11th Academy Awards


The 11th Academy Awards were held on February 23, 1939, at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, California. It was the first Academy Awards show without any official host. This was also the first ceremony in which a foreign language film was nominated for Best Picture.
Frank Capra became the first person to win three Best Director awards, to be followed by John Ford and William Wyler.
This was the first of only two times in Oscar history that three of the four acting awards were won by repeat winners; only Fay Bainter was a first time award winner. The only other time that this happened was at the 67th Academy Awards in 1994. Fay Bainter also was the first actress in the history of the Oscars to receive two acting nominations in the same year. In addition, Spencer Tracy became the first of only two lead actors to win two years in a row; the other one, Tom Hanks, also did so in 1994.
Radio coverage was banned at the 1939 ceremony. A reporter from KNX, Los Angeles, which had been reporting from the Academy Awards since 1930, locked himself into a booth and was able to broadcast for a few minutes before security guards broke down the door. Partial radio coverage was permitted again at the 1942 ceremony.

Awards

Winners are listed first and highlighted in boldface.

  • Frank Capra – You Can't Take It with You
  • * Michael Curtiz – Angels with Dirty Faces
  • * Norman Taurog – Boys Town
  • * King Vidor – The Citadel
  • * Michael Curtiz – Four Daughters
  • Spencer Tracy – Boys Town as Father Flanagan
  • * Charles Boyer – Algiers as Pepe le Moko
  • * James Cagney – Angels with Dirty Faces as William "Rocky" Sullivan
  • * Robert Donat – The Citadel as Dr Andrew Manson
  • * Leslie Howard – Pygmalion as Professor Henry Higgins
  • Bette Davis – Jezebel as Julie Marsden
  • * Fay Bainter – White Banners as Hannah Parmalee
  • * Wendy Hiller – Pygmalion as Eliza Doolittle
  • * Norma Shearer – Marie Antoinette as Marie Antoinette
  • * Margaret Sullavan – Three Comrades as Patricia Hollmann
  • Walter Brennan – Kentucky as Peter Goodwin
  • * John Garfield – Four Daughters as Mickey Borden
  • * Gene Lockhart – Algiers as Regis
  • * Robert Morley – Marie Antoinette as King Louis XVI
  • * Basil Rathbone – If I Were King as King Louis XI
  • Fay Bainter – Jezebel as Aunt Belle Massey
  • * Beulah Bondi – Of Human Hearts as Mary Wilkins
  • * Billie Burke – Merrily We Live as Emily Kilbourne
  • * Spring Byington – You Can't Take It with You as Penelope "Penny" Sycamore
  • * Miliza Korjus – The Great Waltz as Carla Donner
  • Boys Town – Eleanore Griffin and Dore Schary
  • * Alexander's Ragtime Band – Irving Berlin
  • * Angels with Dirty Faces – Rowland Brown
  • * Blockade – John Howard Lawson
  • * Mad About Music – Marcella Burke and Frederick Kohner
  • * Test Pilot – Frank Wead
  • Pygmalion – George Bernard Shaw, Ian Dalrymple, Cecil Lewis, and W. P. Lipscomb, based on the play by Shaw
  • * Boys Town – John Meehan and Dore Schary, based on a story by Schary and Eleanore Griffin
  • * The Citadel – Ian Dalrymple, Elizabeth Hill and Frank Wead, based on the novel by A. J. Cronin
  • * Four Daughters – Lenore Coffee and Julius J. Epstein, based on the short story "Sister Act" by Fannie Hurst
  • * You Can't Take It with You – Robert Riskin, based on the play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart
  • That Mothers Might Live – MGM
  • * The Great Heart – MGM
  • * Timber Toppers – 20th Century Fox
  • Declaration of Independence – Warner Bros.
  • * Swingtime in the Movies – Warner Bros.
  • * They're Always Caught – MGM
  • Ferdinand the Bull – Walt Disney Productions and RKO Radio
  • * Brave Little Tailor – Walt Disney Productions and RKO Radio
  • * Good Scouts – Walt Disney Productions and RKO Radio
  • * Hunky and Spunky – Paramount
  • * Mother Goose Goes Hollywood – Walt Disney Productions and RKO Radio
  • The Adventures of Robin Hood – Erich Wolfgang Korngold
  • * Army Girl – Victor Young
  • * Block-Heads – Marvin Hatley
  • * Blockade – Werner Janssen
  • * Breaking the Ice – Victor Young
  • * The Cowboy and the Lady – Alfred Newman
  • * If I Were King – Richard Hageman
  • * Marie Antoinette – Herbert Stothart
  • * Pacific Liner – Russell Bennett
  • * Suez – Louis Silvers
  • * The Young in Heart – Franz Waxman
  • Alexander's Ragtime Band – Alfred Newman
  • * Carefree – Victor Baravalle
  • * Girls' School – Morris Stoloff and Gregory Stone
  • * The Goldwyn Follies – Alfred Newman
  • * Jezebel – Max Steiner
  • * Mad About Music – Charles Previn and Frank Skinner
  • * Storm Over Bengal – Cy Feuer
  • * Sweethearts – Herbert Stothart
  • * There Goes My Heart – Marvin Hatley
  • * Tropic Holiday – Boris Morros
  • * The Young in Heart – Franz Waxman
  • "Thanks for the Memory" from The Big Broadcast of 1938 – Music by Ralph Rainger; Lyrics by Leo Robin
  • * "Always and Always" from Mannequin – Music by Edward Ward; Lyrics by Chet Forrest and Bob Wright
  • * "Change Partners" from Carefree – Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin
  • * "The Cowboy and the Lady" from The Cowboy and the Lady – Music by Lionel Newman; Lyrics by Arthur Quenzer
  • * "Dust" from Under Western Stars – Music and Lyrics by Johnny Marvin
  • * "Jeepers Creepers" from Going Places – Music by Harry Warren; Lyrics by Johnny Mercer
  • * "Merrily We Live" from Merrily We Live – Music by Phil Charig; Lyrics by Arthur Quenzer
  • * "A Mist Over the Moon" from The Lady Objects – Music by Ben Oakland; Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
  • * "My Own" from That Certain Age – Music by Jimmy McHugh; Lyrics by Harold Adamson
  • * "Now It Can Be Told" from Alexander's Ragtime Band – Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin
  • The Cowboy and the Lady – Thomas T. Moulton
  • * Army Girl – Charles L. Lootens
  • * Four Daughters – Nathan Levinson
  • * If I Were King – Loren L. Ryder
  • * Merrily We Live – Elmer Raguse
  • * Suez – Edmund H. Hansen
  • * Sweethearts – Douglas Shearer
  • * That Certain Age – Bernard B. Brown
  • * Vivacious Lady – John O. Aalberg
  • * You Can't Take It with You – John P. Livadary
  • The Adventures of Robin Hood – Carl Jules Weyl
  • * The Adventures of Tom Sawyer – Lyle R. Wheeler
  • * Alexander's Ragtime Band – Bernard Herzbrun and Boris Leven
  • * Algiers – Alexander Toluboff
  • * Carefree – Van Nest Polglase
  • * The Goldwyn Follies – Richard Day
  • * Holiday – Stephen Goosson and Lionel Banks
  • * If I Were King – Hans Dreier and John B. Goodman
  • * Mad About Music – Jack Otterson
  • * Marie Antoinette – Cedric Gibbons
  • * Merrily We Live – Charles D. Hall
  • The Great Waltz – Joseph Ruttenberg
  • * Algiers – James Wong Howe
  • * Army Girl – Ernest Miller and Harry J. Wild
  • * The Buccaneer – Victor Milner
  • * Jezebel – Ernest Haller
  • * Mad About Music – Joseph Valentine
  • * Merrily We Live – Norbert Brodine
  • * Suez – Peverell Marley
  • * Vivacious Lady – Robert De Grasse
  • * You Can't Take It with You – Joseph Walker
  • * The Young in Heart – Leon Shamroy
  • The Adventures of Robin Hood – Ralph Dawson
  • * Alexander's Ragtime Band – Barbara McLean
  • * The Great Waltz – Tom Held
  • * Test Pilot – Tom Held
  • * You Can't Take It with You – Gene Havlick

    • Academy Honorary Awards

  • J. Arthur Ball "for his outstanding contributions to the advancement of color in Motion Picture Photography".
  • Walt Disney "for creating Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs , recognized as a significant screen innovation which has charmed millions and pioneered a great new entertainment field for the motion picture cartoon". This is a rare case of a film being recognized in two succeeding ceremonies, as the film was also nominated for Best Score the previous year at the 10th Academy Awards.
  • Gordon Jennings, Jan Domela, Dev Jennings, Irmin Roberts, Art Smith, Farciot Edouart, Loyal Griggs, Loren L. Ryder, Harry D. Mills, Louis H. Mesenkop, and Walter Oberst "for outstanding achievement in creating Special Photographic and Sound Effects in the Paramount production, Spawn of the North".
  • Oliver Marsh and Allen Davey "for the color cinematography of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer production, Sweethearts".
  • Harry M. Warner "in recognition of patriotic service in the production of historical short subjects presenting significant episodes in the early struggle of the American people for liberty".

    Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award

  • Hal B. Wallis

    Academy Juvenile Awards

    • s were presented to:
    The following twenty-six films received multiple nominations:
    The following four films received multiple awards: