Ranking All The Movies Nominated At The 16th Academy Awards In 1944
“What are the best movies nominated for the 16th Academy Awards in 1944?” We looked at all the movies nominated for an Oscar in 1944 and ranked them again one another to answer that very question!
We took all 84 movies that were nominated for an Academy Award in 1944 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 1944 Academy Award Movie Rankings
82 ) Champions Carry on
Nominated For:
- Best Short Subject, One-reel
A documentary about how American sports figures are contributing to the war effort.
82 ) Children of Mars
Nominated For:
- Best Documentary, Short Subjects
1943 film Oscar nominated in the category Best Documentary, Short Subject
82 ) Tomorrow We Fly
Nominated For:
- Best Documentary, Short Subjects
1943 Oscar nominated film in the category Best Documentary, Short Subject.
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81 ) Riding High
Nominated For:
- Best Sound, Recording
No relation to the 1950 Frank Capra film of the same name, the 1943 Technicolor musical Riding High is a by-the-numbers vehicle for Dorothy Lamour and Dick Powell. Lamour stars as Ann Castle, a former burlesque queen who heads westward to claim her father’s silver mine. Powell plays mining engineer Steve Baird, who like Ann has a vested interest in the worked-out mine. With the help of genial counterfeiter Mortimer J. Slocum (Victor Moore), Steve and Ann are able to peddle mining stock, thus saving her from bankruptcy. The stockholders are in a lynching mood when it appears that they’ve been flim-flammed, but a last minute “miracle” saves the day. Featured in the cast are Paramount stalwarts Cass Daley and Gil Lamb, the former doing her quasi-Martha Raye act and the latter swallowing his harmonica for the millionth time. Production values are excellent and the songs are exuberantly performed; it’s only in its hackneyed plot that Riding High slows to a clip-clop.
80 ) Screen Snapshots Series 23, No. 1: Hollywood in Uniform
Nominated For:
- Best Short Subject, One-reel
Several prominent actors are seen in their new roles as WWII military officers and enlisted men. Highlights include Robert Stack (a former amateur skeet shooting champion) displaying his remarkable skill as an artillery training officer; Tyrone Power as a Marine drill instructor; Rudy Vallee leading a military band; and Glenn Ford in the everyday grind of a Marine private.
79 ) Baptism of Fire
Nominated For:
- Best Documentary, Features
This 1943 Army training film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary in 1944.
78 ) Mission to Moscow
Nominated For:
- Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White
Ambassador Joseph Davies is sent by FDR to Russia to learn about the Soviet system and returns to America as an advocate of Stalinism.
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74 ) Hit Parade of 1943
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Original Song
- Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture
One of the many films made at Republic with a year attached to the “Hit Parade” title, which came from the “Hit Parade” radio program sponsored by Lucky Strike cigarettes.
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74 ) So This Is Washington
Nominated For:
- Best Sound, Recording
No Overview
74 ) Something to Shout About
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Original Song
- Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture
A press agent (Don Ameche), a composer (Janet Blair) and a landlord (Jack Oakie) of a theatrical boardinghouse revive vaudeville on Broadway.
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74 ) To the People of the United States
Nominated For:
- Best Documentary, Short Subjects
World War II public education film about sexually transmitted diseases focused on syphilis.
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72 ) Imagination
Nominated For:
- Best Short Subject, Cartoons
In this tale, told as a musical story, a little girl imagines that her two dolls come to life and go through a adventure involving a villain.
72 ) The Kansan
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
Wounded while stopping the James gang from robbing the local bank, a cowboy wakes up in the hospital to find that he’s been elected town marshal. He soon comes into conflict with the town banker, who controls everything in town and is squeezing the townspeople for every penny he can get out of them.
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69 ) Amphibious Fighters
Nominated For:
- Best Short Subject, One-reel (Win)
1943 Oscar Winner in the category Best Short Subject, One Reel
69 ) Cavalcade of Dance
Nominated For:
- Best Short Subject, One-reel
Ballroom dancers Veloz and Yolanda perform the various dance fads of the first half of the twentieth century.
69 ) Letter to a Hero
Nominated For:
- Best Short Subject, Two-reel
Oscar nominated 1943 film in the category Best Short Subject, Two Reel
67 ) Flight for Freedom
Nominated For:
- Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White
1943 fictionalised biopic about aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart, who disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean in 1937. In the film, Rosalind Russell plays the Earhart alter ego, called Tonie Carter, and Fred MacMurray is her love interest and pilot colleague. In the film, the world famous female pilot sacrifices herself over the Pacific during a world flight in 1937, in order to enable the US Navy to fly over and photograph some secret Japanese installations on nearby islands while pretending to search for her plane.
67 ) Heavenly Music
Nominated For:
- Best Short Subject, Two-reel (Win)
Bandleader/singer/songwriter Ted Barry arrives in heaven. The receptionist tells him that before he can take his place in the Hall of Music, a committee must review his work and decide whether he is worthy of admittance.
66 ) Plan for Destruction
Nominated For:
- Best Documentary, Short Subjects
1943 MGM production that looks at the roots of Nazi Germany’s drive for geographic expansion. The roots of Hitler’s drive for world domination is attributed to the ideas of Prof. Karl Ernst Haushofer, once a General in the German army who was humiliated and blamed, along with others of his class, for the outcomes of World War I. His theory, known as Geopolitik, posited that Germany’s central location in Europe made it ideal to dominate Europe and provide a counter-balance to the British naval domination of the seas. With Hitler coming to power, Haushofer became part of Hitler’s government and had even greater influence.
65 ) The North Star
Nominated For:
- Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White
- Best Cinematography, Black-and-White
- Best Effects, Special Effects
- Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
- Best Sound, Recording
- Best Writing, Original Screenplay
A Ukrainian village must suddenly contend with the Nazi invasion of June 1941.
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64 ) The Dizzy Acrobat
Nominated For:
- Best Short Subject, Cartoons
Woody Woodpecker visits the circus. Singing “I Went to the Animal Fair,” he strolls through a tiger’s cage. As Woody looks at a rhinoceros, the nearby lion eats Woody’s hot dog. Woody gets revenge by putting the lion’s tail in the bun; the lion eats his own tail. Woody next tries to sneak into the main tent, and the run-ins with the guard take up the rest of the cartoon. First, the guard tells Woody he can work for his admission by watering an elephant, but he’s not pleased when Woody ties the elephant’s trunk to a hydrant. The chase is on, leading into the lion tamer’s cage, onto the trapeze, and bicycling across the tightrope. Both Woody and the guard end up as targets in the shooting gallery.
62 ) December 7th: The Movie
Nominated For:
- Best Documentary, Short Subjects (Win)
Docudrama about the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941 and its results, the recovering of the ships, the improving of defense in Hawaii and the US efforts to beat back the Japanese reinforcements.
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62 ) This Is the Army
Nominated For:
- Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color
- Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture (Win)
- Best Sound, Recording
In WW I dancer Jerry Jones stages an all-soldier show on Broadway, called Yip Yip Yaphank. Wounded in the War, he becomes a producer. In WW II his son Johnny Jones, who was before his fathers assistant, gets the order to stage a knew all-soldier show, called THIS IS THE ARMY. But in his pesonal life he has problems, because he refuses to marry his fiancée until the war is over.
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59 ) Desert Victory
Nominated For:
- Best Documentary, Features (Win)
A featureless land fit only for war, as the narrator, J. L. Hodson stated in the early scenes: “If war was to be fought then let it begin here”. In endless miles of rock-strewn scrub desert, where civilians hardly existed. Desert Victory tells the story of the Allied campaign to drive Germany and Italy from North Africa is analysed, with the major portion of the film examining the battles at El Alamein, including some re-enactment. Won “Best Documentary Feature” at the 16th Academy Awards in 1944.
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59 ) Stand by for Action
Nominated For:
- Best Effects, Special Effects
U. S. Navy Lieutenant Gregg Masterman, of The Harvard and Boston Back Bay Mastermans, learned about the sea while winning silver cups sailing his yacht. He climbs swiftly in rank, and is now Junior Aide to Rear Admiral Stephen Thomas.
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59 ) The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins
Nominated For:
- Best Short Subject, Cartoons
Oscar nominated 1943 animated short cartoon directed by George Pal and written by Dr. Seuss
58 ) Saludos Amigos
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Original Song
- Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture
- Best Sound, Recording
Live-action segments show members of the Disney staff touring South America and recording their impressions in sketches. These segue into four animated sections: “Lake Titicaca” depicts tourist Donald Duck’s troubles with a stubborn llama; and in “Aquarela do Brasil,” Jose Carioca shows Donald the sights and sound of Rio de Janeiro.
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56 ) Coney Island
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture
Set at the turn of the century, smooth talking con man Eddie Johnson weasels his way into a job at friend and rival Joe Rocco’s Coney Island night spot. Eddie meets the club’s star attraction (and Joe’s love interest), Kate Farley, a brash singer with a penchant for flashy clothes. Eddie and Kate argue as he tries to soften her image. Eventually, Kate becomes the toast of Coney Island and the two fall in love. Joe then tries to sabotage their marriage plans.
56 ) Greetings Bait
Nominated For:
- Best Short Subject, Cartoons
A worm reminiscent of Jerry Colonna is lowered into the water and uses various guises to lure fish. He also tangles with a crab.
55 ) Corvette K-225
Nominated For:
- Best Cinematography, Black-and-White
The story of a Canadian WWII naval vessel, with a dramatic subplot concerning her first captain.
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54 ) Crash Dive
Nominated For:
- Best Effects, Special Effects (Win)
A US Navy submarine, the USS Corsair, is operating in the North Atlantic, hunting German merchant raiders that are preying on Allied shipping. Its new executive officer, Lt. Ward Stewart (Power), has been transferred back into submarines after commanding his own PT boat. At the submarine base in New London, Connecticut, he asks his new captain, Lt. Cmdr. Dewey Connors (Andrews), for a weekend leave to settle his affairs before taking up his new assignment. On a train bound for Washington D.C., Stewart accidentally encounters New London school teacher Jean Hewlett (Baxter) and her students. Despite her initial resistance to his efforts, he charms her and they fall in love.
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51 ) Bombardier
Nominated For:
- Best Effects, Special Effects
A documentary/drama about the training of bombardiers during WWII. Major Chick Davis proves to the U.S. Army the superiority of high altitude precision bombing, and establishes a school for bombardiers. Training is followed in semi-documentary style, with personal dramas in subplots. The climax is a spectacular, if somewhat jingoistic, battle sequence.
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51 ) Lady of Burlesque
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
After one member of their group is murdered, the performers at a burlesque house must work together to find out who the killer is before they strike again.
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51 ) Seeing Hands
Nominated For:
- Best Short Subject, One-reel
This serious entry in Pete Smith Specialty series encourages industry to hire people with disabilities to help with the war effort. As a boy, Ben Helwig was blinded in an accident while playing baseball. He eventually acquired a guide dog and now works in a defence plant.
48 ) The Amazing Mrs. Holliday
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
Deanna Durbin stars as a missionary who goes to great lengths, even posing as “Mrs. Holliday”, in order to get some Chinese war orphans into the United States.
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48 ) Women at War
Nominated For:
- Best Short Subject, Two-reel
48 ) Youth in Crisis
Nominated For:
- Best Documentary, Short Subjects
There is a vast increase of youth crime, doubling in the two years since the US entered World War II. With fathers off to war, women are working in the factories leaving children at home for the day or after school, unsupervised and free to get into trouble. Young men and women, some working and making an adult wage, now feel that they have the right to act and do as adults. Others are trying their hands at new thrills, such as smoking marijuana. Young women are getting into trouble by getting involved with the many servicemen that they are attracted to. This film shows how these kinds of subversive thoughts that lead to juvenile delinquency can be broken by having youths selling war bonds and organizing 4-H clubs, among other activities.
46 ) Hers to Hold
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Original Song
Deanna Durbin is all grown up in Hers to Hold, the unofficial sequel to her “Three Smart Girls” films of the 1930s. Durbin plays Penelope Craig, the starry-eyed daughter of wealthy Judson and Dorothy Craig (Charles Winninger, Nella Walker). Developing a crush on much-older playboy Bill Morley (Joseph Cotton), Penelope stops at nothing to land the elusive Morley as her husband. Highlights include Durbin’s renditions of “Begin the Beguine” and the “Seguidilla” from Carmen, and a captivating sequence that includes highlights from Durbin’s earlier films, presented as home movies!
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46 ) Victory Through Air Power
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
This is a unique film in Disney Production’s history. This film is essentially a propaganda film selling Major Alexander de Seversky’s theories about the practical uses of long range strategic bombing. Using a combination of animation humorously telling about the development of air warfare, the film switches to the Major illustrating his ideas could win the war for the allies.
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45 ) War Department Report
Nominated For:
- Best Documentary, Features
WWII propaganda film.
44 ) Star Spangled Rhythm
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Original Song
- Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture
Pop, a security guard at Paramount has told his son that he’s the head of the studio. When his son arrives in Hollywood on shore leave with his buddies, Pop enlists the aid of the studio’s dizzy switchboard operator in pulling off the charade. Things get more complicated when Pop agrees to put together a show for the Navy starring Paramount’s top contract players.
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42 ) In Old Oklahoma
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
- Best Sound, Recording
42 ) Johnny Come Lately
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
Cagney is a human dynamo as a drifter who helps save ailing Grace George from losing her newspaper. The pace is fast, and audiences of all ages will be pleased. The supporting cast, have all the small-town characterizations down pat — with Margaret Hamilton a standout. Cagney himself, had genuine affection for this film, and listed it among his top five movie-making experiences at a retrospective the year before he died.
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41 ) Commandos Strike at Dawn
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
A gentle widower, enraged at Nazi atrocities against his peaceful Norwegian fishing village, escapes to Britain and returns leading a commando force against the oppressors.
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40 ) Thousands Cheer
Nominated For:
- Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color
- Best Cinematography, Color
- Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture
Acrobat Eddie Marsh is in the army now. His first act is to become friendly with Kathryn Jones, the colonel’s pretty daughter. Their romance hits a few snags, including disapproval from her father. Eddie’s also plagued by fear of having an accident during his family’s trapeze act in the army variety show, which also features a gallery of MGM stars.
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39 ) Hello Frisco, Hello
Nominated For:
- Best Cinematography, Color
- Best Music, Original Song (Win)
In turn-of-the-century San Francisco, an ambitious vaudevillian takes his quartet from a honky tonk to the big time, while spurning the love of his troupe’s star singer for a selfish heiress.
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38 ) The Fallen Sparrow
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
A former Spanish Civil War prisoner, John McKittrick arrives in New York to find the truth behind the death of his friend Louie Lepetino. Based on the popular Dorothy B. Hughes best seller.
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35 ) Princess O’Rourke
Nominated For:
- Best Writing, Original Screenplay (Win)
A down-to-earth pilot (Robert Cummings) charms a European princess (Olivia de Havilland) on vacation in the United States.
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35 ) Report from the Aleutians
Nominated For:
- Best Documentary, Features
A documentary propaganda film produced by the U.S. Army Signal Corps about the Aleutian Islands Campaign during World War II. The film opens with a map showing the strategic importance of the island, and the thrust of the 1942 Japanese offensive into Midway and Dutch Harbor. Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
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35 ) Stage Door Canteen
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Original Song
- Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture
A young soldier on a pass in New York City visits the famed Stage Door Canteen, where famous stars of the theater and films appear and host a recreational center for servicemen during the war. The soldier meets a pretty young hostess and they enjoy the many entertainers and a growing romance
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34 ) Phantom of the Opera
Nominated For:
- Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color (Win)
- Best Cinematography, Color (Win)
- Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture
- Best Sound, Recording
Pit violinist Claudin hopelessly loves rising operatic soprano Christine Dubois (as do baritone Anatole and police inspector Raoul) and secretly aids her career. But Claudin loses both his touch and his job, murders a rascally music publisher in a fit of madness, and has his face etched with acid. Soon, mysterious crimes plague the Paris Opera House, blamed on a legendary “phantom”.
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33 ) Swedes in America
Nominated For:
- Best Documentary, Short Subjects
1943 documentary with Ingrid Bergman.
31 ) The Moon and Sixpence
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
Loosely inspired from Gauguin’s life, the story of Charles Strickland, a middle-aged stockbrocker who abandons his middle-classed life, his family, his duties to start painting, what he has always wanted to do. He is from now on a awful human being, wholly devoted to his ideal: beauty.
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31 ) The Sky’s the Limit
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Original Song
- Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture
Flying Tiger Fred Atwell sneaks away from his famous squadron’s personal appearance tour and goes incognito for several days of leave. He quickly falls for photographer Joan Manion, pursuing her in the guise of a carefree drifter.
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30 ) Reason and Emotion
Nominated For:
- Best Short Subject, Cartoons
A World War II propaganda film about the need to remain calm and logical during wartime.
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29 ) Mardi Gras
Nominated For:
- Best Short Subject, Two-reel
28 ) Hi Diddle Diddle
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
When the bride’s mother is supposedly swindled out of her money by a spurned suitor, the groom’s father orchestrates a scheme of his own to set things right. He is aided by a cabaret singer, while placating a jealous wife.
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27 ) For Whom the Bell Tolls
Nominated For:
- Best Actor in a Leading Role
- Best Actor in a Supporting Role
- Best Actress in a Leading Role
- Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Win)
- Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color
- Best Cinematography, Color
- Best Film Editing
- Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
- Best Picture
Spain in the 1930s is the place to be for a man of action like Robert Jordan. There is a civil war going on and Jordan who has joined up on the side that appeals most to idealists of that era — like Ernest Hemingway and his friends — has been given a high-risk assignment up in the mountains. He awaits the right time to blow up a bridge in a cave.
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26 ) Action in the North Atlantic
Nominated For:
- Best Writing, Original Story
Lieutenant Joe Rossi is 1st Officer on a Liberty Ship in a great convoy bound from Halifax to Murmansk. After German subs crushed the convoy his ship loses the convoy and is heading alone to Murmansk. In spite of attacks by German planes and subs he get the ship safely to Murmansk.
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25 ) The Yankee Doodle Mouse
Nominated For:
- Best Short Subject, Cartoons (Win)
As Tom and Jerry stage their typical fight sequences, the patriotic soldier theme of the title is evidenced by such things as a carton of eggs labeled “Hen Grenades”; Jerry dropping light bulbs from an airplane like bombs; and Jerry sending a telegram with the message “Sighted Cat – Sank Same.” Musical phrasings from various patriotic war songs are heard throughout.
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24 ) Thank Your Lucky Stars
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Original Song
An Eddie Cantor look-alike organizes an all-star show to help the war effort.
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23 ) Watch on the Rhine
Nominated For:
- Best Actor in a Leading Role (Win)
- Best Actress in a Supporting Role
- Best Picture
- Best Writing, Screenplay
Kurt Müller, his American-born wife Sara, and their three children, having lived in Germany for years, visit Sara’s mother’s house in Washington, DC. Kurt secretly works for the anti-Nazi movement in Germany. A Romanian count, becoming aware of this, seeks to blackmail him.
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22 ) Destination Tokyo
Nominated For:
- Best Writing, Original Story
During World War II, Captain Cassidy and his crew of submariners are ordered into Tokyo Bay on a secret mission. They are to gather information in advance of the planned bombing of Tokyo. Along the way, the crew learn about each other as they face the enemy and some of them lose their lives.
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21 ) The Constant Nymph
Nominated For:
- Best Actress in a Leading Role
Fourteen-year-old Tessa is hopelessly in love with handsome composer Lewis Dodd, a family friend. Lewis adores Tessa, but has never shown any romantic feelings toward her. When Tessa’s father dies, Lewis contacts her late mother’s wealthy family so they’ll take care of Tessa and her sisters. Lewis becomes taken with Tessa’s haughty cousin Florence and the two soon marry and head off for Florence’s estate in England. Meanwhile, Florence sends Tessa and her sister Paula off to finishing school. The girls run away from school and Tessa moves in with Florence and Louis. Florence soon becomes consumed with jealousy over the bond between her husband and Tessa.
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20 ) The Human Comedy
Nominated For:
- Best Actor in a Leading Role
- Best Cinematography, Black-and-White
- Best Director
- Best Picture
- Best Writing, Original Story (Win)
Homer Macauley remains in a small town looking after his widowed mother and younger brother. Homer’s older brother is fighting the war in Europe.
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19 ) Madame Curie
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 Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
- Best Picture
- Best Sound, Recording
Young Polish physics student Marie marries Doctor Pierre Curie, in whose lab she had worked for a while. On their honeymoon they decide to find out what caused the strange effect Prof. Becquerel has noticed with the uranium/thorium stones for her dissertation. After many experiments they find out that there must be more radioactive elements than uranium and thorium, and they try to isolate it. After years of experiments in a makeshift lab at the University, they are able to isolate a few grains of a new element, radium, from 7 tons of raw material, but at the height of their success, Pierre is killed in an traffic accident. Written by Stephan Eichenberg
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18 ) Holy Matrimony
Nominated For:
- Best Writing, Screenplay
An artist returning from years abroad takes the identity of his dead valet and gets married, but then there are complications.
17 ) Air Force
Nominated For:
- Best Cinematography, Black-and-White
- Best Effects, Special Effects
- Best Film Editing (Win)
- Best Writing, Original Screenplay
The crew of an Air Force bomber arrives in Pearl Harbor in the aftermath of the Japanese attack and is sent on to Manila to help with the defense of the Philippines.
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16 ) The Gang’s All Here
Nominated For:
- Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color
Playboy Andy Mason, on leave from the army, romances showgirl Edie Allen overnight to such effect that she’s starry-eyed when he leaves next morning for active duty in the Pacific. Only trouble is, he gave her the assumed name of Casey. Andy’s eventual return with a medal is celebrated by his rich father with a benefit show featuring Eadie’s show troupe, at which she’s sure to learn his true identity…and meet Vivian, his ‘family-arrangement’ fiancée. Mostly song and dance.
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15 ) Lassie Come Home
Nominated For:
- Best Cinematography, Color
Hard times come for the Carraclough family and they are forced to sell their dog, Lassie, to the rich Duke of Rudling. Lassie, however, is unwilling to remain apart from young Carraclough son Joe and sets out on a long and dangerous journey to rejoin him.
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14 ) In Which We Serve
Nominated For:
- Best Picture
- Best Writing, Original Screenplay
This is the story of a British Naval ship, the HMS Torrin, from it’s construction to its sinking in the Mediterranean during action in World War II. The ships first and only commanding officer is the experienced Captain E.V. Kinross who trains his men not only to be loyal to him but to the country and most importantly, to themselves. They face challenges at sea and also at home. They lose some of theirs shipmates in action and some of their loved ones in the devastation of the blitz. Throughout it all, the men of the Torrin serve valiantly and heroically.
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13 ) Hangmen Also Die!
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
- Best Sound, Recording
During the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, surgeon Dr. Franticek Svoboda, a Czech patriot, assassinates the brutal “Hangman of Europe”, Reichsprotektor Reinhard Heydrich, and is wounded in the process. In his attempt to escape, he is helped by history professor Stephen Novotny and his daughter Mascha.
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12 ) The Battle of Russia
Nominated For:
- Best Documentary, Features
“The Battle of Russia,” Chapter V of Frank Capra’s “Why We Fight” series, follows the beginning of the end for Adolph Hitler.
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11 ) The Song of Bernadette
Nominated For:
- 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
- Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White (Win)
- Best Cinematography, Black-and-White (Win)
- Best Director
- Best Film Editing
- Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture (Win)
- Best Picture
- Best Sound, Recording
- Best Writing, Screenplay
In 1858 France, Bernadette, an adolescent peasant girl, has a vision of “a beautiful lady” in the city dump. She never claims it to be anything other than this, but the townspeople all assume it to be the virgin Mary. The pompous government officials think she is nuts, and do their best to suppress the girl and her followers, and the church wants nothing to do with the whole matter. But as Bernadette attracts wider and wider attention, the phenomenon overtakes everyone in the the town, and transforms their lives.
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10 ) So Proudly We Hail!
Nominated For:
- Best Actress in a Supporting Role
- Best Cinematography, Black-and-White
- Best Effects, Special Effects
- Best Writing, Original Screenplay
A group of U.S. Army nurses leaves San Francisco for their tour of duty in Hawaii in December 1941. The attack on Pearl Harbor changes their destination, and their lives. Sent to Bataan, in the Philippines, the nurses are led by Lt. Janet Davidson. She is faced with untested nurses who expected an easy time in Honolulu, but who quickly become battle-weary veterans dealing with daily bombardments by the Japanese, overwhelmed by the numbers of wounded, and dwindling supplies. Some of “Davey’s” unit also have to deal with romantic entanglements with men they met onboard ship. When Bataan falls, the American forces flee to the offshore island of Corregidor, where they find the Japanese assault just as intense.
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8 ) Cabin in the Sky
Nominated For:
- Best Music, Original Song
Chronic gambler and carouser “Little” Joe Jackson is shot by Domino Johnson at Jim Henry’s gambling club over an outstanding gambling debt. Little Joe’s wife, the God-fearing Petunia Jackson, prays not only for her husband’s mortal life, but also his eternal soul as she’s afraid that if he dies now, he, despite not being an evil man, won’t make it into heaven. As Little Joe is close to death, he is visited by agents of both the Lord and of Lucifer. They make a deal with him: they will give him six months to atone for the errors of his human life. Once back on Earth, he won’t remember the deal but both the Lord and Lucifer will be watching over him, trying to get him to see things their way. As both sides try to get Little Joe’s soul, they figure that some of the most powerful tools they have at their disposal are the women in Little Joe’s life: Petunia on behalf of the Lord, and Georgia Brown, a gold-digging floozy, on behalf of Lucifer.
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8 ) This Land Is Mine
Nominated For:
- Best Sound, Recording (Win)
In a Nazi-occupied French town, meek and mild-mannered teacher Albert Lory lives with his mother. Few people, including his students, have any respect for him and he literally shakes in his boots during an air raid. He is quite friendly with his fellow teacher, Louise Martin and her brother Paul who also happen to be neighbors. If truth be told, Albert is quite in love with Louise but she is in a relationship with George Lambert and he feels she is quite beyond his reach. Paul is a member of the resistance and is killed when Lambert informs the Nazis. Outraged at what he’s done, Albert arrives at Lambert’s office just as the informer commits suicide. Albert is charged with murder but the local Nazi commander, Major Erich von Keller, offers him a deal…
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7 ) Heaven Can Wait
Nominated For:
- Best Cinematography, Color
- Best Director
- Best Picture
Henry Van Cleve presents himself at the gates of Hell only to find he is closely vetted on his qualifications for entry. Surprised there is any question on his suitability, he recounts his lively life and the women he has known from his mother onwards, but mainly concentrating on his happy but sometimes difficult twenty-five years of marriage to Martha.
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6 ) Five Graves to Cairo
Nominated For:
- Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White
- Best Cinematography, Black-and-White
- Best Film Editing
The British Army, retreating ahead of victorious Rommel, leaves a lone survivor on the Egyptian border who finds refuge at a remote desert hotel. He is helped by the hotel’s owner, despite protest from the French chambermaid, afraid of the imminent arrival of Rommel and the Germans. John assumes the identity of the recently deceased waiter to survive.
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5 ) The More the Merrier
Nominated For:
- Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Win)
- Best Actress in a Leading Role
- Best Director
- Best Picture
- Best Writing, Original Story
- Best Writing, Screenplay
It’s World War II and there is a severe housing shortage everywhere – especially in Washington, D.C. where Connie Milligan rents an apartment. Believing it to be her patriotic duty, Connie offers to sublet half of her apartment, fully expecting a suitable female tenent. What she gets instead is mischievous, middle-aged Benjamin Dingle. Dingle talks her into subletting to him and then promptly sublets half of his half to young, irreverent Joe Carter – creating a situation tailor-made for comedy and romance.
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4 ) Sahara
Nominated For:
- Best Actor in a Supporting Role
- Best Cinematography, Black-and-White
- Best Sound, Recording
Sergeant Joe Gunn and his tank crew pick up five British soldiers, a Frenchman and a Sudanese man with an Italian prisoner crossing the Libyan Desert to rejoin their command after the fall of Tobruk. Tambul, the Sudanese leads them to an abandoned desert fortress where they hope to find water. Soon a detachment of German soldiers arrives and attempts to barter food for water, but Gunn and his followers refuse. When the Germans attack, Gunn leads his desert-weary men in a desperate battle, hoping that British reinforcements can arrive in time.
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3 ) The Ox-Bow Incident
Nominated For:
- Best Picture
Gil Carter and Art Croft ride into a small Nevada town plagued by cattle thieves. Initially suspected of being the rustlers themselves, Carter and Croft eventually join a posse out to get the criminals, who also may be involved in a recent shooting. When the posse closes in on a group that could be the fugitives, they must decide on a course of action, with numerous lives hanging in the balance.
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2 ) Shadow of a Doubt
Nominated For:
- Best Writing, Original Story
A bored young woman, a teen living in Santa Rosa, California, Charlotte “Charlie” Newton (Wright), is frustrated because nothing seems to be happening in her life and that of her family. Then, she receives wonderful news: her uncle (for whom she was named), Charlie Oakley (Cotten), is arriving for a visit. But Uncle Charlie may not be the man he seems to be.
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1 ) Casablanca
Nominated For:
- Best Actor in a Leading Role
- Best Actor in a Supporting Role
- Best Cinematography, Black-and-White
- Best Director (Win)
- Best Film Editing
- Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
- Best Picture (Win)
- Best Writing, Screenplay (Win)
In Casablanca, Morocco in December 1941, a cynical American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen complications.
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The Best 16th Academy Award Rankings
1944 Academy Award Rankings
| Film | RT Critic | RT User | IMDB | Letterboxd | Overal Rank |
| Casablanca | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Shadow of a Doubt | 1 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| The Ox-Bow Incident | 10 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| Sahara | 1 | 5 | 8 | 7 | 4 |
| The More the Merrier | 6 | 8 | 5 | 4 | 5 |
| Five Graves to Cairo | 1 | 11 | 14 | 7 | 6 |
| Heaven Can Wait | 9 | 14 | 12 | 5 | 7 |
| This Land Is Mine | 21 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 8 |
| Cabin in the Sky | 14 | 7 | 16 | 7 | 8 |
| So Proudly We Hail! | 24 | 6 | 8 | 7 | 10 |
| The Song of Bernadette | 14 | 10 | 7 | 15 | 11 |
| The Battle of Russia | 24 | 1 | 16 | 7 | 12 |
| Hangmen Also Die! | 12 | 21 | 12 | 5 | 13 |
| In Which We Serve | 8 | 13 | 16 | 15 | 14 |
| Lassie Come Home | 6 | 14 | 20 | 20 | 15 |
| The Gang’s All Here | 1 | 22 | 32 | 7 | 16 |
| Air Force | 11 | 16 | 24 | 15 | 17 |
| Holy Matrimony | 24 | 17 | 20 | 7 | 18 |
| Madame Curie | 12 | 25 | 20 | 20 | 19 |
| The Human Comedy | 14 | 19 | 24 | 26 | 20 |
| The Constant Nymph | 24 | 17 | 27 | 20 | 21 |
| Destination Tokyo | 24 | 25 | 20 | 20 | 22 |
| Watch on the Rhine | 14 | 28 | 14 | 36 | 23 |
| Thank Your Lucky Stars | 24 | 34 | 16 | 20 | 24 |
| The Yankee Doodle Mouse | 24 | 50 | 6 | 15 | 25 |
| Action in the North Atlantic | 24 | 19 | 27 | 26 | 26 |
| For Whom the Bell Tolls | 19 | 27 | 27 | 36 | 27 |
| Hi Diddle Diddle | 24 | 40 | 32 | 15 | 28 |
| Mardi Gras | 24 | 50 | 3 | 48 | 29 |
| Reason and Emotion | 24 | 50 | 32 | 20 | 30 |
| The Moon and Sixpence | 24 | 40 | 38 | 26 | 31 |
| The Sky’s the Limit | 24 | 30 | 48 | 26 | 31 |
| Swedes in America | 24 | 50 | 8 | 48 | 33 |
| Phantom of the Opera | 20 | 12 | 56 | 43 | 34 |
| Princess O’Rourke | 24 | 50 | 32 | 26 | 35 |
| Report from the Aleutians | 24 | 34 | 48 | 26 | 35 |
| Stage Door Canteen | 24 | 24 | 48 | 36 | 35 |
| The Fallen Sparrow | 24 | 40 | 43 | 26 | 38 |
| Hello Frisco, Hello | 24 | 30 | 32 | 48 | 39 |
| Thousands Cheer | 24 | 30 | 57 | 26 | 40 |
| Commandos Strike at Dawn | 24 | 23 | 43 | 48 | 41 |
| In Old Oklahoma | 24 | 45 | 48 | 26 | 42 |
| Johnny Come Lately | 23 | 34 | 38 | 48 | 42 |
| Star Spangled Rhythm | 24 | 34 | 38 | 48 | 44 |
| War Department Report | 24 | 50 | 24 | 48 | 45 |
| Victory Through Air Power | 24 | 50 | 38 | 36 | 46 |
| Hers to Hold | 24 | 33 | 43 | 48 | 46 |
| Women at War | 24 | 50 | 27 | 48 | 48 |
| Youth in Crisis | 24 | 50 | 27 | 48 | 48 |
| The Amazing Mrs. Holliday | 24 | 29 | 48 | 48 | 48 |
| Bombardier | 24 | 40 | 64 | 26 | 51 |
| Lady of Burlesque | 22 | 39 | 57 | 36 | 51 |
| Seeing Hands | 24 | 50 | 32 | 48 | 51 |
| Crash Dive | 24 | 40 | 57 | 36 | 54 |
| Corvette K-225 | 24 | 50 | 38 | 48 | 55 |
| Coney Island | 24 | 50 | 43 | 48 | 56 |
| Greetings Bait | 24 | 50 | 43 | 48 | 56 |
| Saludos Amigos | 14 | 46 | 62 | 46 | 58 |
| Desert Victory | 24 | 50 | 48 | 48 | 59 |
| Stand by for Action | 24 | 50 | 48 | 48 | 59 |
| The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins | 24 | 50 | 48 | 48 | 59 |
| December 7th: The Movie | 24 | 50 | 62 | 36 | 62 |
| This Is the Army | 24 | 38 | 67 | 45 | 62 |
| The Dizzy Acrobat | 24 | 50 | 57 | 48 | 64 |
| The North Star | 24 | 47 | 67 | 43 | 65 |
| Plan for Destruction | 24 | 50 | 61 | 48 | 66 |
| Flight for Freedom | 24 | 50 | 64 | 48 | 67 |
| Heavenly Music | 24 | 50 | 64 | 48 | 67 |
| Amphibious Fighters | 24 | 50 | 67 | 48 | 69 |
| Cavalcade of Dance | 24 | 50 | 67 | 48 | 69 |
| Letter to a Hero | 24 | 50 | 67 | 48 | 69 |
| Imagination | 24 | 50 | 72 | 48 | 72 |
| The Kansan | 24 | 49 | 73 | 48 | 72 |
| Hit Parade of 1943 | 24 | 50 | 73 | 48 | 74 |
| So This Is Washington | 24 | 50 | 73 | 48 | 74 |
| Something to Shout About | 24 | 50 | 73 | 48 | 74 |
| To the People of the United States | 24 | 50 | 73 | 48 | 74 |
| Mission to Moscow | 24 | 48 | 79 | 46 | 78 |
| Baptism of Fire | 24 | 50 | 78 | 48 | 79 |
| Screen Snapshots Series 23, No. 1: Hollywood in Uniform | 24 | 50 | 79 | 48 | 80 |
| Riding High | 24 | 50 | 81 | 48 | 81 |
| Champions Carry on | 24 | 50 | 82 | 48 | 82 |
| Children of Mars | 24 | 50 | 82 | 48 | 82 |
| Tomorrow We Fly | 24 | 50 | 82 | 48 | 82 |
