13th Annual Academy Awards Results and Commentary (1941)

©A.M.P.A.S.®
©A.M.P.A.S.®
  • Date of Ceremony: Thursday, February 27, 1941
  • For films released in: 1940
  • Host(s): Bob Hope
Other years:

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There was a lot more anticipation as stars headed into the Biltmore Hotel’s Biltmore Bowl on Thursday, February 27, 1941 for the 13th Annual Academy Awards.

Previous years had seen the Academy give the winners list to the media so they had it ready for deadline but sometimes the info would leak out as the celebrities head to the big night. Now the Academy had hired the accounting firm Price Waterhouse to tabulate the votes and keep the results secret in sealed ballots. “The envelope please” suddenly had a lot more anticipation than ever before.

War was waging overseas and though the U.S. was not yet fighting, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt started off the awards by making a six-minute speech that was piped into the ceremony. FDR thanked Hollywood for making films that portrayed “the American way of life” and “truths of our democracy.”

Though David O. Selznick’s Rebecca had eleven nominations, it only won two, Outstanding Production and Best Cinematography (Black-and-White).

Results

Outstanding Production

  • Rebecca
    Selznick International Pictures

Best Directing

  • The Grapes of Wrath
    John Ford

Best Actor

  • The Philadelphia Story
    James Stewart

Best Actress

  • Kitty Foyle
    Ginger Rogers

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

  • The Westerner
    Walter Brennan

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

  • The Grapes of Wrath
    Jane Darwell

Best Art Direction (Black-and-White)

  • Pride and Prejudice
    Cedric Gibbons and Paul Groesse

Best Art Direction (Color)

  • The Thief of Bagdad
    Vincent Korda

Best Cinematography (Black-and-White)

  • Rebecca
    George Barnes

Best Cinematography (Color)

  • The Thief of Bagdad
    Georges Périnal

Best Film Editing

  • North West Mounted Police
    Anne Bauchens

Best Music (Scoring)

  • Tin Pan Alley
    Alfred Newman

Best Music (Original Score)

  • Pinocchio
    Leigh Harline, Paul J. Smith and Ned Washington

Best Music (Song)

  • Pinocchio "When You Wish upon a Star"
    Leigh Harline [Music by] and Ned Washington [Lyrics by]

Best Short Subject (Cartoon)

  • The Milky Way
    Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Best Short Subject (One-reel)

  • Quicker 'N a Wink
    Pete Smith

Best Short Subject (Two-reel)

  • Teddy, the Rough Rider
    Warner Bros.

Best Sound Recording

  • Strike Up the Band
    Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio Sound Department and Douglas Shearer [Sound Director]

Best Special Effects

  • The Thief of Bagdad
    Lawrence Butler [Photographic Effects by] and Jack Whitney [Sound Effects by]

Best Writing (Original Screenplay)

  • The Great McGinty
    Preston Sturges

Best Writing (Screenplay)

  • The Philadelphia Story
    Donald Ogden Stewart

Best Writing (Original Story)

  • Arise, My Love
    Benjamin Glazer and John S. Toldy

Special Award

  • Bob Hope
    Note: …in recognition of his unselfish services to the Motion Picture Industry.
  • Col. Nathan Levinson
    Note: …for his outstanding service to the industry and the Army during the past nine years, which has made possible the present efficient mobilization of the motion picture industry facilities for the production of Army Training Films.

Scientific or Technical Award (Class I)

  • 20th Century-Fox Film Corp., Daniel Clark, Grover Laube, Charles Miller and Robert W. Stevens
    Note: …for the design and construction of the 20th Century Silenced Camera, developed by Daniel Clark, Grover Laube, Charles Miller and Robert W. Stevens.

Scientific or Technical Award (Class III)

  • Anton Grot and Warner Bros. Studio Art Department
    Note: …for the design and perfection of the Warner Bros. water ripple and wave illusion machine.
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