Ranking All The Movies Nominated At The 15th Academy Awards In 1943
“What are the best movies nominated for the 15th Academy Awards in 1943?” We looked at all 96 movies nominated for an Oscar in 1943 and ranked them again one another to answer that very question!
We took all 96 movies that were nominated for an Academy Award in 1943 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 15th Academy Award Movie Rankings
91 Tie ) Desert Wonderland
Nominated For:
- Best Short Subject, One-reel
1942 Oscar nominated short film in the category of Best Short Subject, One Reel
91 Tie ) High Stakes in the East
Nominated For:
- Best Documentary
In the aftermath of the Allied defeat in the battle for Java, after which the island fell into Japanese hands, this propaganda film made for American audiences shows what has been lost.
91 Tie ) Little Belgium
Nominated For:
- Best Documentary
A profile of the more than 2,000 Belgian refugees in the fishing port of Brixham.
91 Tie ) Little Isles of Freedom
Nominated For:
- Best Documentary
1942 Oscar nominated documentary
91 Tie ) This Is America Series No. 33-101: Private Smith of the U.S.A.
Nominated For:
- Best Short Subject, Two-reel
1942 Oscar Nominated film in the category of Best Short Subject, Two Reel
91 Tie ) Twenty-One Miles
Nominated For:
- Best Documentary
1942 Oscar nominated documentary.
90 ) Klondike Fury
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
In this Alaskan adventure, a surgeon becomes a pilot after he messes up an operation. Unfortunately, he crashes during a storm and finds himself cared for by a lovely woman. He gets a chance to reclaim his self-esteem when her son suddenly needs the same operation the surgeon botched.
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89 ) Flying with Music
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Original Song
- Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture
The “Flyer” in question is William Marshall, a young man falsely accused of a crime. Escaping the clutches of the law, he becomes involved with several pretty young ladies. Marjorie Woodworth plays the girl who helps Marshall in his escape, pausing occasionally to participate in a some lively but forgettable musical numbers.
88 ) Mister Gardenia Jones
Nominated For:
- Best Documentary
Documentary short film depicting the work of the United Service Organizations (USO) in providing recreational and morale-boosting services for American troops.
87 ) Henry Browne, Farmer
Nominated For:
- Best Documentary
Documentary short film dramatizing the efforts of a black farmer and his family to help the American war effort by increasing production.
86 ) The White Eagle
Nominated For:
- Best Documentary
The film is based on The Governor, a play by Leonid Andreyev. V.I. Kachalov plays the governor of a small Russian province who tries to treat the people under his authority with kindness and equanimity. But when a local factory goes on strike, the governor buckles under to pressure from the Tzar and orders the wholesale slaughter of the strikers. He pays for this betrayal of his trust with his life — at the hands of a courageous Bolshevik spy.
85 ) Paramount Victory Short No. T2-3: The Price of Victory
Nominated For:
- Best Documentary
83 Tie ) Johnny Doughboy
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture
A grown-up Jane Withers is joined by a whole slew of former child stars in the lightweight Republic musical Johnny Doughboy. Withers capably essays the part of a teenaged movie star who tires of the spotlight and runs away from Hollywood. Adopting an alias, she joins “The Junior Victory Caravan”, a group of youthful USO performers. She also pursues a romance with much-older playwright Henry Wilcoxon, only to be (deliberately) disillusioned by the man. Among the juvenile favorites making cameo appearances in Johnny Doughboy are Bobby Breen, Baby Sandy, Butch & Buddy, Cora Sue Collins, Robert Coogan (Jackie’s brother) and ex-“Little Rascals” George “Spanky” McFarland and Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer.
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83 Tie ) Youth on Parade
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Original Song
In this musical, a gang of college students decide to play a little trick by creating the perfect student. The fictional gal has everything a university would ever want. The trouble begins when the campus psych professor becomes determined to meet this girl. If the gang cannot bring her forward, they will be expelled. They hire a New York actress to portray the imaginary girl and all is well at the end. Songs include: “It Seems I’ve Heard That Song Before,” “You’re So Good to Me” “If It’s Love,” “Man,” “Gotcha Too Ta Mee,” “You Got to Study, Buddy.” All the songs were penned by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne who went on to become one of Hollywood’s top song-writing teams.
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81 Tie ) All Out for ‘V’
Nominated For:
- Best Short Subject, Cartoons
When war is announced, all the forest animals, birds and bugs go into manufacturing of armaments, helmets and the like, with an annoying jingle about the country’s instruction to step up production musically repeated.
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81 Tie ) Friendly Enemies
Nominated For:
- Best Sound, Recording
During World War I, two German men friends who emigrated to the US and become millionaires agree on most things, with one major difference: one has taken the US side against Germany regarding the war, while the other stays stubbornly loyal to “the old country”. His stubbornness results in tragedy for his old friend and a lesson in the consequences of blind loyalty.
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80 ) Mr. Blabbermouth!
Nominated For:
- Best Documentary
Following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, America was rife with rumors about the size of Japan’s armed forces and how well-equipped they were to wage war against the U.S. Using animation, the first part of this film dispels these rumors by showing that the U.S. had more raw materials and more fighting ships. The narrator also cautions moviegoers against spreading rumors (which are often initiated by enemy infiltrators to create fear and dissention) and believing everything they read in the newspapers. Just because “they say” something, that doesn’t make it true.
79 ) Africa, Prelude to Victory
Nominated For:
- Best Documentary
Oscar nominated 1942 documentary
78 ) Beyond the Line of Duty
Nominated For:
- Best Short Subject, Two-reel (Win)
Narrated by Ronald Reagan, this Warner Brothers short in support of the war effort focuses on the exploits of Army Air Corps Captain Hewett T. Wheless and his exploits just after the U.S. entry into World War II.
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75 Tie ) A Ship Is Born
Nominated For:
- Best Documentary
This Vitaphone ‘Technicolor Special’ (production number 8001) portrays the behind-the-scenes story of the building and manning, during World War Two, of the USA supply line to Victory against the Axis powers, the United States Merchant Marine service.
75 Tie ) Conquer by the Clock
Nominated For:
- Best Documentary
1942 Oscar nominated documentary
75 Tie ) The Mayor of 44th Street
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Original Song
In this drama, an ex-vaudevillian dancer opens up a dance band agency and help street kids at the same time by hiring them to help out. Unfortunately, the local gang of hood’s leader resists his attempts. More trouble ensues when the dancer helps a convict gain parole by hiring him. It later turns out that the ex-con is only interested in trying to use the agency as a front for extortion. Songs include the Oscar nominated “When There’s a Breeze on Lake Louise,” “Your Face Looks Familiar,” “Heavenly, Isn’t He?” “Let’s Forget It,” “You’re Bad For Me,” and “A Million Miles From Manhattan.”
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71 Tie ) It’s Everybody’s War
Nominated For:
- Best Documentary
Wartime documentary propagandizing for greater participation in the U.S. war effort during the Second World War.
71 Tie ) Marines in the Making
Nominated For:
- Best Short Subject, One-reel
This Pete Smith Specialty shows marines in training at a number of unidentified bases, with a focus on hand-to-hand combat.
71 Tie ) Silver Queen
Nominated For:
- Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White
- Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
A girl is dismayed to discover that her deceased father has left her destitute and in debt.
71 Tie ) The Grain That Built a Hemisphere
Nominated For:
- Best Documentary
This animated documentary outlines the history and importance of corn in North America.
69 Tie ) Combat Report
Nominated For:
- Best Documentary
1942 Oscar nominated documentary
69 Tie ) The Navy Comes Through
Nominated For:
- Best Effects, Special Effects
A U.S. Navy crew aboard a merchant marine ship battle Nazis.
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66 Tie ) Don’t Talk
Nominated For:
- Best Short Subject, Two-reel
This Crime Does Not Pay series entry dramatizes the idea that during wartime, people should not discuss anything related to their work when in public. A casual remark can be overheard by an enemy agent and used to sabotage the war effort. In this short, the story involves shipments of parts to a defense plant.
66 Tie ) Juke Box Jamboree
Nominated For:
- Best Short Subject, Cartoons
A mouse, sleeping in the Zowie Cafe, has his sleep disturbed by the jukebox. He crawls into the machine, but the mechanism flings him out the coin return. The mouse lands in a glass of Zowie beverage, which he happily drinks. Bottles tip over, releasing the spirits (both alcoholic and ghostly) within.
66 Tie ) The United States Marine Band
Nominated For:
- Best Short Subject, One-reel
The US Marine Corps Band and chorus perform several songs associated with the Marines and the Navy. As the songs are played, we see monuments in Washington, DC, various battle scenes, planes in flight, and other scenes designed to instill patriotism in the audience.
65 ) Invisible Agent
Nominated For:
- Best Effects, Special Effects
The Invisible Man’s grandson uses his secret formula to spy on Nazi Germany in this comedy-thriller.
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64 ) The New Spirit
Nominated For:
- Best Documentary
Animated documentary promoting timely filing and payment of Federal income taxes, demonstrated by Donald Duck’s difficulties with his tax return.
63 ) Tortilla Flat
Nominated For:
- Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Danny, a poor northern Californian Mexican-American, inherits two houses from his grandfather and is quickly taken advantage of by his vagabond friends.
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59 Tie ) Arabian Nights
Nominated For:
- Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color
- Best Cinematography, Color
- Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
- Best Sound, Recording
Jon Hall, Maria Montez and Sabu star in this lush, epic story of two half brothers who battle each other for the power of the throne and the love of a sensual, gorgeous dancing girl, Scheherazade
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59 Tie ) My Gal Sal
Nominated For:
- Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color (Win)
- Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture
Biopic chronicling the early life of gay nineties-era songwriter Paul Dresser as he outgrows his job as carnival entertainer and moves up into New York society, writing one hit song after another. Despite his egotistical behavior, he manages to woo and win Sally Elliott, one of the more popular songstresses of the day
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59 Tie ) Speaking of Animals and Their Families
Nominated For:
- Best Short Subject, One-reel (Win)
1942 Oscar nominated film in the category of Best Short Subject, One Reel
59 Tie ) Ten Gentlemen from West Point
Nominated For:
- Best Cinematography, Black-and-White
This historical drama tells the story of the first class to graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. In the early 19th Century, Congress appropriated the money to build the school, but opponents who believed it to be an illegitimate expansion of the powers of the federal government decided to sabotage the school. They put the hard-as-nails Major Sam Carter (Laird Cregar) in charge of the academy, and he ruthlessly put the recruits through grueling training — until only ten prospective soldiers remained. They include Dawson (George Montgomery), a patriotic farm boy and Howard Shelton (John Sutton), a selfish playboy who has come to West Point only because of its prestige. The two vie for Carolyn Bainbridge (Maureen O’Hara), while they, along with the other eight, try convince Carter that the school is worth keeping.
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58 ) The War Against Mrs. Hadley
Nominated For:
- Best Writing, Original Screenplay
Wealthy American society matron, Stella Hadley (Fay Bainter) refuses to sacrifice her material comforts to aid the war effort until she realizes that her selfishness is cheating the boys overseas who are fighting for her freedom.
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57 ) To the Shores of Tripoli
Nominated For:
- Best Cinematography, Color
Chronicle of a spoiled rich boy who joins the Marines with an off-handed attitude and finally becomes a battle-wise soldier. Academy Award Nominations: Best (Color) Cinematography.
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56 ) Winning Your Wings
Nominated For:
- Best Documentary
Winning Your Wings is a 1942 short American World War II recruitment film produced by Warner Bros. Studios for the US Army Air Forces, starring Jimmy Stewart. It was aimed at young men who were thinking about joining the Air Force.
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54 Tie ) Inside Fighting China
Nominated For:
- Best Documentary
This wartime newsreel from 1942 documents the efforts of China to deal with Japanese aggression.
54 Tie ) Kokoda Front Line!
Nominated For:
- Best Documentary (Win)
This iconic and Academy Award-winning newsreel shot by Damien Parer contains some of the most recognised images of Australian troops in the Second World War.
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52 Tie ) Captains of the Clouds
Nominated For:
- Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color
- Best Cinematography, Color
Inspired by Churchill’s Dunkirk speech, brash, undisciplined Canadian bush pilot Brian MacLean and three friends enlist in the RCAF.
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52 Tie ) Moscow Strikes Back
Nominated For:
- Best Documentary (Win)
Soviet documentary about the defeat of the Nazis near Moscow. Warning – graphic images. Edward G. Robinson narrates the English language version.
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51 ) Always in My Heart
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Original Song
A man is pardoned from prison and returns to Santa Rita, CA to be with his family, but discovers his children have been told he’s dead and his wife is in love with another man.
50 ) Take a Letter, Darling
Nominated For:
- Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White
- Best Cinematography, Black-and-White
- Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
A struggling painter takes a job as a secretary to a female advertising executive. While working to obtain an account from a tobacco company, they end up falling in love.
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49 ) The Corsican Brothers
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
The bloody hostility of two noble families on Corsica shapes the destiny of twins born conjoined. Surgically separated as newborns, the brothers are raised apart, unaware of one another’s existence. Upon reaching adulthood they meet, and join forces to avenge their parents’ murders.
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48 ) Once Upon a Honeymoon
Nominated For:
- Best Sound, Recording
A radio correspondent tries to rescue a burlesque queen from her marriage to a Nazi official.
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47 ) The Spoilers
Nominated For:
- Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White
When honest ship captain Roy Glennister gets swindled out of his mine claim, he turns to saloon singer Cherry Malotte for assistance in his battle with no-good town kingpin Alexander McNamara.
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45 Tie ) High Over the Borders
Nominated For:
- Best Documentary
Take flight with thousands of wild birds who defy distance and international boundaries in this short documentary about their twice-yearly migration.
45 Tie ) The Battle of Midway
Nominated For:
- Best Documentary (Win)
The Japanese attack on Midway in June 1942, filmed as it happened.
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44 ) Wake Island
Nominated For:
- Best Actor in a Supporting Role
- Best Director
- Best Picture
- Best Writing, Original Screenplay
In November 1941, Major Caton takes command of the small Marine garrison on Wake Island. His tendency toward spit and polish upsets the men’s tropical lassitude, but Pearl Harbor changes everything. Soon the island is attacked and the Marines pull together day by day; but how long can they hold out?
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43 ) Reap the Wild Wind
Nominated For:
- Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color
- Best Cinematography, Color
- Best Effects, Special Effects (Win)
Clipper ships taking the shortest route between the Mississippi and the Atlantic often end up on the shoals of Key West in the 1840s. Salvaging the ships’ cargos has become a lucrative business for two companies — one headed by a feisty young woman. Then she falls in love with the captain of a wrecked ship while he recuperates at her home. She travels to Charleston and is charming to the man most likely to be head of the captain’s company, thinking she will be able to get the captain the position he wants on the company’s first steam ship.
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42 ) Listen to Britain
Nominated For:
- Best Documentary
A depiction of life in wartime England during the Second World War. Director Humphrey Jennings visits many aspects of civilian life and of the turmoil and privation caused by the war, all without narration.
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41 ) Tulips Shall Grow
Nominated For:
- Best Short Subject, Cartoons
In this Puppetoon animated short film (an Academy Award Best Short Subject, Cartoons nominee), a young Dutch couple find their idyllic countryside being overrun by unfeeling, unthinking mechanical men and machines that lay waste to everything in their path. In 1997 this film, deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”, was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
40 ) This Above All
Nominated For:
- Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White (Win)
- Best Cinematography, Black-and-White
- Best Film Editing
- Best Sound, Recording
Although she comes from an aristocratic family, beautiful Prudence Cathaway defies convention by joining the WAAFs and becoming romantically involved with an AWOL soldier.
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38 Tie ) Paramount Victory Short No. T2-2: We Refuse to Die
Nominated For:
- Best Documentary
1942 Oscar nominated documentary
38 Tie ) The Jungle Book
Nominated For:
- Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color
- Best Cinematography, Color
- Best Effects, Special Effects
- Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book is given the full treatment in this lavish retelling filled with huge sets, exotic animals, a large cast and the incomparable Sabu, starring as Mowgli, the young orphan boy raised by wolves. Curious to reconnect with his human village, Mowgli returns only to find disappointment in the greed and treachery of man. Over time, Mowgli and the village members do grow to trust one another, but not before the village finds itself under siege. It’s up to Mowgli and his jungle friends to save the day.
36 Tie ) Flying Tigers
Nominated For:
- Best Effects, Special Effects
- Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
- Best Sound, Recording
Jim Gordon commands a unit of the famed Flying Tigers, the American Volunteer Group which fought the Japanese in China before America’s entry into World War II. Gordon must send his outnumbered band of fighter pilots out against overwhelming odds while juggling the disparate personalities and problems of his fellow flyers.
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36 Tie ) My Sister Eileen
Nominated For:
- Best Actress in a Leading Role
Sisters Ruth and Eileen Sherwood move from Ohio to New York in the hopes of building their careers. Ruth wants to get a job as a writer, while Eileen hopes to succeed on the stage. The two end up living in a dismal basement apartment in Greenwich Village, where a parade of odd characters are constantly breezing in and out. The women also meet up with magazine editor Bob Baker, who takes a personal interest in helping both with their career plans.
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35 ) Babes on Broadway
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Original Song
Penny Morris and Tommy Williams are both starstruck young teens but nobody seems to give them any chance to perform. Instead they decide to put up their own show to collect money for a summer camp for the kids.
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34 ) Joan of Paris
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
An RAF squadron is brought down over occupied France. The flyers get to Paris in spite of the fact that the youngest, Baby, is injured. He must be hidden and his wounds cared for. The Gestapo has already issued orders for their arrest.
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33 ) Pigs in a Polka
Nominated For:
- Best Short Subject, Cartoons
Dressed in a tuxedo, the Big Bad Wolf announces the evening’s program: the tale of the Big Bad Wolf and the Three Little Pigs, set to the music of Johannes Brahms’s Hungarian Dances. Queue the fairy tale: we watch each pig build his house, the first two pigs dance and play, the wolf arrives and, wearing a gypsy woman’s disguise, almost catches them. They run to hide in the brick house, where the wolf tries various ruses to gain entry, including dressing as a poverty-stricken old woman reduced to playing a violin for donations. He fools the two simple pigs and gets inside. Will he dine on pork? The house has an elevator, the wolf gets the shaft.
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32 ) Blitz Wolf
Nominated For:
- Best Short Subject, Cartoons
Yet another variation on the Three Little Pigs theme, this time told as WW2 anti-German propaganda (the US had just entered the war), with the wolf as a thinly-disguised Hitler.
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31 ) Moontide
Nominated For:
- Best Cinematography, Black-and-White
After a drunken night out a longshoreman thinks he may have killed a man.
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30 ) George Washington Slept Here
Nominated For:
- Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White
New Yorkers Bill and Connie Fuller have to move from their apartment. Without Bill’s knowledge, Connie purchases a delapidated old farmhouse in Pennsylvania, where George Washington was supposed to have actually slept during the American Revolution.
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29 ) Desperate Journey
Nominated For:
- Best Effects, Special Effects
When Flight Lt Forbes and his crew are shot down after bombing their target, they discover valuable information, about a hidden German aircraft factory, that must get back to England. In their way across Germany, they try and cause as much damage as possible. Then with the chasing Germans about to pounce, they come up with an ingenious plan to escape.
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28 ) One of Our Aircraft Is Missing
Nominated For:
- Best Effects, Special Effects
- Best Writing, Original Screenplay
During the Allied Bombing offensive of World War II the public was often informed that “A raid took place last night over …, One (or often more) of Our Aircraft Is Missing”. Behind these sombre words hid tales of death, destruction and derring-do. This is the story of one such bomber crew who were shot down and the brave Dutch patriots who helped them home.
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27 ) The Black Swan
Nominated For:
- Best Cinematography, Color (Win)
- Best Effects, Special Effects
- Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
When notorious pirate Henry Morgan is made governor of Jamaica, he enlists the help of some of his former partners in ridding the Caribbean of Buccaneers. When one of them apparently abducts the previous governor’s pretty daughter and joins up with the rebels, things are set for a fight.
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26 ) Orchestra Wives
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Original Song
Connie Ward is in seventh heaven when Gene Morrison’s band rolls into town. She is swept off her feet by trumpeter Bill Abbot. After marrying him, she joins the bands tour and learns about life as an orchestra wife, weathering the catty attacks of the other band wives.
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24 Tie ) Der Fuehrer’s Face
Nominated For:
- Best Short Subject, Cartoons (Win)
A marching band of Germans, Italians, and Japanese march through the streets of swastika-motif Nutziland, serenading “Der Fuehrer’s Face.” Donald Duck, not living in the region by choice, struggles to make do with disgusting Nazi food rations and then with his day of toil at a Nazi artillery factory. After a nervous breakdown, Donald awakens to find that his experience was in fact a nightmare.
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24 Tie ) The Shanghai Gesture
Nominated For:
- Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White
- Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
A gambling queen uses blackmail to stop a British financier from closing her Chinese clip joint.
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23 ) Johnny Eager
Nominated For:
- Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Win)
A charming racketeer seduces the DA’s daughter for revenge, then falls in love.
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21 Tie ) I Married a Witch
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
A comedy from the golden age of Hollywood, based on an unfinished novel by Throne Smith. A witch and her sorcerer father who were burned at the stake by Puritans in the 17th century return to the present to haunt the descendant of the man who condemned them. Now Wallace Woodley is running for governor when a young beautiful witch step into his life.
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21 Tie ) Prelude to War
Nominated For:
- Best Documentary (Win)
Prelude to War was the first film of Frank Capra’s Why We Fight propaganda film series, commissioned by the Pentagon and George C. Marshall. It was made to convince American troops of the necessity of combating the Axis Powers during World War II. This film examines the differences between democratic and fascist states.
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20 ) The Pied Piper
Nominated For:
- Best Actor in a Leading Role
- Best Cinematography, Black-and-White
- Best Picture
A darkly brilliant stop-motion adaptation of The Pied Piper of Hamelin about a plague of rats that punish townsfolk corrupt with greed. One of Czechoslovakia’s most ambitious animation projects of the 1980s, notable for its unusual dark art direction, innovative animation techniques and use of a fictitious language
18 Tie ) Bambi
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Original Song
- Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
- Best Sound, Recording
Bambi’s tale unfolds from season to season as the young prince of the forest learns about life, love, and friends.
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18 Tie ) Road to Morocco
Nominated For:
- Best Sound, Recording
- Best Writing, Original Screenplay
Two carefree castaways on a desert shore find an Arabian Nights city, where they compete for the luscious Princess Shalmar.
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16 Tie ) 49th Parallel
Nominated For:
- Best Picture
- Best Writing, Original Story (Win)
- Best Writing, Screenplay
A damaged U-boat is stranded in a Canadian bay in the early years of World War II. The Fanatical Nazi captain and his crew must reach the neutral United States or be captured. Along the way they meet a variety of characters each with their own views on the war and nationalism.
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16 Tie ) Woman of the Year
Nominated For:
- Best Actress in a Leading Role
- Best Writing, Original Screenplay (Win)
Rival reporters Sam and Tess fall in love and get married, only to find their relationship strained when Sam comes to resent Tess’ hectic lifestyle.
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15 ) For Me and My Gal
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture
Set during WW I, Palmer and Hayden team up as vaudeville artists. Harry Palmer deliberately injures his hand to avoid being drafted to the army. Later, he makes up for this. WW I patriotism for a WW II audience, very sentimental, great musical episodes and songs.
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14 ) You Were Never Lovelier
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Original Song
- Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture
- Best Sound, Recording
The Acunas, a rich Argentine family, have the tradition that the daughters have to get married in order, oldest first. When sister #1 gets married, sisters #3 and #4 put pressure on Maria, sister #2, because they have their husbands picked out already. But Maria hasn’t yet met a man she likes. Eduardo Acuna, believing that men aren’t romantic enough these days, sends his daughter flowers and anonymous love letters, creating a “mystery man” for her to fall in love with. He intends to pick out an appropriate beau for her later, to fill the role. But Robert Davis, an American dancer looking for work, stumbles into the picture. Maria falls for him, but the father does not approve.
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13 ) Hellzapoppin’
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Original Song
Ole and Chick are making a movie, but the director is not satisfied. So he brings them to a young writer, who outlines them an absurd story. They have to support Jeff and Kitty in setting up a musical revue in their garden and want to bring it up on Broadway. If Jeff is successful he can marry Kitty. But there is his rich friend Woody, who also loves Kitty, Chick’s sister Betty, who’s in love with a false Russian count, and detective Quimby. They all make the thing very complicated for Ole and Chick. After some mistakes they think that Kitty isn’t the right girl for Jeff and they start sabotaging the show, but the Broadway producer is impressed and signs the contract. That’s the story the writer tells them. For this he’s sued by the director.
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11 Tie ) It Started with Eve
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture
A young man asks a hat check girl to pose as his fiancée in order to make his dying father’s last moments happy. However, the old man’s health takes a turn for the better and now his son doesn’t know how to break the news that he’s engaged to someone else, especially since his father is so taken with the impostor.
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11 Tie ) Kings Row
Nominated For:
- Best Cinematography, Black-and-White
- Best Director
- Best Picture
Five children in an apparently ideal American small town find their lives changing as the years pass near the turn of the century in 1900. Parris and Drake, both of whom have lost their parents, are best friends; Parris dreams of becoming a doctor, studying under the father of his sweetheart Cassie, while Drake plans on becoming a local businessman when he receives his full inheritance – juggling girlfriends in the meantime. As they become adults, the revelations of local secrets threaten to ruin their hopes and dreams.
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10 ) The Talk of the Town
Nominated For:
- Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White
- Best Cinematography, Black-and-White
- Best Film Editing
- Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
- Best Picture
- Best Writing, Original Story
- Best Writing, Screenplay
When the Holmes Woolen Mill burns down, political activist Leopold Dilg is jailed for arson (and murder; one man was lost). Escaping, Leopold hides out in the home of his childhood sweetheart Nora Shelley …which she has just rented to unsuspecting law professor Michael Lightcap.
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9 ) Mrs. Miniver
Nominated For:
- Best Actor in a Leading Role
- Best Actor in a Supporting Role
- Best Actress in a Leading Role (Win)
- Best Actress in a Supporting Role
- Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Win)
- Best Cinematography, Black-and-White (Win)
- Best Director (Win)
- Best Effects, Special Effects
- Best Film Editing
- Best Picture (Win)
- Best Sound, Recording
- Best Writing, Screenplay (Win)
The Minivers, an English “middle-class” family experience life in the first months of World War II.
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8 ) Yankee Doodle Dandy
Nominated For:
- Best Actor in a Leading Role (Win)
- Best Actor in a Supporting Role
- Best Director
- Best Film Editing
- Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture (Win)
- Best Picture
- Best Sound, Recording (Win)
- Best Writing, Original Story
A film of the life of the renowned musical composer, playwright, actor, dancer and singer George M. Cohan.
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7 ) Holiday Inn
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Original Song (Win)
- Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture
- Best Writing, Original Story
Lovely Linda Mason has crooner Jim Hardy head over heels, but suave stepper Ted Hanover wants her for his new dance partner after femme fatale Lila Dixon gives him the brush. Jim’s supper club, Holiday Inn, is the setting for the chase by Hanover and manager Danny Reed. The music’s the thing.
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6 ) The Magnificent Ambersons
Nominated For:
- Best Actress in a Supporting Role
- Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White
- Best Cinematography, Black-and-White
- Best Picture
The spoiled young heir to the decaying Amberson fortune comes between his widowed mother and the man she has always loved.
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5 ) Random Harvest
Nominated For:
- Best Actor in a Leading Role
- Best Actress in a Supporting Role
- Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White
- Best Director
- Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
- Best Picture
- Best Writing, Screenplay
An amnesiac World War I vet falls in love with a music hall star, only to suffer an accident which restores his original memories but erases his post-War life.
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4 ) The Pride of the Yankees
Nominated For:
- Best Actor in a Leading Role
- Best Actress in a Leading Role
- Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White
- Best Cinematography, Black-and-White
- Best Effects, Special Effects
- Best Film Editing (Win)
- Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
- Best Picture
- Best Sound, Recording
- Best Writing, Original Story
- Best Writing, Screenplay
The story of the life and career of the baseball hall of famer, Lou Gehrig.
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3 ) Now, Voyager
Nominated For:
- Best Actress in a Leading Role
- Best Actress in a Supporting Role
- Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture (Win)
A woman suffers a nervous breakdown and an oppressive mother before being freed by the love of a man she meets on a cruise.
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2 ) To Be or Not to Be
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
A bad Polish actor is just trying to make a living when Poland is invaded by the Germans in World War II. His wife has the habit of entertaining young polish officers while he’s on stage, which is also a source of depression to him. When one of her officers comes back on a Secret Mission, the actor takes charge and comes up with a plan for them to escape. remake of Ernst Lubitsch’s 1942 black comedy with the same name.
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1 ) The Gold Rush
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
- Best Sound, Recording
A lone prospector ventures into Alaska looking for gold. He gets mixed up with some burly characters and falls in love with the beautiful Georgia. He tries to win her heart with his singular charm.
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The Best 1942 Academy Award Rankings
1943 Academy Award Rankings
| Film | RT Critic | RT User | IMDB | Letterboxd | Overal Rank |
| The Gold Rush | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| To Be or Not to Be | 8 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Now, Voyager | 16 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 |
| The Pride of the Yankees | 11 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 4 |
| Random Harvest | 19 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 5 |
| The Magnificent Ambersons | 16 | 11 | 6 | 3 | 6 |
| Holiday Inn | 1 | 8 | 12 | 18 | 7 |
| Yankee Doodle Dandy | 11 | 16 | 7 | 7 | 8 |
| Mrs. Miniver | 11 | 11 | 12 | 7 | 9 |
| The Talk of the Town | 10 | 11 | 12 | 14 | 10 |
| It Started with Eve | 27 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 11 |
| Kings Row | 1 | 20 | 10 | 18 | 11 |
| Hellzapoppin’ | 27 | 7 | 12 | 4 | 13 |
| You Were Never Lovelier | 1 | 22 | 17 | 14 | 14 |
| For Me and My Gal | 1 | 14 | 22 | 18 | 15 |
| 49th Parallel | 20 | 20 | 16 | 7 | 16 |
| Woman of the Year | 11 | 17 | 17 | 18 | 16 |
| Bambi | 18 | 22 | 17 | 7 | 18 |
| Road to Morocco | 11 | 18 | 17 | 18 | 18 |
| The Pied Piper | 1 | 8 | 22 | 43 | 20 |
| I Married a Witch | 9 | 32 | 22 | 14 | 21 |
| Prelude to War | 27 | 1 | 22 | 27 | 21 |
| Johnny Eager | 27 | 18 | 27 | 18 | 23 |
| Der Fuehrer’s Face | 27 | 52 | 10 | 7 | 24 |
| The Shanghai Gesture | 1 | 25 | 43 | 27 | 24 |
| Orchestra Wives | 27 | 14 | 32 | 27 | 26 |
| The Black Swan | 22 | 22 | 35 | 27 | 27 |
| One of Our Aircraft Is Missing | 27 | 35 | 27 | 18 | 28 |
| Desperate Journey | 24 | 29 | 35 | 27 | 29 |
| George Washington Slept Here | 27 | 25 | 27 | 37 | 30 |
| Moontide | 27 | 29 | 35 | 27 | 31 |
| Blitz Wolf | 27 | 52 | 22 | 18 | 32 |
| Pigs in a Polka | 27 | 52 | 27 | 14 | 33 |
| Joan of Paris | 27 | 44 | 35 | 18 | 34 |
| Babes on Broadway | 27 | 29 | 43 | 27 | 35 |
| My Sister Eileen | 27 | 32 | 27 | 43 | 36 |
| Flying Tigers | 24 | 27 | 35 | 43 | 36 |
| The Jungle Book | 26 | 39 | 43 | 27 | 38 |
| Paramount Victory Short No. T2-2: We Refuse to Die | 27 | 52 | 1 | 55 | 38 |
| This Above All | 27 | 38 | 35 | 37 | 40 |
| Tulips Shall Grow | 27 | 52 | 32 | 27 | 41 |
| Listen to Britain | 27 | 42 | 43 | 27 | 42 |
| Reap the Wild Wind | 23 | 41 | 43 | 37 | 43 |
| Wake Island | 21 | 40 | 35 | 51 | 44 |
| The Battle of Midway | 27 | 27 | 60 | 37 | 45 |
| High Over the Borders | 27 | 52 | 17 | 55 | 45 |
| The Spoilers | 27 | 43 | 43 | 43 | 47 |
| Once Upon a Honeymoon | 27 | 37 | 54 | 43 | 48 |
| The Corsican Brothers | 27 | 47 | 51 | 37 | 49 |
| Take a Letter, Darling | 27 | 51 | 32 | 55 | 50 |
| Always in My Heart | 27 | 32 | 54 | 55 | 51 |
| Captains of the Clouds | 27 | 45 | 54 | 43 | 52 |
| Moscow Strikes Back | 27 | 52 | 35 | 55 | 52 |
| Kokoda Front Line! | 27 | 52 | 61 | 37 | 54 |
| Inside Fighting China | 27 | 52 | 43 | 55 | 54 |
| Winning Your Wings | 27 | 52 | 58 | 43 | 56 |
| To the Shores of Tripoli | 27 | 36 | 66 | 55 | 57 |
| The War Against Mrs. Hadley | 27 | 52 | 50 | 55 | 58 |
| Arabian Nights | 27 | 46 | 61 | 51 | 59 |
| Speaking of Animals and Their Families | 27 | 52 | 51 | 55 | 59 |
| Ten Gentlemen from West Point | 27 | 52 | 51 | 55 | 59 |
| My Gal Sal | 27 | 49 | 54 | 55 | 59 |
| Tortilla Flat | 27 | 47 | 58 | 54 | 63 |
| The New Spirit | 27 | 52 | 70 | 43 | 64 |
| Invisible Agent | 27 | 50 | 66 | 51 | 65 |
| Don’t Talk | 27 | 52 | 61 | 55 | 66 |
| Juke Box Jamboree | 27 | 52 | 61 | 55 | 66 |
| The United States Marine Band | 27 | 52 | 61 | 55 | 66 |
| Combat Report | 27 | 52 | 66 | 55 | 69 |
| The Navy Comes Through | 27 | 52 | 66 | 55 | 69 |
| It’s Everybody’s War | 27 | 52 | 70 | 55 | 71 |
| Marines in the Making | 27 | 52 | 70 | 55 | 71 |
| Silver Queen | 27 | 52 | 70 | 55 | 71 |
| The Grain That Built a Hemisphere | 27 | 52 | 70 | 55 | 71 |
| A Ship Is Born | 27 | 52 | 75 | 55 | 75 |
| Conquer by the Clock | 27 | 52 | 75 | 55 | 75 |
| The Mayor of 44th Street | 27 | 52 | 75 | 55 | 75 |
| Beyond the Line of Duty | 27 | 52 | 78 | 55 | 78 |
| Africa, Prelude to Victory | 27 | 52 | 79 | 55 | 79 |
| Mr. Blabbermouth! | 27 | 52 | 79 | 55 | 80 |
| All Out for ‘V’ | 27 | 52 | 81 | 55 | 81 |
| Friendly Enemies | 27 | 52 | 81 | 55 | 81 |
| Johnny Doughboy | 27 | 52 | 83 | 55 | 83 |
| Youth on Parade | 27 | 52 | 83 | 55 | 83 |
| Paramount Victory Short No. T2-3: The Price of Victory | 27 | 52 | 85 | 55 | 85 |
| The White Eagle | 27 | 52 | 86 | 55 | 86 |
| Henry Browne, Farmer | 27 | 52 | 87 | 55 | 87 |
| Mister Gardenia Jones | 27 | 52 | 88 | 55 | 88 |
| Flying with Music | 27 | 52 | 89 | 55 | 89 |
| Klondike Fury | 27 | 52 | 90 | 55 | 90 |
| Desert Wonderland | 27 | 52 | 91 | 55 | 91 |
| High Stakes in the East | 27 | 52 | 91 | 55 | 91 |
| Little Belgium | 27 | 52 | 91 | 55 | 91 |
| Little Isles of Freedom | 27 | 52 | 91 | 55 | 91 |
| This Is America Series No. 33-101: Private Smith of the U.S.A. | 27 | 52 | 91 | 55 | 91 |
| Twenty-One Miles | 27 | 52 | 91 | 55 | 91 |
