The 13th Academy Awards were held on February 27, 1941, to honor films released in 1940. This was the first year that sealed envelopes were used to keep the names of the winners secret. The accounting firm of

Price Waterhouse PricewaterhouseCoopers is an international professional services brand of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounting ...

was hired to count the ballots, after voting results in

1939 This year also marks the start of the Second World War, the largest and deadliest conflict in human history. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 ** Third Reich *** Jews are forbidden to ...

were leaked by the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

''.

Best Original Screenplay The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best screenplay not based upon previously published material. It was created in 1940 as a separate writing award from the Academy Award for Best Story. Beginning with the ...

was introduced at this ceremony, alongside

Best Screenplay Best or The Best may refer to: People * Best (surname), people with the surname Best * Best (footballer, born 1968), retired Portuguese footballer Companies and organizations * Best & Co., an 1879–1971 clothing chain * Best Lock Corporation, ...

, which would eventually become Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Story. Independent producer

David O. Selznick David O. Selznick (May 10, 1902June 22, 1965) was an American film producer, screenwriter and film studio executive who produced '' Gone with the Wind'' (1939) and ''Rebecca'' (1940), both of which earned him an Academy Award for Best Picture. ...

, who had produced the previous year's Best Picture winner '' Gone with the Wind'' (1939), produced the film with the most nominations again this year, ''

Rebecca Rebecca, ; Syriac: , ) from the Hebrew (lit., 'connection'), from Semitic root , 'to tie, couple or join', 'to secure', or 'to snare') () appears in the Hebrew Bible as the wife of Isaac and the mother of Jacob and Esau. According to biblical ...

'' (11), and campaigned heavily for its win.''Inside Oscar'', Mason Wiley and Damien Boa, Ballantine Books (1986) pg. 103-107 The film won Best Picture, making Selznick the first to produce two consecutive winners; its only other win was for Best Cinematography (Black and White), marking the last time to date a film would win Best Picture but not win for either directing, acting, or writing. The film's distributor,

United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the stu ...

, was the last of the original film studios (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Columbia, 20th Century-Fox, Warner Bros., RKO Radio, Universal, and Paramount) to win Best Picture. ''Rebecca'' was the first American film directed by

Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...

, and the only one of his films to win Best Picture. Hitchcock had two films nominated for Best Picture, the other being ''

Foreign Correspondent A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is usually a journalist or commentator for a magazine, or an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, locat ...

'', and two other directors also had two films in the running: Sam Wood (''

Our Town ''Our Town'' is a 1938 metatheatrical three-act play by American playwright Thornton Wilder which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play tells the story of the fictional American small town of Grover's Corners between 1901 and 1913 thr ...

'' and '' Kitty Foyle'') and John Ford ('' The Long Voyage Home'' and ''

The Grapes of Wrath ''The Grapes of Wrath'' is an American realist novel written by John Steinbeck and published in 1939. The book won the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and it was cited prominently when Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Priz ...

'', which won Best Director). ''

Pinocchio Pinocchio ( , ) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the children's novel '' The Adventures of Pinocchio'' (1883) by Italian writer Carlo Collodi of Florence, Tuscany. Pinocchio was carved by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a Tuscan ...

'' was the first animated feature film to win competitive Oscars, for Best Original Score and Best Original Song, starting a long tradition of animated films winning in these categories. '' The Thief of Bagdad'' received the most Oscars of the evening (3), the first time a film not nominated for Best Picture won the most awards. This and ''Pinocchio'' were the first films not nominated for Best Picture to receive multiple awards in Oscar history.

Awards

Nominees were announced on February 10, 1941. Winners are listed first and highlighted in boldface.

Academy Honorary Awards

Bob Hope Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was a British-American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer and dancer. With a career that spanned nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in more than 70 short and feature films, with ...

"in recognition of his unselfish services to the Motion Picture Industry". * Colonel Nathan Levinson "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".

1941 Oscar firsts

For the first time, names of all winners remained secret until the moment they received their awards. Franklin D. Roosevelt gave a six-minute direct radio address to the attendees from the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

. It is the first time an American president participated in the event.

Multiple nominations and awards

The following 32 film received multiple nominations: * 11 nominations: ''

'' * 7 nominations: ''

'' and '' The Letter'' * 6 nominations: ''

'', '' The Long Voyage Home'', ''

'', and '' The Philadelphia Story'' * 5 nominations: ''

The Great Dictator ''The Great Dictator'' is a 1940 American anti-war political satire black comedy film written, directed, produced, scored by, and starring British comedian Charlie Chaplin, following the tradition of many of his other films. Having been the onl ...

'', '' Kitty Foyle'', and '' North West Mounted Police'' * 4 nominations: '' Arise, My Love'', ''

The Sea Hawk ''The Sea Hawk'' is a 1915 novel by Rafael Sabatini. The story is set over the years 1588–1593 and concerns a retired Cornish seafaring gentleman, Sir Oliver Tressilian, who is villainously betrayed by a jealous half-brother. After being ...

'', '' Spring Parade'', and '' The Thief of Bagdad'' * 3 nominations: ''

All This, and Heaven Too ''All This, and Heaven Too'' is a 1940 American drama film made by Warner Bros.-First National Pictures, produced and directed by Anatole Litvak with Hal B. Wallis as executive producer. The screenplay was adapted by Casey Robinson from the 1938 ...

'', '' Down Argentine Way'', ''

My Favorite Wife ''My Favorite Wife'' (released in the U.K. as ''My Favourite Wife'') is a 1940 screwball comedy produced by Leo McCarey and directed by Garson Kanin. The picture stars Irene Dunne as a woman who, after being shipwrecked on a tropical island for ...

'', '' Strike Up the Band'', and '' The Westerner'' * 2 nominations: '' Abe Lincoln in Illinois'', ''

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

'', ''

Bitter Sweet Bittersweet, bitter-sweet, or bitter sweet may refer to: Biology * A vine in the nightshade family, ''Solanum dulcamara'' * Some species of vines in the genus ''Celastrus'', including American bittersweet (''C. scandens'') and Oriental bitters ...

'', '' The Blue Bird'', ''

Boom Town A boomtown is a community that undergoes sudden and rapid population and economic growth, or that is started from scratch. The growth is normally attributed to the nearby discovery of a precious resource such as gold, silver, or oil, although ...

'', ''

The Boys from Syracuse ''The Boys from Syracuse'' is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Lorenz Hart, based on William Shakespeare's play ''The Comedy of Errors'', as adapted by librettist George Abbott. The score includes swing and other contemporar ...

'', ''

Dark Command ''Dark Command'' is a 1940 Western film starring Claire Trevor, John Wayne and Walter Pidgeon loosely based on Quantrill's Raiders during the American Civil War. Directed by Raoul Walsh from the novel by W. R. Burnett, ''Dark Command'' is the o ...

'', ''

Hit Parade of 1941 ''Hit Parade of 1941'' is a 1940 American film written by Bradford Ropes, F. Hugh Herbert and Maurice Leo and directed by John H. Auer. It was nominated for the Oscar for Best Song at the 13th Academy Awards with the song "Who Am I?", with mus ...

'', ''

The Howards of Virginia ''The Howards of Virginia'' is a 1940 American drama war film directed by Frank Lloyd, released by Columbia Pictures, and based on the book ''The Tree of Liberty'' written by Elizabeth Page. The Howards of Virginia live through the American Revo ...

'', '' One Million B.C.'', ''

'', '' Second Chorus'', and ''

Waterloo Bridge Waterloo Bridge () is a road and foot traffic bridge crossing the River Thames in London, between Blackfriars Bridge and Hungerford Bridge and Golden Jubilee Bridges. Its name commemorates the victory of the British, Dutch and Prussians at t ...

'' The following five films received multiple awards: * 3 wins: '' The Thief of Bagdad'' * 2 wins: ''

'', '' The Philadelphia Story'', ''

'' and ''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Academy Awards, 13 Academy Awards ceremonies 1940 film awards 1941 in Los Angeles 1941 in American cinema February 1941 events

Awards

Academy Honorary Awards

1941 Oscar firsts

Multiple nominations and awards

See also

References