Academy Awards

12th Academy Awards

February 29, 1940Ambassador HotelFilms from 193922 categories

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Best Picture Winner

Gone with the Wind

Best Picture

Director: Victor Fleming

Studio: Selznick International

A manipulative woman and a roguish man carry on a turbulent love affair during the American Civil War and Reconstruction.

From the Worthy Podcast

Akira Kurosawa once said “It is the power of memory that gives rise to the power of imagination”.

So when is the last time you’ve had a dream in black and white? When is the last time your memories or imagination were limited to the grey scale? If motion pictures are limited to sound and images then without color, filmmakers are bound to a false reality set by the technology of their time.

This is a limitation we cannot discredit black and white films for but instead something to honor them with as the filmmakers excelled beyond the technical limitations to create memorable moving images. With the introduction of color in films, we take another leap forward into the history of not just the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences but to the industry as a whole.

The Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation was founded in Boston by physicist and photography pioneer Dr Herbert Kalmus in 1912. He incorporated the company officially in 1915 with his business partners Daniel Frost Comstock and W Burton Westcott and oversaw the production of the first Technicolor feature, The Gulf Between, in 1917.

Technicolor invested time into researching the impact of color on emotion and to developing a new three-color process which could provide full-spectrum entertainment. The new cameras were bulky, containing three separate reels. A prism split the light into cyan, magenta, and yellow. Each separate reel was used to create a positive copy, called a matrix. The final result mixed the primary colors to create a full spectrum image.

Just like with talkies in the late 20’s we are introduced to a new film format the industry is not fully prepared to embrace. With many theaters only accepting black and white films because projectors that played color films were quite costly especially with the limited number of color films being produced at the time.

All Categories (22)

Actor

Robert Donat— Goodbye, Mr. Chips {"Mr. Chips"}

Winner

Clark Gable— Gone with the Wind {"Rhett Butler"}

James Stewart— Mr. Smith Goes to Washington {"Jefferson Smith"}

Laurence Olivier— Wuthering Heights {"Heathcliff"}

Mickey Rooney— Babes in Arms {"Mickey Moran"}

Actor In A Supporting Role

Thomas Mitchell— Stagecoach {"Dr. Josiah Boone"}

Winner

Brian Aherne— Juarez {"Emperor Maximilian von Habsburg"}

Brian Donlevy— Beau Geste {"Sergeant Markoff"}

Claude Rains— Mr. Smith Goes to Washington {"Senator Joseph Paine"}

Harry Carey— Mr. Smith Goes to Washington {"President of the Senate"}

Actress

Vivien Leigh— Gone with the Wind {"Scarlett O'Hara"}

Winner

Bette Davis— Dark Victory {"Judith Traherne"}

Greer Garson— Goodbye, Mr. Chips {"Katherine Chipping"}

Greta Garbo— Ninotchka {"Lena Yakushova (Ninotchka)"}

Irene Dunne— Love Affair {"Terry McKay"}

Actress In A Supporting Role

Hattie McDaniel— Gone with the Wind {"Mammy"}

Winner

Edna May Oliver— Drums along the Mohawk {"Sarah McKlennar"}

Geraldine Fitzgerald— Wuthering Heights {"Isabella"}

Maria Ouspenskaya— Love Affair {"Grandmother, Mme. Marnay"}

Olivia de Havilland— Gone with the Wind {"Melanie Hamilton"}

Directing

Gone with the Wind— Victor Fleming

Winner

Goodbye, Mr. Chips— Sam Wood

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington— Frank Capra

Stagecoach— John Ford

Wuthering Heights— William Wyler

Writing (Original Story)

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington— Lewis R. Foster

Winner

Bachelor Mother— Felix Jackson

Love Affair— Mildred Cram, Leo McCarey

Ninotchka— Melchior Lengyel

Young Mr. Lincoln— Lamar Trotti

Writing (Screenplay)

Gone with the Wind— Sidney Howard

Winner

Goodbye, Mr. Chips— R. C. Sherriff, Claudine West, Eric Maschwitz

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington— Sidney Buchman

Ninotchka— Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder, Walter Reisch

Wuthering Heights— Charles MacArthur, Ben Hecht