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

The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards. Also called Oscars, the Academy Awards are given to people working in the movie industry by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).

In the list below, the winner of the award for each year from 1940 to 1949 is shown first, followed by the other nominees.

• 1940 Rebecca – Selznick, United Artists – David O. Selznick
  • All This and Heaven Too – Warner Bros. – Jack L. Warner, Hal B. Wallis, with David Lewis
  • Foreign Correspondent – Wanger, United Artists – Walter Wanger
  • The Grapes of Wrath – 20th Century-Fox – Darryl F. Zanuck with Nunnally Johnson
  • The Great Dictator – Chaplin, United Artists – Charles Chaplin
  • Kitty Foyle – RKO Radio – David Hempstead
  • The Letter – Warner Bros. – Hal B. Wallis
  • The Long Voyage Home – Argosy Wanger, United Artists – John Ford
  • Our Town – Lesser, United Artists – Sol Lesser
  • The Philadelphia Story – Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer – Joseph L. Mankiewicz

• 1941 How Green Was My Valley – 20th Century-Fox – Darryl F. Zanuck
  • Blossoms in the Dust – Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer – Irving Asher
  • Citizen Kane – RKO Radio – Orson Welles
  • Here Comes Mr. Jordan – Columbia – Everett Riskin
  • Hold Back the Dawn – Paramount – Arthur Hornblow, Jr.
  • The Little Foxes – Goldwyn, RKO Radio – Samuel Goldwyn
  • The Maltese Falcon – Warner Bros. – Hal B. Wallis
  • One Foot in Heaven – Warner Bros. – Hal B. Wallis
  • Sergeant York – Warner Bros. – Jesse L. Lasky and Hal B. Wallis
  • Suspicion – RKO Radio – Alfred Hitchcock

• 1942 Mrs. Miniver – Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer – Sidney Franklin
  • Forty-Ninth Parallel – Ortus, Columbia (British) – Michael Powell
  • Kings Row – Warner Bros. – Hal B. Wallis
  • The Magnificent Ambersons – Mercury, RKO Radio – Orson Welles
  • The Pied Piper – 20th Century-Fox – Nunnally Johnson
  • The Pride of the Yankees – Goldwyn, RKO Radio – Samuel Goldwyn
  • Random Harvest – Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer – Sidney Franklin
  • The Talk of the Town – Columbia – George Stevens
  • Wake Island – Paramount – Joseph Sistrom
  • Yankee Doodle Dandy – Warner Bros. – Jack Warner, Hal B. Wallis, William Cagney

• 1943 Casablanca – Warner Bros. – Hal B. Wallis
  • For Whom the Bell Tolls – Paramount – Sam Wood
  • Heaven Can Wait – 20th Century-Fox – Ernst Lubitsch
  • The Human Comedy – Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer – Clarence Brown
  • In Which We Serve – Two Cities, United Artists (British) – Noel Coward
  • Madame Curie – Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer – Sidney Franklin
  • The More the Merrier – Columbia – George Stevens
  • The Ox-Bow Incident – 20th Century-Fox – Lamar Trotti
  • The Song of Bernadette – 20th Century-Fox – William Perlberg
  • Watch on the Rhine – Warner Bros. – Hal B. Wallis

• 1944 Going My Way – Paramount – Leo McCarey
  • Double Indemnity – Paramount – Joseph Sistrom
  • Gaslight – Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer – Arthur Hornblow, Jr.
  • Since You Went Away – Selznick, United Artists – David O. Selznick
  • Wilson – 20th Century-Fox – Darryl F. Zanuck

• 1945 The Lost Weekend – Paramount – Charles Bracken
  • Anchors Aweigh – Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer – Joe Pasternak
  • The Bells of St. Mary's – Rainbow, RKO Radio – Leo McCarey
  • Mildred Pierce – Warner Bros. – Jerry Wald
  • Spellbound – Selznick, United Artists – David O. Selznick

• 1946 The Best Years of Our Lives – Goldwyn, RKO Radio – Samuel Goldwyn
  • Henry V – Rank-Two Cities, United Artists (British) – Laurence Olivier
  • It's a Wonderful Life – Liberty, RKO Radio – Frank Capra
  • The Razor's Edge – 20th Century-Fox – Darryl F. Zanuck
  • The Yearling – Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer – Sidney Franklin

• 1947 Gentleman's Agreement – 20th Century-Fox – Darryl F. Zanuck
  • The Bishop's Wife – Goldwyn, RKO Radio – Samuel Goldwyn
  • Crossfire – RKO Radio – Adrian Scott
  • Great Expectations – Rank-Cineguild, U-I (British) – Ronald Neame
  • Miracle on 34th Street – 20th Century-Fox – William Perlberg

• 1948 Hamlet – J. Arthur Rank-Two Cities Movies, U-I (British) – Laurence Olivier
  • Johnny Belinda – Warner Bros. – Jerry Wald
  • The Red Shoes – Rank-Archers, Eagle-Lion (British) – Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
  • The Snake Pit – 20th Century-Fox – Anatole Litvak and Robert Bassler
  • The Treasure of the Sierra Madre – Warner Bros. – Henry Blanke

• 1949 All the King's Men – Rossen, Columbia – Robert Rossen
  • Battleground – Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer – Dore Schary
  • The Heiress – Paramount – William Wyler
  • A Letter to Three Wives – 20th Century-Fox – Sol C. Siegel
  • Twelve O'Clock High – 20th Century-Fox – Darryl F. Zanuck