmond Borradaile grew up in Alberta, moving often during his childhood...

    • The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
      The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
      The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex is a 1939 historical romantic drama film. It is based on the relationship between Queen Elizabeth I, portrayed by Bette Davis, and Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, played by Errol Flynn...

       – Sol Polito
      Sol Polito
      Salvatore "Sol" Polito, A.S.C. was an Academy Award nominated cinematographer.Born in Palermo, Sicily, Polito immigrated to the United States at an early age. Polito married his wife, Frances...

       and W. Howard Greene
      W. Howard Greene
      William Howard Greene was a cinematographer. He was born in Connecticut and died in Los Angeles.Greene, sometimes billed as William H. Greene and W. Howard Greene, was a cinematographer on many early Technicolor films, including Legong: Dance of the Virgins .-External links:*...

    • Drums Along the Mohawk
      Drums Along the Mohawk
      Drums Along the Mohawk is a 1939 historical Technicolor film based upon a 1936 novel of the same name by American author, Walter D. Edmonds. The film was produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and directed by John Ford. Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert portray settlers on the New York frontier during the...

       – Ray Rennahan
      Ray Rennahan
      Ray Rennahan, A.S.C. was a movie cinematographer.For his work in movies, he became one of the only six cinematographers to have a "Star" on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The other five are: Haskell Wexler, Conrad L. Hall, J...

       and Bert Glennon
      Bert Glennon
      Bert Glennon was an American cinematographer and film director.He was nominated for three Academy Awards in Best Cinematography categories for the films Stagecoach , Drums Along the Mohawk , and Dive Bomber .Glennon worked as a cinematographer on over a hundred films for directors including John...

    • The Wizard of Oz
      The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
      The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...

       – Hal Rosson
      Harold Rosson
      Harold G. "Hal" Rosson, A.S.C. was an American cinematographer during the early and classical Hollywood cinema. He is best known for his work on the 1939 masterpiece The Wizard of Oz.-Biography:Rosson came from a film-making family...

    • The Mikado
      The Mikado
      The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...

       – William V. Skall and Bernard Knowles
      Bernard Knowles
      Bernard Knowles was an English film director, producer, cinematographer and screenwriter. Born in Manchester, Knowles worked with Alfred Hitchcock on numerous occasions before the director emigrated to Hollywood...

  • Best Film Editing Best Visual Effects
  • Gone With the Wind
    Gone with the Wind (film)
    Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...

     – Hal C. Kern and James E. Newcom
    • Goodbye, Mr. Chips
      Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939 film)
      Goodbye, Mr. Chips is a 1939 British film based on the novel of the same name by James Hilton. It was directed by Sam Wood, and starred Robert Donat, Greer Garson, Terry Kilburn, John Mills, and Paul Henreid. The screenplay was adapted from the novel by R. C. Sherriff, Claudine West and Eric...

       – Charles Frend
      Charles Frend
      Charles Frend was an English film director.Charles Frend started his career at British International Pictures in 1931 and after editing Hitchcock's Waltzes from Vienna moved to Gaumont British Pictures in 1933 where he worked as an editor on Alfred Hitchcock's movies Secret Agent , Sabotage and...

    • Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
      Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
      Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a 1939 American drama film starring Jean Arthur and James Stewart about one man's effect on American politics. It was directed by Frank Capra and written by Sidney Buchman, based on Lewis R. Foster's unpublished story. Mr...

       – Gene Havlick and Al Clark
    • Stagecoach – Otho Lovering
      Otho Lovering
      Otto Lovering , also credited as Otho Lovering, was an American film editor. He edited John Ford's classic Westerns Stagecoach and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, among many other films...

       and Dorothy Spencer
      Dorothy Spencer
      Dorothy Spencer was an American film editor. Nominated for an Academy Award on several occasions she is remembered for editing several of director John Ford's best known movies, including Stagecoach and what film critic Roger Ebert calls, "Ford's greatest Western," My Darling Clementine.She was...

    • The Rains Came
      The Rains Came
      The Rains Came is the title of a novel by Louis Bromfield, published in 1937, as well as the 1939 20th Century Fox film version which followed it...

       – Barbara McLean
      Barbara McLean
      Barbara McLean was an American film editor with 62 film credits. In the period Darryl F. Zanuck was dominant at the 20th Century Fox Studio, from the 1930s through the 1960s, McLean was the Studio's most conspicuous editor and ultimately the head of its editing department.She won the 1944 Academy...

  • The Rains Came
    The Rains Came
    The Rains Came is the title of a novel by Louis Bromfield, published in 1937, as well as the 1939 20th Century Fox film version which followed it...

     – E. H. Hansen and Fred Sersen
    Fred Sersen
    Fred Sersen was a Czechoslovak/American painter and cinema special effects artist working mainly at 20th Century Fox Studios from the 1930s to the 1950s with credits in over 200 movies. He won two Academy Awards for Best Effects, Special Effects , in 1940 for The Rains Came, and in 1944 for Crash...

    • Gone With the Wind
      Gone with the Wind (film)
      Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...

       – John R. Cosgrove, Fred Albin and Arthur Johns
    • Only Angels Have Wings
      Only Angels Have Wings
      Only Angels Have Wings is a movie directed by Howard Hawks, starring Cary Grant and Jean Arthur. It is generally regarded as being among Hawks' finest films, particularly in its portrayal of the professionalism of the pilots, its atmosphere, and the flying sequences.It inspired the 1983 television...

       – Roy Davidson and Edwin C. Hahn
    • Union Pacific
      Union Pacific (film)
      Union Pacific is a 1939 American dramatic western film directed by Cecil B. DeMille, and starring Barbara Stanwyck and Joel McCrea. Based on the novel Trouble Shooter by Western fiction author Ernest Haycox, the film is about the building of the railroad across the American West.-Plot:The 1862...

       – Farciot Edouart, Gordon Jennings and Loren Ryder
    • The Wizard of Oz
      The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
      The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...

       – A. Arnold Gillespie
      A. Arnold Gillespie
      Albert Arnold Gillespie was an American cinema special effects artist.-Early years:Gillespie joined MGM as a set designer in 1925, a year after it was founded. He was educated at Columbia University and the Arts Students League. His first project was the silent film Ben-Hur, released that same year...

       and Douglas Shearer
      Douglas Shearer
      Douglas G. Shearer was a Canadian-born pioneer sound designer and recording director who played a key role in the advancement of sound technology for motion pictures.-Early life and career:...

    • The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
      The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
      The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex is a 1939 historical romantic drama film. It is based on the relationship between Queen Elizabeth I, portrayed by Bette Davis, and Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, played by Errol Flynn...

       – Byron Haskin
      Byron Haskin
      Byron Conrad Haskin was an American film and television director. He was born in Portland, Oregon.He is remembered today for directing 1953's The War of the Worlds, one of many films where he teamed with producer George Pal. In his early career, he was a special effects artist, with a number of...

       and Nathan Levinson
    • Topper Takes a Trip
      Topper Takes a Trip
      Topper Takes a Trip is a 1938 film sequel of Topper . Constance Bennett, Roland Young, Billie Burke and Alan Mowbray reprised their roles from the earlier movie; only Cary Grant was missing . A ghost tries to reunite a couple who she had a hand in splitting up in the prior film...

       – Roy Seawright
      Roy Seawright
      Roy Seawright born 19 November 1905 in Los Angeles, California, died 30 April 1991 in Torrance, California was a Hollywood special effects technician, principally with Hal Roach Studios....


  • Academy Honorary Award

    • Douglas Fairbanks
      Douglas Fairbanks
      Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. was an American actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films such as The Thief of Bagdad, Robin Hood, and The Mark of Zorro....

    • the Motion Picture Relief Fund
    • William Cameron Menzies
      William Cameron Menzies
      William Cameron Menzies was an Academy Award-winning American film production designer and art director who also worked as a director, producer, and screenwriter during a career spanning five decades...

    • the Technicolor Company

    Multiple nominations and awards

    These films had multiple nominations:
    • 13 nominations: Gone with the Wind
    • 11 nominations: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
    • 8 nominations: Wuthering Heights
    • 7 nominations: Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Stagecoach
    • 6 nominations: Love Affair, The Rains Came, The Wizard of Oz
    • 5 nominations: The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
    • 4 nominations: Ninotchka, Of Mice and Men
    • 3 nominations: Dark Victory, First Love, The Great Victor Herbert, Man of Conquest
    • 2 nominations: Babes in Arms, Beau Geste, Drums Along the Mohawk, Gulliver's Travels, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Intermezzo, Juarez, Only Angels Have Wings

    The following films received multiple awards.
    • 8 wins: Gone with the Wind
    • 2 wins: Stagecoach, The Wizard of Oz

    The lead up to the awards ceremony

    Prior to the announcement of nominations, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Gone with the Wind were the two films most widely tipped to receive a significant number of nominations. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington premiered in Washington with a premier party hosted by the National Press Club who found themselves portrayed unfavourably in the film; the film's theme of political corruption was condemned and the film was denounced in the U.S. Senate. Joseph P. Kennedy, the U.S. Ambassador to Britain
    United Kingdom
    The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

     urged President Franklin D. Roosevelt
    Franklin D. Roosevelt
    Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...

     and the studio head Harry Cohn
    Harry Cohn
    Harry Cohn was the American president and production director of Columbia Pictures.-Career:Cohn was born to a working-class German-Jewish family in New York City. In later years, he appears to have disparaged his heritage...

     to cease showing the film overseas because "it will cause our allies to view us in an unfavourable light". Among those who campaigned in favour of the film were Hedda Hopper
    Hedda Hopper
    Hedda Hopper was an American actress and gossip columnist, whose long-running feud with friend turned arch-rival Louella Parsons became at least as notorious as many of Hopper's columns.-Early life:...

     who declared it "as great as Lincoln's
    Abraham Lincoln
    Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...

     Gettysburg speech
    Gettysburg Address
    The Gettysburg Address is a speech by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and is one of the most well-known speeches in United States history. It was delivered by Lincoln during the American Civil War, on the afternoon of Thursday, November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery...

    ", while Sheilah Graham called it the "best talking picture ever made". Screen Book magazine stated that it "should win every Academy Award". Frank Capra
    Frank Capra
    Frank Russell Capra was a Sicilian-born American film director. He emigrated to the U.S. when he was six, and eventually became a creative force behind major award-winning films during the 1930s and 1940s...

    , the director, and James Stewart
    James Stewart (actor)
    James Maitland Stewart was an American film and stage actor, known for his distinctive voice and his everyman persona. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime...

    , the film's star were considered front runners to win awards.

    Gone with the Wind premiered in December 1939 with a Gallup poll taken shortly before its release concluding that 56.5 million people intended to see the film. The New York Film Critics Award was given to Wuthering Heights after thirteen rounds of balloting had left the voters deadlocked between Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Gone with the Wind. The press were divided in their support for the nominated actors. Time Magazine favoured Vivien Leigh
    Vivien Leigh
    Vivien Leigh, Lady Olivier was an English actress. She won the Best Actress Academy Award for her portrayal of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire , a role she also played on stage in London's West End, as well as for her portrayal of the southern belle Scarlett O'Hara, alongside Clark...

     and used her portrait for their Christmas 1939 edition, and the Hollywood Reporter predicted a possible win by Leigh and Laurence Olivier
    Laurence Olivier
    Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...

     with the comment that they "are, for the moment, just about the most sacred of all Hollywood's sacred cows". West Coast newspapers, particularly in Los Angeles, predicted Bette Davis
    Bette Davis
    Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...

     would win for Dark Victory. Observing that Davis had achieved four box office successes during the year, one paper wrote, "Hollywood will stick by its favourite home-town girl, Bette Davis".

    The ceremony

    The director Frank Capra
    Frank Capra
    Frank Russell Capra was a Sicilian-born American film director. He emigrated to the U.S. when he was six, and eventually became a creative force behind major award-winning films during the 1930s and 1940s...

     was the incumbent President of the Academy, and in a first for Academy Awards ceremonies, sold the rights for the event to be filmed. Warner Brothers obtained the rights, for $30,000 to film the banquet and the presentation of the awards, to use as a short, and it was shot by the cinematographer
    Cinematography
    Cinematography is the making of lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography...

     Charles Rosher
    Charles Rosher
    Charles Rosher, A.S.C. was a two-time Academy Award-winning cinematographer who worked from the early days of silent films through the 1950s...

    . Variety Magazine noted that the stars in attendance were conscious of being filmed at the event for the first time and that the event was marked by glamour with fashion conscious actress wearing the best of gowns, furs and jewellery.

    The Los Angeles Times
    Los Angeles Times
    The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....

    printed a substantially accurate list of winners, despite a promise to withhold the results of the voting, so many of the nominees learned before arriving at the ceremony who had won. Among these were Clark Gable
    Clark Gable
    William Clark Gable , known as Clark Gable, was an American film actor most famous for his role as Rhett Butler in the 1939 Civil War epic film Gone with the Wind, in which he starred with Vivien Leigh...

     and Bette Davis
    Bette Davis
    Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...

     who knew they had not won in their respective categories before entering the ceremony.

    Following the banquet, Frank Capra opened proceedings at 11pm with a short speech before introducing Bob Hope
    Bob Hope
    Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...

     who made his first appearance as host of the awards. Looking at a table laden with awards awaiting presentation, he quipped, "I feel like I'm in Bette Davis' living room". Mickey Rooney
    Mickey Rooney
    Mickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...

     presented an Academy Juvenile Award
    Academy Juvenile Award
    The Academy Juvenile Award, also known as the Juvenile Oscar, was a Special Honorary Academy Award bestowed at the discretion of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to specifically recognize juvenile performers under the age of eighteen for their "outstanding...

     to Judy Garland
    Judy Garland
    Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...

     who then performed Over the Rainbow
    Over the Rainbow
    "Over the Rainbow" is a classic Academy Award-winning ballad song with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by E.Y. Harburg. It was written for the movie The Wizard of Oz, and was sung by Judy Garland in the movie...

    , a "Best Song" nominee from The Wizard of Oz.

    As the evening progressed, Gone with the Wind won the majority of awards, and Bob Hope remarked to David O. Selznick, "David, you should have brought roller skates". Making a speech, Selznick paused to extend praise and gratitude to Olivia de Havilland
    Olivia de Havilland
    Olivia Mary de Havilland is a British American film and stage actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1946 and 1949. She is the elder sister of actress Joan Fontaine. The sisters are among the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s.-Early life:Olivia de Havilland...

    , a "Best Supporting Actress" nominee, and made it clear in his speech that he knew she had not won. Fay Bainter
    Fay Bainter
    Fay Okell Bainter was an American film and stage actress.-Early life:She was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Charles F. Bainter and Mary Okell. In 1910, she was a traveling stage actress...

     presented the awards for Best Supporting Actor and Actress, prefacing her presentation of the latter award with the knowing comment, "It is a tribute to a country where people are free to honor noteworthy achievements regardless of creed, race or color". Hattie McDaniel
    Hattie McDaniel
    Hattie McDaniel was the first African-American actress to win an Academy Award. She won the award for Best Supporting Actress for her role of Mammy in Gone with the Wind ....

     became the first black performer to win an Academy Award and in expressing her gratitude promised to be "a credit to my race" before bursting into tears. Olivia de Havilland was among those to make their way to McDaniel's table to offer congratulations, though it was reported that de Havilland then fled to the kitchen, where she burst into tears. The press reported that an irritated Irene Mayer Selznick
    Irene Mayer Selznick
    Irene Mayer Selznick was an American theatrical producer.Born Irene Gladys Mayer in Brooklyn, New York, she was the daughter of future MGM studio mogul, Louis B. Mayer and his first wife, Margaret Shenberg....

     followed her, and told her to return to their table and stop making a fool of herself.

    Robert Donat
    Robert Donat
    Robert Donat was an English film and stage actor. He is best-known for his roles in Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps and Goodbye, Mr...

    , the winner for "Best Actor" was one of three nominated actors not present (the others were Irene Dunne
    Irene Dunne
    Irene Dunne was an American film actress and singer of the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s. Dunne was nominated five times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for her performances in Cimarron , Theodora Goes Wild , The Awful Truth , Love Affair and I Remember Mama...

     and Greta Garbo
    Greta Garbo
    Greta Garbo , born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson, was a Swedish film actress. Garbo was an international star and icon during Hollywood's silent and classic periods. Many of Garbo's films were sensational hits, and all but three were profitable...

    ). Accepting the award for Donat, Spencer Tracy
    Spencer Tracy
    Spencer Bonaventure Tracy was an American theatrical and film actor, who appeared in 75 films from 1930 to 1967. Tracy was one of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, ranking among the top ten box office draws for almost every year from 1938 to 1951...

     said that he was sure Donat's win was welcomed by "the entire motion-picture industry" before presenting the "Best Actress" award to Vivien Leigh
    Vivien Leigh
    Vivien Leigh, Lady Olivier was an English actress. She won the Best Actress Academy Award for her portrayal of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire , a role she also played on stage in London's West End, as well as for her portrayal of the southern belle Scarlett O'Hara, alongside Clark...

    . The press noted that Bette Davis
    Bette Davis
    Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...

     was among those waiting to congratulate Leigh as she returned to her table.

    Post awards discussion

    Further controversy erupted following the ceremony, with the Los Angeles Times reporting that Leigh had won over Davis by the smallest of margins and that Donat had likewise won over James Stewart
    James Stewart (actor)
    James Maitland Stewart was an American film and stage actor, known for his distinctive voice and his everyman persona. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime...

     by a small number of votes. This led Academy officials to examine ways that the voting process, and more importantly, the results, would remain secret in future years. They considered the Los Angeles Times publication of such details as a breach of faith.

    Hattie McDaniel received considerable attention from the press with Daily Variety writing, "Not only was she the first of her race to receive an Award, but she was also the first Negro ever to sit at an Academy banquet".

    Carole Lombard
    Carole Lombard
    Carole Lombard was an American actress. She was particularly noted for her comedic roles in the screwball comedies of the 1930s...

     was quoted as comforting Gable after his loss, with the comment "don't worry, Pappy. We'll bring one home next year". Gable replied that he felt this had been his last chance to which Lombard was said to have replied, "Not you, you self-centered bastard. I meant me."

    Academy Award ceremony presenters in sequence of awards presented

    Name Awards presented
    Darryl F. Zanuck
    Darryl F. Zanuck
    Darryl Francis Zanuck was an American producer, writer, actor, director and studio executive who played a major part in the Hollywood studio system as one of its longest survivors...

     
    Scientific and technical awards
    Film editing
    Sound recording
    Cinematography
    Art direction
    Special effects
    Gene Buck
    Gene Buck
    Edward Eugene Buck was an American illustrator of sheet music, musical theater lyricist, and president of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers .-Early career:...

     
    Music awards
    Bob Hope
    Bob Hope
    Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...

     
    Short subjects
    Mickey Rooney
    Mickey Rooney
    Mickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...

     
    Special Juvenile Academy Award to Judy Garland
    Judy Garland
    Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...

    Mervyn LeRoy
    Mervyn LeRoy
    Mervyn LeRoy was an American film director, producer and sometime actor.-Early life:Born to Jewish parents in San Francisco, California, his family was financially ruined by the 1906 earthquake...

     
    Best Director
    Sinclair Lewis
    Sinclair Lewis
    Harry Sinclair Lewis was an American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, "for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of...

     
    Writing awards
    Y. Frank Freeman
    Y. Frank Freeman
    Young Frank Freeman was an American film company executive for Paramount Pictures. Freeman graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1910. In addition to his work with Paramount, he also worked with banking, higher education, and athletics.He was the first winner of the Jean Hersholt...

     
    Best Picture
    Basil O'Connor
    Basil O'Connor
    Basil O'Connor was an American lawyer. In co-operation with US-President Franklin D. Roosevelt he started two foundations for the rehabiltation of polio patients and the research on polio prevention and treatment...

     
    Special awards to Jean Hersholt
    Jean Hersholt
    Jean Pierre Hersholt was a Danish-born actor who lived in the United States, where he was a leading film and radio talent, best known for his 17 years starring on radio in Dr. Christian and for playing Shirley Temple's grandfather in Heidi...

    , Ralph Morgan
    Ralph Morgan
    Ralph Morgan was a Hollywood film, stage and character actor, and the older brother of Frank Morgan .-Early life:...

    , Ralph Block
    Ralph Block
    Ralph Block was an American film producer in the 1920s and became a full-time screenwriter in 1930. He is most famous, however, for being President of the Screen Actors Guild from 1934 to 1935. He received an Honorary Academy Award in 1940 for his dedicated work for the Motion Picture Relief Fund....

     and Conrad Nagel
    Conrad Nagel
    Conrad Nagel was an American screen actor and matinee idol of the silent film era and beyond. He was also a well-known television actor and radio performer.-Biography:...

    Dr. Ernest Martin Hopkins
    Ernest Martin Hopkins
    Ernest Martin Hopkins served as the 11th President of Dartmouth College from 1916 to 1945.- Dartmouth Presidency :...

     
    Irving Thalberg Award
    Irving Thalberg
    Irving Grant Thalberg was an American film producer during the early years of motion pictures. He was called "The Boy Wonder" for his youth and his extraordinary ability to select the right scripts, choose the right actors, gather the best production staff and make very profitable films.-Life and...

    Walter Wanger
    Walter Wanger
    Walter Wanger was an American film producer. An intellectual and a socially conscious movie executive who produced provocative message movies and glittering romantic melodramas, Wanger's career began at Paramount Pictures in the 1920s and led him to work at virtually every major studio as either a...

     
    Commemorative award to Douglas Fairbanks
    Douglas Fairbanks
    Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. was an American actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films such as The Thief of Bagdad, Robin Hood, and The Mark of Zorro....

    Fay Bainter
    Fay Bainter
    Fay Okell Bainter was an American film and stage actress.-Early life:She was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Charles F. Bainter and Mary Okell. In 1910, she was a traveling stage actress...

     
    Supporting Actor
    Supporting Actress
    Spencer Tracy
    Spencer Tracy
    Spencer Bonaventure Tracy was an American theatrical and film actor, who appeared in 75 films from 1930 to 1967. Tracy was one of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, ranking among the top ten box office draws for almost every year from 1938 to 1951...

    Best Actor
    Best Actress
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