10th Academy Awards

The 10th Academy Awards were held on March 10, 1938 to honor films released in 1937, at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, California and hosted by Bob Burns. Originally scheduled for March 3, 1938, the ceremony was postponed due to the Los Angeles flood of 1938.^[1][2][3]

10th Academy Awards
Date	March 10, 1938
Site	Biltmore Hotel
Hosted by	Bob Burns
Highlights
Best Picture	The Life of Emile Zola
Most awards	The Life of Emile Zola (3)
Most nominations	The Life of Emile Zola (10)
← 9th Academy Awards 11th →

This was the last year for two Oscars categories: Best Dance Direction, which this year saw the only nomination ever received by a Marx Brothers film (Dave Gould for "All God's Children Got Rhythm" in A Day at the Races), and Best Assistant Director.

The Life of Emile Zola was the first film to receive ten nominations and the second consecutive biographical film to win Best Picture, following the previous year's The Great Ziegfeld. Luise Rainer received the Academy Award for Best Actress for The Good Earth, earning her the distinctions of being the first actor to win two Academy Awards and the first to win consecutive acting awards, following her win for The Great Ziegfeld. Luise Rainer, who didn't think anyone could win in two consecutive years, stayed at home with her husband, playwright Clifford Odets, on the night of the ceremony. She was informed of her win by telephone, hastily dressed herself up, and rushed out the door to collect her second Oscar, which was said to have "jinxed her".^[4]

A Star Is Born was the first color film to receive a Best Picture nomination.

Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the world's first full-length Technicolor animated feature film with sound and widely seen as one of the greatest motion pictures of all time, received only one nomination, for Best Original Score. The following year, the Academy presented Disney an Honorary Academy Award (consisting of one full-size Oscar statuette and seven miniature statuettes on a stepped base) "for creating Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs [1937], 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 successive ceremonies.

This was the first year in which every film nominated for Best Picture received multiple nominations.

Winners and nominees

 

Spencer Tracy; Best Actor winner

 

Luise Rainer; Best Actress winner

 

Joseph Schildkraut; Best Supporting Actor winner

 

Alice Brady; Best Supporting Actress winner

 

Pete Smith; Best Live Action Short Subject, Color co-winner

 

Karl Freund; Best Cinematography winner

 

Mack Sennett; Honorary Academy Award recipient

 

Darryl F. Zanuck; Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award recipient

Nominations announced on February 6, 1938. Winners are listed first and highlighted in boldface.^[3]

Outstanding Production The Life of Emile Zola – Henry Blanke for Warner Bros.‡ The Awful Truth – Leo McCarey and Everett Riskin for Columbia Captains Courageous – Louis D. Lighton for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Dead End – Samuel Goldwyn and Merritt Hulbert for Samuel Goldwyn Prod. and United Artists The Good Earth – Irving Thalberg and Albert Lewin for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer In Old Chicago – Darryl F. Zanuck and Kenneth Macgowan for 20th Century Fox Lost Horizon – Frank Capra for Columbia One Hundred Men and a Girl – Charles R. Rogers and Joe Pasternak for Universal Stage Door – Pandro S. Berman for RKO Radio A Star Is Born – David O. Selznick for Selznick International and United Artists	Best Director Leo McCarey – The Awful Truth‡ Sidney Franklin – The Good Earth William Dieterle – The Life of Emile Zola Gregory La Cava – Stage Door William Wellman – A Star Is Born
Best Actor Spencer Tracy – Captains Courageous as Manuel Fidello‡ Charles Boyer – Conquest as Napoleon Bonaparte Fredric March – A Star Is Born as Norman Maine Robert Montgomery – Night Must Fall as Danny Paul Muni – The Life of Emile Zola as Émile Zola	Best Actress Luise Rainer – The Good Earth as O-Lan‡ Irene Dunne – The Awful Truth as Lucy Warriner Greta Garbo – Camille as Marguerite Gautier Janet Gaynor – A Star Is Born as Esther Blodgett/Vicki Lester Barbara Stanwyck – Stella Dallas as Stella Dallas
Best Supporting Actor Joseph Schildkraut – The Life of Emile Zola as Alfred Dreyfus‡ Ralph Bellamy – The Awful Truth as Dan Leeson Thomas Mitchell – The Hurricane as Dr. Kersaint H. B. Warner – Lost Horizon as Chang Roland Young – Topper as Cosmo Topper	Best Supporting Actress Alice Brady – In Old Chicago as Molly O'Leary‡ Andrea Leeds – Stage Door as Kay Hamilton Anne Shirley – Stella Dallas as Laurel Dallas Claire Trevor – Dead End as Francey May Whitty – Night Must Fall as Mrs Bramson
Best Original Story A Star Is Born – William A. Wellman and Robert Carson‡ Black Legion – Robert Lord In Old Chicago – Niven Busch The Life of Emile Zola – Heinz Herald and Geza Herczeg One Hundred Men and a Girl – Hanns Kräly	Best Adaptation The Life of Emile Zola – Heinz Herald, Geza Herczeg, and Norman Reilly Raine, based on Zola and His Time by Matthew Josephson‡ The Awful Truth – Viña Delmar, based on the play by Arthur Richman Captains Courageous – John Lee Mahin, Marc Connelly, and Dale Van Every, based on the novel by Rudyard Kipling Stage Door – Morris Ryskind and Anthony Veiller, based on the play by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman A Star Is Born – Alan Campbell, Robert Carson, and Dorothy Parker, based on a story by William A. Wellman and Robert Carson
Best Live Action Short Subject, One-Reel The Private Life of the Gannets – Skibo Productions and Educational‡ A Night at the Movies – MGM Romance of Radium – Pete Smith and MGM	Best Live Action Short Subject, Two-Reel Torture Money – MGM‡ Deep South – RKO Radio Should Wives Work? – RKO Radio
Best Live Action Short Subject, Color Penny Wisdom – Pete Smith and MGM‡ The Man Without a Country – Warner Bros. Popular Science J-7-1 – Paramount	Best Short Subject, Cartoon The Old Mill – Walt Disney Productions and RKO Radio‡ Educated Fish – Paramount The Little Match Girl – Charles Mintz and Columbia
Best Scoring One Hundred Men and a Girl – Universal Studio Music Department‡ The Hurricane – Goldwyn Studio Music Department In Old Chicago – 20th Century Fox Studio Music Department The Life of Emile Zola – Warner Bros. Studio Music Department Lost Horizon – Columbia Studio Music Department Make a Wish – Principal Productions Maytime – MGM Studio Music Department Portia on Trial – Republic Studio Music Department The Prisoner of Zenda – Selznick International Pictures Music Department Quality Street – RKO Radio Studio Music Department Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs – Walt Disney Studio Music Department Something to Sing About – Grand National Studio Music Department Souls at Sea – Paramount Studio Music Department Way Out West – Hal Roach Studio Music Department	Best Song "Sweet Leilani" from Waikiki Wedding – Music and Lyrics by Harry Owens‡ "Remember Me" from Mr. Dodd Takes the Air – Music by Harry Warren; Lyrics by Al Dubin "That Old Feeling" from Walter Wanger's Vogues of 1938 – Music by Sammy Fain; Lyrics by Lew Brown "They Can't Take That Away From Me" from Shall We Dance – Music by George Gershwin (posthumous nomination); Lyrics by Ira Gershwin "Whispers in the Dark" from Artists and Models – Music by Frederick Hollander; Lyrics by Leo Robin
Best Sound Recording The Hurricane – Thomas T. Moulton‡ The Girl Said No – A. E. Kaye Hitting a New High – John Aalberg In Old Chicago – E. H. Hansen The Life of Emile Zola – Nathan Levinson Lost Horizon – John P. Livadary Maytime – Douglas Shearer One Hundred Men and a Girl – Homer G. Tasker Topper – Elmer A. Raguse Wells Fargo – Loren L. Ryder	Best Art Direction Lost Horizon – Stephen Goosson‡ Conquest – Cedric Gibbons and William A. Horning A Damsel in Distress – Carroll Clark Dead End – Richard Day Every Day's a Holiday – Wiard Ihnen The Life of Emile Zola – Anton Grot Manhattan Merry-Go-Round – John Victor Mackay The Prisoner of Zenda – Lyle R. Wheeler Souls at Sea – Hans Dreier and Roland Anderson Walter Wanger's Vogues of 1938 – Alexander Toluboff Wee Willie Winkie – William S. Darling and David S. Hall You're a Sweetheart – Jack Otterson
Best Cinematography The Good Earth – Karl Freund Dead End – Gregg Toland Wings over Honolulu – Joseph Valentine	Best Film Editing Lost Horizon – Gene Havlick and Gene Milford‡ The Awful Truth – Al Clark Captains Courageous – Elmo Veron The Good Earth – Basil Wrangell One Hundred Men and a Girl – Bernard W. Burton
Best Dance Direction A Damsel in Distress – Hermes Pan‡ Ali Baba Goes to Town – Sammy Lee A Day at the Races – Dave Gould Ready, Willing and Able – Bobby Connolly Thin Ice – Harry Losee Varsity Show – Busby Berkeley Waikiki Wedding – LeRoy Prinz	Best Assistant Director In Old Chicago – Robert Webb‡ Lost Horizon – C. C. Coleman Jr. The Life of Emile Zola – Russ Saunders Souls at Sea – Hal Walker A Star Is Born – Eric G. Stacey

Multiple nominations and awards

Films with multiple nominations

Nominations	Film
10	The Life of Emile Zola
7	Lost Horizon
	A Star Is Born
6	The Awful Truth
	In Old Chicago
5	The Good Earth
	One Hundred Men and a Girl
4	Captain Courageous
	Dead End
	Stage Door
3	The Hurricane
	Souls at Sea
2	Conquest
	A Damsel in Distress
	Maytime
	Night Must Fall
	The Prisoner of Zenda
	Stella Dallas
	Waikiki Wedding
	Topper
	Walter Wanger's Vogues of 1938

Films with multiple awards

Awards	Film
3	The Life of Emile Zola
2	The Good Earth
In Old Chicago
Lost Horizon

Academy Honorary Awards

• Mack Sennett "for his lasting contribution to the comedy technique of the screen, the basic principles of which are as important today as when they were first put into practice, the Academy presents a Special Award to that master of fun, discoverer of stars, sympathetic, kindly, understanding comedy genius – Mack Sennett".
• Edgar Bergen "for his outstanding comedy creation, 'Charlie McCarthy'".
• Museum of Modern Art Film Library "for its significant work in collecting films dating from 1895 to the present and for the first time making available to the public the means of studying the historical and aesthetic development of the motion picture as one of the major arts".
• W. Howard Greene "for the color photography of A Star Is Born".

Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award

• Darryl F. Zanuck

See also

• 1937 in film

References

1. "Hollywood writers strike clouds Oscars". Reuters. January 23, 2008. Retrieved February 7, 2020.
2. "1937 Academy Awards Winners and History". filmsite.org. Retrieved February 7, 2020.
3. "The 10th Academy Awards (1938) Nominees and Winners". Oscars.org (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences). from the original on July 6, 2011. Retrieved August 9, 2011.
4. Wallechinsky, David; Wallace, Irving (1975). The People's Almanac. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc. p. 834. ISBN 0-385-04060-1.