Ranking All The Movies Nominated At The 8th Academy Awards In 1936
“What are the best movies nominated for the 8th Academy Awards in 1936?” We looked at all 47 movies nominated for an Oscar in 1936 and ranked them again one another to answer that very question!
We took all 47 movies that were nominated for an Academy Award in 1936 and looked at their Rotten Tomato Critic, Rotten Tomato User, IMDB, and Letterboxd scores, ranking them against one another to see which movies came out on top. The movies are ranked on our list below, with the full chart of rankings included at the bottom of the page. We did not use Metacritic scores because of the lack of data for older movies on that site. Metacritic scores will be included when we do rankings for other years in the future.
If you want to see the rankings for additional years you can visit our Academy Award Rankings page.
Happy Viewing!
The Top 1936 Academy Award Movie Rankings
46 (Tie) ) Camera Thrills
Nominated For:
- Best Short Subject, Novelty
Academy Award nominated short film.
46 (Tie) ) Oh, My Nerves
Nominated For:
- Best Short Subject, Comedy
Monty’s nerves are shot, so he decides to go on a nice, relaxing trip to the country. Unfortunately, his brother-in-law Tom brings along the rest of the family. Comic chaos ensues.
45 ) Broadway Hostess
Nominated For:
- Best Dance Direction
Melodrama about the professional and romantic problems of an aspiring singer.
44 ) I Dream Too Much
Nominated For:
- Best Sound, Recording
If Columbia could make an acceptable movie star out of opera-diva Grace Moore, then RKO Radio could do the same with Lily Pons. At least that was producer Pandro S. Berman’s reasoning when he cast Pons in the 1935 musical romance I Dream too Much. The actress plays Annette, a rural French musical student who marries struggling American composer Jonathan (Henry Fonda). Possessed of a splendid singing voice, our heroine rises to fame on the opera stage, while poor Jonathan continues struggling, supporting himself as a tour guide. Annette eventually saves her marriage by transforming her husband’s “masterpiece,” a rather turgid modernistic opera, into a light-hearted musical comedy. Lucille Ball, who’d later co-star with Henry Fonda in The Big Street and Yours, Mine and Ours, has a funny minor role as a gum-snapping tourist. Though Lily Pons was at least 10 years older than Fonda, they make an attractive and believable screen couple, adding credibility to this somewhat contrived yarn
43 ) The Big Broadcast of 1936
Nominated For:
- Best Dance Direction
The wisp of a storyline involves two-bit radio station owner Spud Miller, who doubles as the station’s sole announcer while his comic partner Smiley serves as the house crooner. On the verge of bankruptcy, Spud is receptive to the wacky notions of George and Gracie, who’ve just invented a television device which can pick up and transmit any signal, any time, anywhere.
42 ) The Calico Dragon
Nominated For:
- Best Short Subject, Cartoons
A little girl reads a story about a dragon; as she falls asleep, her doll rides off on his calico horse through a calico land to do battle with a three-headed singing calico dragon.
40 (Tie) ) Audioscopiks
Nominated For:
- Best Short Subject, Novelty
After the audience is instructed how to use the 3-D glasses they received, demonstrations of three-dimensional films are presented. Various objects move towards the camera, including a ladder being shoved out a window, the slide on a trombone, a woman on a swing, and a thrown baseball.
40 (Tie) ) Escape Me Never
Nominated For:
- Best Actress in a Leading Role
Romantic quadrangle involving two brothers, one a burgeoning ballet composer; a willful heiress; and a waif.
38 (Tie) ) 1,000 Dollars a Minute
Nominated For:
- Best Sound, Recording
Two rich and wealthy millionaires who have a lot of money bet that reporter Robert Pryor can’t spend $720,000 in twelve hours. If you’re asking “Why $720,000?”, the answer is: because this Republic programmer is titled $1000 a Minute . Anyway, a couple of cops spot Pryor flashing a roll of bills, and deduce that he’s the bank robber they’re looking for. For the rest of the film, Pryor must race around to spend his money, while remaining two steps ahead of the Law. The supporting actors in $1000 a Minute are delightfully cast to type, from Edgar Kennedy as a detective to Sterling Holloway as a helpful cabbie.
38 (Tie) ) All the King’s Horses
Nominated For:
- Best Dance Direction
Paramount Pictures decided in 1935 to create a new romantic team, thus cast singing stars Carl Brisson and Mary Ellis in the frothy operetta All the King’s Horses. Brisson does the “Prisoner of Zenda” bit as a movie star who is forced by circumstances to impersonate a look-alike king. Ms. Ellis is the highborn lady who seems to be fooled by the ruse. The plots roll merrily onward while various and sundry musical-comedy character actors (including Edward Everett Horton and Eugene Pallette) fuss and fume in the background. Danish singer Carl Brisson had created a minor sensation by introducing “Cocktails for Two” in Paramount’s Murder at the Vanities (34), but the studio’s attempts to turn him into a Scandinavian Maurice Chevalier were unsuccessful.
37 ) Wings Over Everest
Nominated For:
- Best Short Subject, Novelty (Win)
A documentary about the first flight over Mt Everest.
35 (Tie) ) Becky Sharp
Nominated For:
- Best Actress in a Leading Role
The first feature length film to use three-strip Technicolor film. Adapted from a play that was adapted from William Makepeace Thackeray’s book “Vanity Fair”, the film looks at the English class system during the Napoleonic Wars era.
35 (Tie) ) Love Me Forever
Nominated For:
- Best Sound, Recording
A man who loves an aspiring opera singer is prepared to sacrifice everything to help her with her career, even though he knows she doesn’t love him.
34 ) Go Into Your Dance
Nominated For:
- Best Dance Direction
An irresponsible Broadway star gets mixed up with gambling and gangsters.
33 ) King of Burlesque
Nominated For:
- Best Dance Direction
Warner Baxter plays the ambitious producer of a burlesque show who rises to the big time on Broadway. Alice Faye is the loyal burleycue singer who helps make Baxter a success. His head turned by sudden fame, Baxter falls under the spell of a society woman (Mona Barrie) who has theatrical aspirations of her own. She marries Baxter, then convinces him to produce a string of “artistic” plays rather than his extravagant musical revues. The plays are flops, and the woman haughtily divorces Baxter. Faithful Alice Faye, who’d gone to London when her ex-beau was married, returns to the penniless Baxter. She and her burlesque buddies team up to pull Baxter out of his rut and put him on top again.
31 (Tie) ) Folies Bergère de Paris
Nominated For:
- Best Dance Direction (Win)
An entertainer impersonates a look-alike banker, causing comic confusion for wife and girlfriend.
31 (Tie) ) Thanks a Million
Nominated For:
- Best Sound, Recording
Anxious to keep out of the rain on a bus layover in that ubiquitous little village in Pennsylvania, Dick Powell and his troupe of traveling musicians attend a political rally for governor-to-be Raymond Walburn. The candidate is an incompetent drunkard, and his Square Deal Party backers turn to Powell & Co. to liven up the campaign. A victim of circumstance, Powell soon replaces Walburn as candidate for governor with the hope of losing the election and gaining a radio career.
30 ) The Gay Deception
Nominated For:
- Best Writing, Original Story
Mirabel wins a $5,000 lottery which will enable her to live like a queen in New York. There she meets Sandro, a bellboy who is really a prince, so she does get to be a queen after all.
29 ) How to Sleep
Nominated For:
- Best Short Subject, Comedy (Win)
A humorous look at the problems people have trying to sleep.
28 ) She
Nominated For:
- Best Dance Direction
Leo Vincey, told by his dying uncle of a lost land visited 500 years ago by his ancestor, heads out with family friend Horace Holly to try to discover the land and its secret of immortality, said to be contained within a mystic fire. Picking up Tanya, a guide’s daughter, in the frozen Russian arctic, they stumble upon Kor, revealed to be a hidden civilization ruled over by an immortal queen, called She, who believes Vincey is her long-lost lover John Vincey, Leo’s ancestor.
27 ) The Crusades
Nominated For:
- Best Cinematography
King Richard the Lionhearted launches a crusade to preserve Christianity in Jerusalem.
26 ) Private Worlds
Nominated For:
- Best Actress in a Leading Role
The work of a progressive female psychiatrist and her colleague at a mental hospital is threatened by the arrival of a conservative new supervisor, who disapproves of both her methods and the fact that she is a woman in a “man’s field.”
25 ) Black Fury
Nominated For:
- Best Actor in a Leading Role
A simple Pennsylvania coal miner is drawn into the violent conflict between union workers and management.
24 ) The Scoundrel
Nominated For:
- Best Writing, Original Story (Win)
This modern “Flying Dutchman” story stars actor/playwright Noel Coward as a class-A heel. Coward uses his position as a powerful publisher to break as many hearts as is humanly possible. When Coward does his usual hatchet job on poet Julie Haydon, she plants a curse on his head, praying that he’ll die and that no one will mourn him. Within the week, Coward is killed in a plane crash. Slated for Purgatory, Coward is given a second chance; if he can find someone who will weep for him, his soul will be saved. As expected, the sole mourner turns out to be Haydon, whose fiance’s life is saved by the repentant Coward.
23 ) Three Orphan Kittens
Nominated For:
- Best Short Subject, Cartoons (Win)
Three orphan kittens are entering a society house in winter and ruin the furniture. But when they’re caught by the maid, the young daughter of the house “rescues” them from the cold out outside.
21 (Tie) ) Dangerous
Nominated For:
- Best Actress in a Leading Role (Win)
Dan Bellows finds former stage star Joyce Heath a penniless drunk and takes her to his Connecticut home for rehabilitation. Unaware that she is married to Gordon, he asks his fiancée Gail to free him and offers to sponsor Joyce in a play. When Gordon refuses to give Joyce a divorce, she runs the car into a tree crippling him for life. Joyce urges Dan return to Gail, opens her play, and begs Gordon for forgiveness.
21 (Tie) ) The Dark Angel
Nominated For:
- Best Actress in a Leading Role
- Best Art Direction (Win)
- Best Sound, Recording
Kitty Vane, Alan Trent, and Gerald Shannon have been inseparable friends since childhood. Kitty has always known she would marry one of them, but has waited until the beginning of World War I before finally choosing Alan. Gerald graciously gives them his blessing. Then, Gerald and Alan go to war. Angered over a misunderstanding involving Alan and Kitty, Gerald sends Alan on a dangerous mission that will change all their lives forever.
19 (Tie) ) A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Nominated For:
- Best Assistant Director
- Best Cinematography (Win)
- Best Film Editing (Win)
- Best Picture
Theseus, Duke of Athens, is going to marry Hyppolyta, Queen of the Amazons. Demetrius is engaged with Hermia, but Hermia loves Lysander. Helena loves Demetrius. Oberon and Titania, of the kingdom of fairies have a slight quarrel about whether or not the boy Titania is raising will join Titania’s band or Oberon’s, so Oberon tries to get him from her by using some magic. But they’re not alone in that forest.Lysander and Hermina have there a rendezvous, Helena and Demetrius are there, too as well as some actors, who are practicing a play for the ongoing wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta. Due to some misunderstandings by Puck, the whole thing becomes a little bit confused…
19 (Tie) ) Naughty Marietta
Nominated For:
- Best Picture
- Best Sound, Recording (Win)
A French princess in Colonial America gets involved with an Indian scout.
18 ) Broadway Melody of 1936
Nominated For:
- Best Dance Direction (Win)
- Best Picture
- Best Writing, Original Story
Lovely, gifted Irene Foster hopes that her childhood sweetheart-turned Broadway producer Robert Gordon will recognize her–and her talent. Gordon is too busy sparring with a dirt-dishing gossip columnist to notice, but his wisecracking, heart-of-gold secretary certainly does. She and Irene must use their wits to show him what he’s missing!
17 ) Barbary Coast
Nominated For:
- Best Cinematography
Mary Rutledge arrives from the east, finds her fiance dead, and goes to work at the roulette wheel of Louis Charnalis’ Bella Donna, a rowdy gambling house in San Francisco in the 1850s. She falls in love with miner Carmichael and takes his gold dust at the wheel. She goes after him, Louis goes after her with intent to harm Carmichael.
15 (Tie) ) Roberta
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Original Song
Football player John Kent tags along as Huck Haines and the Wabash Indianians travel to an engagement in Paris, only to lose it immediately. John and company visit his aunt, owner of a posh fashion house run by her assistant, Stephanie. There they meet the singer Scharwenka (alias Huck’s old friend Lizzie), who gets the band a job. Meanwhile, Madame Roberta passes away and leaves the business to John and he goes into partnership with Stephanie.
15 (Tie) ) Tit for Tat
Nominated For:
- Best Short Subject, Comedy
Stan & Ollie have set up their own electrical repair store. Unfortunately, for them, the grocery store opposite is run by the man and wife they encountered in Them Thar Hills (1935). Stan & Ollie go and visit, to offer the hand of friendship, but the grocer becomes convinced that Ollie is trying to seduce his wife.
14 ) Peter Ibbetson
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Score
Architect Peter Ibbetson is hired by the Duke of Towers to design a building for him. Ibbetson discovers that the Duchess of Towers, Mary, is his now-grown childhood sweetheart. Their love revives, but Peter is sentenced to life in prison for an accidental killing. Mary comes to him in dreams and they are able to live out their romance in a dream world.
12 (Tie) ) Alice Adams
Nominated For:
- Best Actress in a Leading Role
- Best Picture
In the lower-middle-class Adams family, father and son are happy to work in a drugstore, but mother and daughter Alice try every possible social-climbing stratagem despite snubs and embarrassment. When Alice finally meets her dream man Arthur, mother nags father into a risky business venture and plans to impress Alice’s beau with an “upscale” family dinner. Will the excruciating results drive Arthur away?
12 (Tie) ) G’ Men
Nominated For:
- Best Writing, Original Story
James “Brick” Davis, a struggling attorney, owes his education to a mob member named McKay, but refuses to get involved with the underworld. When his friend Eddie Buchanan is gunned down by gangster Brad Collins while on assignment for the Justice Department, Brick decides to give up the law for a career with the Department.
10 (Tie) ) David Copperfield
Nominated For:
- Best Assistant Director
- Best Film Editing
- Best Picture
Charles Dickens’ classic tale of an orphaned boy’s fight for happiness and the colorful characters who help and hinder him.
10 (Tie) ) Gold Diggers of 1935
Nominated For:
- Best Dance Direction
- Best Music, Original Song (Win)
Romance strikes when a vacationing millionairess and her daughter spend their vacation at a posh New England resort.
9 ) Who Killed Cock Robin?
Nominated For:
- Best Short Subject, Cartoons
A robin is shot so the woodland community holds a trial to investigate in this Silly Symphony.
8 ) The Lives of a Bengal Lancer
Nominated For:
- Best Art Direction
- Best Assistant Director (Win)
- Best Director
- Best Film Editing
- Best Picture
- Best Sound, Recording
- Best Writing, Screenplay
In the Northwest Frontier of India, the 41st Bengal Lancers leaded by the harsh Colonel Tom Stone are having trouble with the rebellious leader Mohammed Khan. After two casualties, the experienced but insubordinate Lieutenant Alan McGregor receives as replacement, the arrogant Lieutenant Forsythe and the immature son of Colonel Stone, Lieutenant Donald Stone. With the intention to prove that he will not have any privilege in the troop, the reception of Colonel Stone to his son is absolutely cold, but he becomes the protégé of McGregor. When Lieutenant Stone is kidnapped by Mohammed Khan, McGregor and Forsythe disobey the direct order of their commander, disguise as Indian peddlers and go to Khan’s fortress to attempt to rescue their friend
7 ) The Informer
Nominated For:
- Best Actor in a Leading Role (Win)
- Best Director (Win)
- Best Film Editing
- Best Music, Score (Win)
- Best Picture
- Best Writing, Screenplay (Win)
In 1922, an Irish rebel informs on his friend, then feels doom closing in.
6 ) Mutiny on the Bounty
Nominated For:
- Best Actor in a Leading Role
- Best Actor in a Leading Role
- Best Actor in a Leading Role
- Best Director
- Best Film Editing
- Best Music, Score
- Best Picture (Win)
- Best Writing, Screenplay
Fletcher Christian successfully leads a revolt against the ruthless Captain Bligh on the HMS Bounty. However, Bligh returns one year later, hell bent on avenging his captors.
5 ) Les Misérables
Nominated For:
- Best Assistant Director
- Best Cinematography
- Best Film Editing
- Best Picture
An obsessed policeman relentlessly pursues an escaped convict.
4 ) Captain Blood
Nominated For:
- Best Director
- Best Music, Score
- Best Picture
- Best Sound, Recording
- Best Writing, Screenplay
Errol Flynn leads a group of slaves to freedom and piracy.
3 ) Ruggles of Red Gap
Nominated For:
- Best Picture
In this comedy of an Englishman stranded in a sea of barbaric Americans, Marmaduke Ruggles (Charles Laughton), a gentleman’s gentleman and butler to an Earl is lost in a poker game to an uncouth American cattle baron. Ruggles’s life is turned upside down as he’s taken to the USA, is gradually assimilated into American life, accidently becomes a local celebrity, and falls in love along the way.
2 ) Bride of Frankenstein
Nominated For:
- Best Sound, Recording
Bride of Frankenstein begins where James Whale’s Frankenstein from 1931 ended. Dr. Frankenstein has not been killed as previously portrayed and now he wants to get away from the mad experiments. Yet when his wife is kidnapped by his creation, Frankenstein agrees to help him create a new monster, this time a woman.
1 ) Top Hat
Nominated For:
- Best Art Direction
- Best Dance Direction
- Best Music, Original Song
- Best Picture
Showman Jerry Travers is working for producer Horace Hardwick in London. Jerry demonstrates his new dance steps late one night in Horace’s hotel, much to the annoyance of sleeping Dale Tremont below. She goes upstairs to complain and the two are immediately attracted to each other. Complications arise when Dale mistakes Jerry for Horace.
The Best 1936 Academy Award Rankings
1936 Academy Award Rankings
| Film | RT Critic | RT User | IMDB | Letterboxd | Overal Rank |
| Top Hat | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Bride of Frankenstein | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Ruggles of Red Gap | 1 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 3 |
| Captain Blood | 1 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 4 |
| Les Misérables | 1 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 5 |
| Mutiny on the Bounty | 8 | 6 | 2 | 5 | 6 |
| The Informer | 10 | 10 | 8 | 5 | 7 |
| The Lives of a Bengal Lancer | 1 | 12 | 11 | 18 | 8 |
| Who Killed Cock Robin? | 15 | 6 | 13 | 11 | 9 |
| Gold Diggers of 1935 | 15 | 15 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| David Copperfield | 15 | 13 | 8 | 11 | 10 |
| G’ Men | 15 | 15 | 13 | 9 | 12 |
| Alice Adams | 9 | 14 | 18 | 11 | 12 |
| Peter Ibbetson | 15 | 17 | 11 | 11 | 14 |
| Tit for Tat | 15 | 28 | 5 | 7 | 15 |
| Roberta | 12 | 17 | 15 | 11 | 15 |
| Barbary Coast | 1 | 23 | 21 | 11 | 17 |
| Broadway Melody of 1936 | 13 | 6 | 21 | 18 | 18 |
| Naughty Marietta | 14 | 6 | 18 | 29 | 19 |
| A Midsummer Night’s Dream | 11 | 20 | 18 | 18 | 19 |
| Dangerous | 15 | 19 | 15 | 25 | 21 |
| The Dark Angel | 15 | 10 | 24 | 25 | 21 |
| Three Orphan Kittens | 15 | 28 | 15 | 18 | 23 |
| The Scoundrel | 15 | 28 | 26 | 11 | 24 |
| Black Fury | 15 | 21 | 30 | 18 | 25 |
| Private Worlds | 15 | 28 | 24 | 18 | 26 |
| The Crusades | 15 | 24 | 26 | 25 | 27 |
| She | 15 | 22 | 30 | 25 | 28 |
| How to Sleep | 15 | 28 | 32 | 18 | 29 |
| The Gay Deception | 15 | 28 | 21 | 34 | 30 |
| Folies Bergère de Paris | 15 | 28 | 26 | 34 | 31 |
| Thanks a Million | 15 | 28 | 26 | 34 | 31 |
| King of Burlesque | 15 | 28 | 32 | 34 | 33 |
| Go Into Your Dance | 15 | 28 | 34 | 34 | 34 |
| Love Me Forever | 15 | 28 | 35 | 34 | 35 |
| Becky Sharp | 15 | 25 | 39 | 31 | 35 |
| Wings Over Everest | 15 | 28 | 36 | 34 | 37 |
| 1,000 Dollars a Minute | 15 | 28 | 37 | 34 | 38 |
| All the King’s Horses | 15 | 28 | 37 | 34 | 38 |
| Audioscopiks | 15 | 28 | 39 | 34 | 40 |
| Escape Me Never | 15 | 26 | 41 | 34 | 40 |
| The Calico Dragon | 15 | 28 | 43 | 29 | 42 |
| The Big Broadcast of 1936 | 15 | 28 | 41 | 34 | 43 |
| I Dream Too Much | 15 | 27 | 44 | 34 | 44 |
| Broadway Hostess | 15 | 28 | 45 | 34 | 45 |
| Camera Thrills | 15 | 28 | 46 | 32 | 46 |
| Oh, My Nerves | 15 | 28 | 46 | 32 | 46 |
