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

Winners and nominees

Awards

Nominations announced on February 6, 1938. Winners are listed first and highlighted in boldface.
The Life of Emile Zola – Henry Blanke for Warner Bros.
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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • The Private Life of the Gannets – Skibo Productions and Educational
  • * A Night at the Movies – MGM
  • * Romance of Radium – Pete Smith and MGM
  • Torture Money – MGM
  • * Deep South – RKO Radio
  • * Should Wives Work? – RKO Radio
  • Penny Wisdom – Pete Smith and MGM
  • * The Man Without a Country – Warner Bros.
  • * Popular Science J-7-1 – Paramount
  • The Old Mill – Walt Disney Productions and RKO Radio
  • * Educated Fish – Paramount
  • * The Little Match Girl – Charles Mintz and Columbia
  • 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
  • "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 ; Lyrics by Ira Gershwin
  • * "Whispers in the Dark" from Artists and Models – Music by Frederick Hollander; Lyrics by Leo Robin
  • 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
  • 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
  • The Good Earth – Karl Freund
  • * Dead End – Gregg Toland
  • * Wings over Honolulu – Joseph Valentine
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • Special Awards

    Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award

    Multiple nominations and awards

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

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