1948--The Year in Review

So far, my choices as to best of the 1940s have included John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath, Orson Welles' Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons, Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt, Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity, Marcel Carne's Children of Paradise, Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life and Charles Chaplin's Monsiuer Verdoux. But, out of all these splendid films, I return to this year's winner again and again nowadays--I find I never get tired of it, it so fills me with excitement. Whenever I begin John Huston's dazzling examination of human greed called The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and hear Max Steiner's wonderful score blasting away again, I feel like I'm settling down for the most beefy, appetizing dinner imaginable (complete with beans--ya gotta eat your beans). It's the kind of work that could get people who've never before seen a black-and-white film immediately enthusiastic about old movies (if I were teaching a course on movie history, this would be the one I'd program instantly--it's just impossible to get restless with this masterpiece). The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is everything a great work of cinema should be--weird, dangerous, radically engrossing, insightful, and crafted with fussy visual detail from top to bottom. The acting here is sublime, with each of the three leads play off each other to sensational effect (there are few supporting performances in film history more gripping, more hilarious and true, than Walter Huston's show as Howard, the straight-talking miner who acts as the film's iron moral compass; it should be noted, this film stands as the first that won Oscars for a father-and-son team in the same year (only the Coppola's have matched it, in 1974 with The Godfather Part II). And, man, how great is Humphrey Bogart in this movie? His Fred J. Dobbs is a lush, grubby, regally besmudged madman, deluded and bent on self-destruction; whenever I see him covered in that Mexican dust and grime, almost looking like a crazed, hairy monkey (50s' TV host Dave Garroway's chimpanzee TV-cohort J. Fred Muggs was probably named after Bogart's character), I say to myself  "This is easily Bogart's most daring, without-a-wire performance." And I love Tim Holt, too, elegantly gentle as the one relatively sane member of this batty trio. Even Bruce Bennett as the sad, laconically wise interloper Cody and Alphonso Bedoya as the film's villainous Gold Hat are unforgettable (Bedoya gets the movie's most famous line: "Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges"). Huston's heart-pounding quasi-western really places the viewer right there, pick in hand, toiling in the heated grime, suffering beneath that sun-soaked, gold-stuffed mountain...so much so that you feel like having a cool shower after watching the low dealings happening in this sierra's shadows. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is fun and smart and disturbing in equal measure, and I can't imagine anyone in the Academy voting against it for Best Picture (especially since it ended up winning three of the year's major awards).

But it happened, and instead, the Academy decided to finally give much of its acclaim to the British film industry, which had been toiling in unfair obscurity for decades before being cited for Lawrence Olivier's abbreviated version of Hamlet, which is fine but far from the best of the year (now, it really stands as a living document of Olivier's talents as an actor, and less as a show of his directing aplumb--his earlier Henry V was easily more astonishing, and I suspect this Best Picture choice was a make-up award for ignoring the legendary actor for so many years). Still, there are so many better 1948 UK movies the Academy could've lauded--Carol Reed's tense The Fallen Idol, Michael Powell's dizzying The Red Shoes, or David Lean's perfect adaptation of Oliver Twist, for example (then again, aside from The Red Shoes, which won a few accolades this year, maybe these movies weren't seen on US shores for years to come--the releases of non-American movies back then were a bonafide mess, and that's also why colossal titles like Italy's Bicycle Thieves and Germany Year Zero weren't considered for 1948 awards). Though Sierra Madre captains a major sweep in this overview, there's still room for the brilliantly colored images of Powell's The Red Shoes, a film too vibrant to ignore. Oliver Twist and The Fallen Idol still come into play here, too, and my choice for best Live Action Short film of the year was also a British film--a taut 40-minute photoplay called To The Public Danger, only the second production directed by future James Bond auteur Terrence Fisher. And, once again, the wildly funny and creative animator Tex Avery contributed another masterpiece involving a hilariously dyspeptic cat. 1947 might have been a dud of a year, but 1948--on US and other shores--more than made up for it. I mean...wow...such a period for film noir (They Live By Night, The Naked City, Raw Deal, Force of Evil, Key Largo, Call Northside 777), comedy (Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, Unfaithfully Yours, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein), musicals (Easter Parade, The Pirate, Romance on the High Seas) and westerns (Red River, Fort Apache, Yellow Sky). It was a time of ridiculous riches--a gold mine, if you will. NOTE: These are MY choices for each category, and are only occasionally reflective of the selections made by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (aka The Oscars). When available, the nominee that actually won the Oscar will be highlighted in bold.

PICTURE: THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (US, John Huston)
(2nd: The Red Shoes (UK, Michael Powell), followed by:
The Fallen Idol (UK, Carol Reed)
Bicycle Thieves (Italy, Vittorio De Sica)
Germany Year Zero (Italy/West Germany, Roberto Rossellini)
Red River (US, Howard Hawks)
Oliver Twist (UK, David Lean)
Letter from an Unknown Woman (US, Max Ophuls)
Raw Deal (US, Anthony Mann)
They Live by Night (US, Nicholas Ray)
He Walked By Night (US, Alfred Werker and Anthony Mann)
Yellow Sky (US, William A. Wellman)
Force of Evil (US, Abraham Polonsky)
Key Largo (US, John Huston)
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (US, H.C. Potter)
The Naked City (US, Jules Dassin)
Hamlet (UK, Lawrence Olivier)
Call Northside 777 (US, Henry Hathaway)
I Remember Mama (US, George Stevens)
The Snake Pit (US, Anatole Litvak)
Portrait of Jennie (US, William Dieterle)
The Search (US, Fred Zinnemann)
Macbeth (US, Orson Welles)
Louisiana Story (US, Robert Flaherty)
Sorry, Wrong Number (US, Anatole Litvak)
Unfaithfully Yours (US, Preston Sturges)
Fort Apache (US, John Ford)
Easter Parade (US, Charles Walters)
Rope (US, Alfred Hitchcock)
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (US, Charles Barton)

ACTOR: Humphrey Bogart, THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (2nd: Ralph Richardson, The Fallen Idol, followed by: Alec Guinness, Oliver Twist; John Garfield, Force of Evil; John Wayne, Red River; Lawrence Olivier, Hamlet; Lamberto Maggioranni, Bicycle Thieves; Cary Grant, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House; Richard Basehart, He Walked by Night)

ACTRESS: Olivia De Havilland, THE SNAKE PIT (2nd: Joan Fontaine, Letter from an Unknown Woman, followed by: Barbara Stanwyck, Sorry, Wrong Number; Irene Dunne, I Remember Mama; Jennifer Jones, Portrait of Jennie; Jane Wyman, Johnny Belinda; Myrna Loy, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House; Moira Shearer, The Red Shoes)

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Walter Huston, THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (2nd: Robert Newton, Oliver Twist, followed by: Montgomery Clift, Red River; Edward G. Robinson, Key Largo; Tim Holt, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre; Walter Brennan, Red River; Oscar Homolka, I Remember Mama; Thomas Gomez, Force of Evil; Melvyn Douglas, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Jean Simmons, HAMLET (2nd: Anne Baxter, Yellow Sky, followed by: Ethel Barrymore, Portrait of Jennie; Barbara Bel Geddes, I Remember Mama; Kay Walsh, Oliver Twist; Mary Clare, Oliver Twist; Claire Trevor, Key Largo; Betsy Blair, The Snake Pit; Barbara Lawrence, Unfaithfully Yours) 



DIRECTOR: John Huston, THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (2nd: Vittorio De Sica, Bicycle Thieves, followed by: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressberger, The Red Shoes; Carol Reed, The Fallen Idol; David Lean, Oliver Twist; Howard Hawks, Red River; Roberto Rossellini, Germany Year Zero; Max Ophuls, Letter from an Unknown Woman

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Roberto Rossellini, Carlo Lizzani, Max Colpet, and Sergio Amadei, GERMANY YEAR ZERO (2nd: Albert Maltz and Malvin Wald, The Naked City, followed by:  Lamar Trotti and W.R. Burnett, Yellow Sky; Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours; Richard Schwizer, The Search) 

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: John Huston, THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (2nd: Oreste Biancoli, Suso D'Amico, Vittorio De Sica, Adolfo Franci, Gherardo Gherardi, Gerardo Guerrieri, and Cesare Zavattini, Bicycle Thieves; followed by: Graham Greene, Leslie Storm and William Templeton, The Fallen Idol; David Lean and Stanley Haynes, Oliver Twist; Borden Chase and Charles Schnee, Red River; Abraham Polonsky and Ira Wolfort, Force of Evil) 

LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM: TO THE PUBLIC DANGER (UK, Terrence Fisher) (2nd: In The Street (Helen Levitt); The Dim Little Island (UK, Humphrey Jennings); Meditation on Violence (Maya Deren); Mother's Day (UK, James Broughton) ANIMATED SHORT FILM: THE CAT THAT HATED PEOPLE (Tex Avery) (2nd: Back Alley Oproar (Friz Freleng; Sylvester and Porky Pig), followed by: Pecos Bill (Clyde Geronmi and Walt Disney); The Foghorn Leghorn (Robert McKimson; Foghorn Leghorn); Half-Pint Pygmy (Tex Avery); Haredevil Hare (Chuck Jones; Bugs Bunny and Marvin the Martian); Gorilla My Dreams (Robert McKimson; Bugs Bunny)) BLACK-AND-WHITE CINEMATOGRAPHY: Joseph H. August and Lee Garmes, PORTRAIT OF JENNIE (2nd: William Daniels, The Naked City, followed by: John Alton, He Walked Bu Night; Joseph MacDonald, Yellow Sky; Guy Green, Oliver Twist) COLOR CINEMATOGRAPHY: Jack Cardiff, THE RED SHOES (2nd: Harry Stradling, Jr., Easter Parade, followed by: Winton C. Hoch, William V. Skall and Joseph A. Valentine, Joan of Arc) BLACK-AND-WHITE ART DIRECTION: THE FALLEN IDOL, Oliver Twist, Johnny Belinda, I Remember Mama, Portrait of Jennie COLOR ART DIRECTION: THE RED SHOES, Easter Parade, The Pirate BLACK-AND-WHITE COSTUME DESIGN: OLIVER TWIST, Hamlet, Letter From an Unknown Woman, The Fallen Idol, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre COLOR COSTUME DESIGN: THE RED SHOES, Easter Parade, Romance on the High Seas FILM EDITING: THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE, Red River, The Naked City, He Walked By Night, The Red Shoes SOUND: THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE, Red River, The Snake Pit, The Naked City, Yellow Sky ORIGINAL SCORE: Max Steiner, THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (2nd: Dimitri Tiomkin, Red River, followed by: Brian Easdale, The Red Shoes; Alfred Newman, The Snake Pit; Dimitri Tiomkin, Portrait of Jennie) ADAPTED OR MUSICAL SCORE: Johnny Green and Roger Edens, EASTER PARADE (2nd: Lennie Hayden, The Pirate, followed by: Victor Young, The Emperor Waltz) ORIGINAL SONG: "It's Magic" from ROMANCE ON THE HIGH SEAS (Music by Jule Stein, lyrics by Sammy Cahn) (2nd: "Buttons and Bows" from The Paleface (Music by Jay Livingston, lyrics by Ray Evans), followed by: "Be A Clown" from The Pirate (Music and lyrics by Cole Porter); "A Couple of Swells" from EASTER PARADE (Music and lyrics by Irving Berlin); "Steppin' Out With My Baby" from Easter Parade (Music and lyrics by Irving Berlin)) MAKEUP: THE RED SHOES, Oliver Twist, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

1947--The Year in Review

This is one of the drowsiest years in all of film history, and in so being, I found it difficult to muster up any enthusiasm for one title. But I did have to hand it to Chaplin for tackling a difficult subject with such vigor, and for willingly making himself onscreen into the ladykiller he seemed to be offscreen (and for doing so at a time when he was most hated by Hollywood). Miracle on 34th Street is still the most beloved movie of the year, and certainly one of the few Christmas movies that can be viewed confidently when it ISN'T Christmastime. This has a lot to do with the film's lively screenplay and two great supporting performances from Edmund Gwynn and the young Natalie Wood. I love the look of Jacques Tourneur's Out of the Past, but I feel the film is somewhat talky and dull (I can never get through it without falling asleep--and that's not something I say often with noir films; still, there's a lot of terrific elements to it). Same thing goes for Powell and Pressberger's Black Narcissus--brilliant looking, but lethargic (though Deborah Kerr is mesmerizing throughout). Maybe the most surprising movie of the year is the noir classic Nightmare Alley, a B-movie done in A-movie style featuring Tyrone Power at his best. The Oscars' choice, Elia Kazan's Gentleman's Agreement, is barely notable outside of Celeste Holm's smart support. At least the short films are still magnificent, with Tex Avery delivering one of his stone-cold masterpieces in King Size Canary. All in all, though, not one of my favorite annums. NOTE: These are MY choices for each category, and are only occasionally reflective of the selections made by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science (aka The Oscars). When available, the nominee that actually won the Oscar will be highlighted in bold. 

PICTURE: MONSIEUR VERDOUX (US, Charles Chaplin)
(2nd: Miracle on 34^th Street (US, George Seaton), followed by:
Nightmare Alley (US, Edmund Goulding)
Black Narcissus (UK, Michael Powell)
Brute Force (US, Jules Dassin)
Out of the Past (US, Jacques Tourneur)
Body and Soul (US, Robert Rossen)
T-Men (US, Anthony Mann)
Crossfire (US, Edward Dmytryk)
The Lady from Shanghai (US, Orson Welles)
Ride the Pink Horse (US, Robert Montgomery)
Odd Man Out (UK, Carol Reed)
They Made Me a Fugitive (US, Alberto Cavalcanti)
Kiss of Death (US, Henry Hathaway)
The Ghost and Mrs Muir (US, Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
Pursued (US, Raoul Walsh)
They Won’t Believe Me (US, Irving Pichel)
Boomerang (US, Elia Kazan)
Life With Father (US, Michael Curtiz)
The Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer (US, Irving Reis)
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (US, Norman Z. McLeod) 

ACTOR: John Garfield, BODY AND SOUL (2nd: William Powell, Life With Father, followed by: Charles Chaplin, Monsuier Verdoux; Tyrone Power, Nightmare Alley; Robert Mitchum, Out of the Past; Robert Young, They Won't Believe Me)

ACTRESS: Deborah Kerr, BLACK NARCISSUS (2nd: Loretta Young, The Farmer’s Daughter, followed by: Claire Trevor, Born to Kill; Joan Crawford, Possessed; Gene Tierney, The Ghost and Mrs Muir)

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Edmund Gwenn, MIRACLE ON 34th STREET (2nd: Richard Widmark, Kiss of Death, followed by: Robert Ryan, Crossfire; Hume Cronyn, Brute Force; Thomas Gomez, Ride The Pink Horse; Kirk Douglas, Out of the Past)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Celeste Holm, GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT (2nd: Marjorie Main, The Egg and I; followed by: Gloria Grahame, Crossfire; Colleen Gray, Nightmare Alley, Natalie Wood, Miracle on 34th Street; Ethel Barrymore, The Paradine Case) 

DIRECTOR:  Charles Chaplin, MONSIEUR VERDOUX (2nd: Michael Powell, Black Narcissus, followed by: Jacques Tourneur, Out of the Past; George Seaton, Miracle on 34^th Street; Edmund Goulding, Nightmare Alley; Jules Dassin, Brute Force)

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: George Seaton and Valentine Davies, MIRACLE ON 34th STREET (2nd: Charles Chaplin and Orson Welles, Monsieur Verdoux, followed by: F.L. Green and R.C. Sherriff, Odd Man Out; Michael Powell and Emeric Pressberger, Black Narcissus; Abraham Polonsky, Body and Soul)
 

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Jules Furthman, NIGHTMARE ALLEY (2nd: Geoffrey Homes, Out of the Past, followed by: John Paxton, Crossfire; Richard Murphy, Boomerang; Ben Hecht and Charles Lederer, Ride the Pink Horse)



LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM: LA TEMPESTAIRE (France, Jean Epstein) (2nd: Brideless Groom (Edward Bernds; The Three Stooges), followed by: People of the Po Valley (Italy, Michelangelo Antonioni); The Cage (Sidney Peterson))

ANIMATED SHORT FILM: KING SIZE CANARY (Tex Avery) (2nd: Motion Painting Number 1 (Oskar Fischinger), followed by: Tweetie Pie (Friz Freleng; Sylvester and Tweetie Pie); A Hare Grows in Manhattan (Friz Freling; Bugs Bunny); Birth of a Notion (Robert McKimson; Daffy Duck)
Chip an' Dale (Jack Hannah; Donald Duck))

BLACK-AND-WHITE CINEMATOGRAPHY: Nicholas Musuraca, OUT OF THE PAST (2nd: John Alton, T-Men, followed by: James Wong Howe, Body and Soul; Lee Garmes, Nightmare Alley; Charles Lang Jr, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir)

COLOR CINEMATOGRAPHY: Jack Cardiff, BLACK NARCISSUS (2nd: Charles Clarke and Arthur E. Arling, Captain from Castile, followed by: Leon Shamroy, Forever Amber) 

BLACK-AND-WHITE ART DIRECTION: NIGHTMARE ALLEY, Monsiuer Verdoux, Out of the Past, Gentleman's Agreement, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir

COLOR ART DIRECTION: BLACK NARCISSUS, Life with Father, Mother Wore Tights 

BLACK-AND-WHITE COSTUME DESIGN: MONSIEUR VERDOUX, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, Out of the Past, A Double Life

COLOR COSTUME DESIGN: LIFE WITH FATHER, Forever Amber, Good News 

FILM EDITING: BODY AND SOUL, Brute Force, Out of the Past, T-Men, The Lady from Shanghai

SOUND: T-MEN, Body and Soul, Green Dolphin Street, The Bishop's Wife, Brute Force



ORIGINAL SCORE: Alfred Newman, CAPTAIN FROM CASTILE (2nd: Franz Waxman, Possessed, followed by: Miklós Rózsa, Brute Force; Hugo Friedhofer, The Bishop’s Wife; Roy Webb, Out of the Past)

ADAPTED OR MUSICAL SCORE: Alfred Newman, MOTHER WORE TIGHTS (2nd: Ray Heindorf and Max Steiner, My Wild Irish Rose, followed by: Robert Emmett Dolan, Road to Rio)



ORIGINAL SONG: "Time After Time" from IT HAPPENED IN BROOKLYN (Music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Sammy Cahn) (2nd: "Golden Earrings" from Golden Earrings (Music and lyrics by Jay Livingston, Ray Evans and Victor Young); "Chiquita Banana" from This Time For Keeps (Music by Leonard Mackenzie, lyrics by Garth Montgomery); "A Gal in Calico" from The Time, The Place and The Girl (Music by Arthur Schwartz, lyrics by Leo Robin)

1946--The Year in Review

Three stunning tales of fantasy led the film parade in 1946, and the one that should have emerged victorious--a notorious box-office flop by Frank Capra--would still land a number of nominations from the Academy (including a Best Picture nod) but would have to settle, in future years, for an eternal place among the most beloved movies ever made. It's a Wonderful Life is a much darker and cynical picture than many assume (its once-ubitquitous appearance as a Christmas-time TV staple has craftily fooled people into thinking it's a goopy batch of sentimentality, but when they finally really watch it, minds are changed). It is a film, however, that can reduce even the hardest heart to tears, so the sentiment is definitely there. Same goes for the UK's A Matter of Life and Death (known for many years on US shores as Stairway to Heaven); Powell and Pressberger's magical, realm-hopping romance, shot in both black-and-white and color by master cinematographer Jack Cardiff, remains today a philosophically challenging look at mortality and morality. And Jean Cocteau's gorgeous La Belle et la Bete would land as the most dynamic adaptation of that oft-told story (even today, only Disney's animated version from the '90s comes close to besting it, and even then, it's not a close contest). Film noir continued to take hold of cinema with Gilda, The Big Sleep, The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Stranger, The Blue Dahlia, and The Killers dominating screens. Even with the myriad of great female leads in those films, it would be The Spiral Staircase's Dorothy McGuire who'd emerge with the most effective showing this year, and without having to utter a sound in Robert Siodmak's suspense classic. The western genre would see two of its landmark offerings, John Ford's exciting My Darling Clementine and King Vidor's wildly hallucinogenic Duel in the Sun. And David Lean would continue his rise to the top of the film world with a ridiculously entertaining adaptation of a Charles Dickens novel, adorned with a superb ensemble cast. As far as the Oscars were concerned, it was all about paying tribute to those who returned home from World War II, and so William Wyler's respectful but slightly ponderous The Best Years of Our Lives took all the top awards. In the shorts categories, Maya Deren contributed another eerie experimental piece in the live-action category, while the animated film industry exploded with the now unhinged work at Warner Brothers' Termite Terrace, where Bugs Bunny continued to reign supreme; this team's output would be so huge that the category could barely contain the limit of ten nominees. NOTE: These are MY choices for each category, and are only occasionally reflective of the selections made by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science (aka The Oscars). When available, the nominee that actually won the Oscar will be highlighted in bold.

PICTURE: IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (US, Frank Capra)
(2nd: A Matter of Life and Death (UK, Michael Powell), followed by:
La Belle et la Bete (France, Jean Cocteau)
Great Expectations (UK, David Lean)
My Darling Clementine (US, John Ford)
The Best Years of Our Lives (US, William Wyler)
The Big Sleep (US, Howard Hawks)
The Postman Always Rings Twice (US, Tay Garnett)
Shoeshine (Italy, Vittorio de Sica)
Paisàn (Italy, Roberto Rossellini)
The Killers (US, Robert Siodmak)
Notorious (US, Alfred Hitchcock)
Gilda (US, Charles Vidor)
Ivan the Terrible Part Two: The Boyars Plot (USSR, Sergei Eisenstein)
Green for Danger (UK, Sidney Gilliat)
The Spiral Staircase (US, Robert Siodmak)
Duel in the Sun (US, King Vidor)
The Yearling (US, Clarence Brown)
The Stranger (US, Orson Welles)
To Each His Own (US, Mitchell Leisen)
The Blue Dahlia (US, George Marshall)
Anna and the King of Siam (US, John Cromwell)

ACTOR: James Stewart, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (2nd: John Garfield, The Postman Always Rings Twice, followed by: Fredric March, The Best Years of Our Lives; Henry Fonda, My Darling Clementine; Nikolai Cherkassov, Ivan the Terrible Part Two: The Boyars Plot; Alastair Sim, Green for Danger; Humphrey Bogart, The Big Sleep; David Niven, A Matter of Life and Death)

ACTRESS: Dorothy McGuire, THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE (2nd: Olivia de Havilland, To Each His Own, followed by: Myrna Loy, The Best Years of Our Lives; Donna Reed, It's A Wonderful Life; Lana Turner, The Postman Always Rings Twice; Ingrid Bergman, Notorious; Barbara Stanwyck, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers; Rita Hayworth, Gilda)

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Finlay Currie, GREAT EXPECTATIONS (2nd: Roger Livesey, A Matter of Life and Death, followed by: Bernard Miles, Great Expectations; Lionel Barrymore, It’s a Wonderful Life; James Baskett, Song of the South; Claude Rains, Notorious; Harold Russell, The Best Years of Our Lives; Victor Mature, My Darling Clementine) 

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Martita Hunt, GREAT EXPECTATIONS (2nd: Jean Simmons, Great Expectations, followed by: Lillian Gish, Duel in the Sun; Ethel Barrymore, The Spiral Staircase; Kim Hunter, A Matter of Life and Death; Martha Vickers, The Big Sleep; Rosamund John, Green for Danger; Linda Darnell, My Darling Clementine)

DIRECTOR: Frank Capra, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (2nd: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressberger, A Matter of Life and Death, followed by: David Lean, Great Expectations; Jean Cocteau, La Belle et la Bete; John Ford, My Darling Clementine; Vittorio de Sica, Shoeshine)

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, Jo Swerling, Philip Van Doren Stern, and Frank Capra, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (2nd: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressberger, A Matter of Life and Death, followed by: Ben Hecht, Notorious; Sergio Amidei, Adolfo Franci, Cesare Giulio Viola, and Cesare Zavattini, Shoeshine; Charles Brackett and Jacques Thiery, To Each His Own)

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: David Lean, Ronald Neame, Anthony Havelock-Allan, Cecil McGivern, and Kay Walsh, GREAT EXPECTATIONS (2nd: Samuel G. Engel, Winston Miller and Sam Hellman, My Darling Clementine, followed by: Robert E. Sherwood, The Best Years of Our Lives; Anthony Veiller, John Huston, and Richard Brooks, The Killers; Sidney Gilliat and Claude Guerney, Green for Danger)



LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM: RITUAL IN TRANSFIGURED TIME (Maya Deren) (2nd: A Bird in the Head (Eduard Bernds; The Three Stooges), followed by: Tall Tan and Terrific (Bud Pollard); Rhythm and Weep (Jules White; The Three Stooges); Frontier Frolic (Lewis D. Collins))

ANIMATED SHORT FILM: HARE-RAISING HARE (Chuck Jones; Bugs Bunny) (2nd: Baseball Bugs (Friz Freling; Bugs Bunny), followed by: The Great Piggy Bank Robbery (Bob Clampett; Daffy Duck); Northwest Hounded Police (Tex Avery; Droopy Dog); Peter and the Wolf  (Clyde Geronimi and Walt Disney); Walky Talky Hawky (Robert McKimson; Foghorn Leghorn); Book Revue (Bob Clampett); Rhapsody Rabbit (Friz Freling; Bugs Bunny); Lonesome Lenny (Tex Avery; Screwy Squirrel); John Henry and the Inky Poo (George Pal)

BLACK-AND-WHITE CINEMATOGRAPHY: Henri Alekan, LA BELLE ET LA BETE (2nd: Guy Green, Great Expectations, followed by: Rudolph Maté, Gilda; Nicholas Musuraca, The Spiral Staircase; Arthur Miller, Anna and the King of Siam) 

COLOR CINEMATOGRAPHY: Lee Garmes, Ray Rennahan, and Harold Rosson, DUEL IN THE SUN (2nd: Charles Rosher, Leonard Smith, and Arthur Arling, The Yearling, followed by: Jack Cardiff, A Matter of Life and Death; Andrei Moskvin and Edouard Tisse, Ivan the Terrible Part Two: The Boyars Plot; Eduard Cronjager, Canyon Passage)

BLACK-AND-WHITE ART DIRECTION: GREAT EXPECTATIONS, Beauty and the Beast, Anna and the King of Siam, It's a Wonderful Life, The Spiral Staircase 

COLOR ART DIRECTION: THE YEARLING, Duel in the Sun, Ivan the Terrible Part Two: The Boyars Plot

BLACK-AND-WHITE COSTUME DESIGN: ANNA AND THE KING OF SIAM, Great Expectations, Beauty and the Beast, Gilda, The Spiral Staircase 

COLOR COSTUME DESIGN: CAESAR AND CLEOPATRA, Ivan the Terrible Part Two: The Boyars Plot, Duel in the Sun 

FILM EDITING: IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, The Killers, My Darling Clementine, The Best Years of Our Lives, The Postman Always Rings Twice 

SOUND: IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, The Best Years of Our Lives, The Jolson Story, Duel in the Sun, Great Expectations 



ORIGINAL SCORE: Dimitri Tiomkin, DUEL IN THE SUN (2nd: Georges Auric, La Belle et la Bete, followed by: Miklós Rózsa, The Killers; Bernard Herrmann, Anna and the King of Siam; Franz Waxman, Humoresque)

ADAPTED OR MUSICAL SCORE: Morris Stoloff, THE JOLSON STORY (2nd: Ray Heindorf and Max Steiner, Night and Day, followed by: Lennie Hayton, The Harvey Girls)



ORIGINAL SONG: "You Make Me Feel So Young" from THREE LITTLE GIRLS IN BLUE (Music by Josef Myrow, lyrics by Mack Gordon) (2nd: "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah: from Song of the South (Music by Allie Wrubel, lyrics by Ray Gilbert), followed by: "Put The Blame on Mame" from Gilda (Music by Allan Roberts, lyrics by Doris Fisher); "Personality" from Road to Utopia (Music by Jimmy Van Heausen, lyrics by Johnny Burke); "On The Acheson, Topeka and the Santa Fe" from The Harvey Girls (Music by Harry Warren, lyrics by Johnny Mercer))

MAKEUP: LA BELLE ET LA BETE, Great Expectations, Ivan the Terrible Part Two: The Boyars Plot