Academy Award for Best Picture (1940s) facts for kids

The Academy Award for Best Picture is a very special award given to the best movie of the year. These awards are also called Oscars. They are given out by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to people who work hard to make movies. Winning an Oscar for Best Picture is one of the biggest honors a movie can get!

Best Picture Winners of the 1940s

This section shows the movies that won the Best Picture Oscar from 1940 to 1949. The winning movie is listed first for each year, followed by the other movies that were nominated.

1940: Rebecca

• 1940 Rebecca – Produced by David O. Selznick
• All This and Heaven Too
• Foreign Correspondent
• The Grapes of Wrath
• The Great Dictator
• Kitty Foyle
• The Letter
• The Long Voyage Home
• Our Town
• The Philadelphia Story

1941: How Green Was My Valley

• 1941 How Green Was My Valley – Produced by Darryl F. Zanuck
• Blossoms in the Dust
• Citizen Kane
• Here Comes Mr. Jordan
• Hold Back the Dawn
• The Little Foxes
• The Maltese Falcon
• One Foot in Heaven
• Sergeant York
• Suspicion

1942: Mrs. Miniver

• 1942 Mrs. Miniver – Produced by Sidney Franklin
• Forty-Ninth Parallel
• Kings Row
• The Magnificent Ambersons
• The Pied Piper
• The Pride of the Yankees
• Random Harvest
• The Talk of the Town
• Wake Island
• Yankee Doodle Dandy

1943: Casablanca

• 1943 Casablanca – Produced by Hal B. Wallis
• For Whom the Bell Tolls
• Heaven Can Wait
• The Human Comedy
• In Which We Serve
• Madame Curie
• The More the Merrier
• The Ox-Bow Incident
• The Song of Bernadette
• Watch on the Rhine

1944: Going My Way

• 1944 Going My Way – Produced by Leo McCarey
• Double Indemnity
• Gaslight
• Since You Went Away
• Wilson

1945: The Lost Weekend

• 1945 The Lost Weekend – Produced by Charles Bracken
• Anchors Aweigh
• The Bells of St. Mary's
• Mildred Pierce
• Spellbound

1946: The Best Years of Our Lives

• 1946 The Best Years of Our Lives – Produced by Samuel Goldwyn
• Henry V
• It's a Wonderful Life
• The Razor's Edge
• The Yearling

1947: Gentleman's Agreement

• 1947 Gentleman's Agreement – Produced by Darryl F. Zanuck
• The Bishop's Wife
• Crossfire
• Great Expectations
• Miracle on 34th Street

1948: Hamlet

• 1948 Hamlet – Produced by Laurence Olivier
• Johnny Belinda
• The Red Shoes
• The Snake Pit
• The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

1949: All the King's Men

• 1949 All the King's Men – Produced by Robert Rossen
• Battleground
• The Heiress
• A Letter to Three Wives
• Twelve O'Clock High