The 16th Academy Awards were held on March 2, 1944, to honor the films of 1943. This was the first Oscar ceremony held at a large public venue,

Grauman's Chinese Theatre Grauman's Chinese Theatre (branded as TCL Chinese Theatre for naming rights reasons) is a movie palace on the historic Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States. The original Chinese ...

. The ceremony was broadcast locally on KFWB, and internationally by

CBS Radio CBS Radio was a radio broadcasting company and radio network operator owned by CBS Corporation and founded in 1928, with consolidated radio station groups owned by CBS and Westinghouse Broadcasting/Group W since the 1920s, and Infinity Broad ...

via

shortwave Shortwave radio is radio transmission using shortwave (SW) radio frequencies. There is no official definition of the band, but the range always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (100 to 10 me ...

Jack Benny Jack Benny (born Benjamin Kubelsky, February 14, 1894 – December 26, 1974) was an American entertainer who evolved from a modest success playing violin on the vaudeville circuit to one of the leading entertainers of the twentieth century wit ...

hosted the event, which lasted less than 30 minutes. For the first time, winners for Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress were awarded full-size statuettes, instead of smaller-sized awards mounted on a plaque. This was the last year until

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; Protests ...

to have 10 nominations for Best Picture; ''

The Ox-Bow Incident ''The Ox-Bow Incident'' is a 1943 American Western film directed by William A. Wellman, starring Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews and Mary Beth Hughes, with Anthony Quinn, William Eythe, Harry Morgan and Jane Darwell. Two cowboys arrive in a ...

'' is, , the last film to be nominated solely in that category. ''

For Whom the Bell Tolls ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' is a novel by Ernest Hemingway published in 1940. It tells the story of Robert Jordan, a young American volunteer attached to a Republican guerrilla unit during the Spanish Civil War. As a dynamiter, he is assigne ...

'' was the third film to receive nominations in all four acting categories. This was the first year in which each acting category had at least one nominee from a color film. The ''

Tom and Jerry ''Tom and Jerry'' is an American animated media franchise and series of comedy short films created in 1940 by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Best known for its 161 theatrical short films by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the series centers on the ...

'' cartoon series won its first Oscar this year for ''

The Yankee Doodle Mouse ''The Yankee Doodle Mouse'' is a 1943 American one-reel animated cartoon in Technicolor. It is the eleventh ''Tom and Jerry'' short produced by Fred Quimby, and directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, with musical supervision by Scott B ...

''; it would go on to win another six Oscars, including three in a row over the next three years, from a total of 13 nominations.

Awards

Nominees were announced on February 6, 1944. Winners are listed first and highlighted in boldface.

Academy Honorary Award

George Pal George Pal (born György Pál Marczincsak; ; February 1, 1908 – May 2, 1980) was a Hungarian-American animator, film director and producer, principally associated with the fantasy and science-fiction genres. He became an American citizen after ...

"for the development of novel methods and techniques in the production of short subjects known as Puppetoons".

Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award

Hal B. Wallis Harold Brent Wallis (born Aaron Blum Wolowicz; October 19, 1898 – October 5, 1986) was an American film producer. He is best known for producing '' Casablanca'' (1942), '' The Adventures of Robin Hood'' (1938), and ''True Grit'' (1969), along ...

Presenters

Donald Crisp Donald William Crisp (27 July 188225 May 1974) was an English film actor as well as an early producer, director and screenwriter. His career lasted from the early silent film era into the 1960s. He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor ...

(Presenter: Best Supporting Actor) * Howard Estabrook (Presenter: Documentary Awards) * Sidney Franklin (Presenter: Outstanding Motion Picture) *

Y. Frank Freeman Young Frank Freeman (14 December 1890 – 5 February 1969) was studio head at Paramount Pictures from 1938 to 1959. Freeman was born in Greenville, Georgia, and graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1910. In addition to his wo ...

(Presenter: Best Film Editing, Best Sound Recording, Best Special Effects and the Scientific & Technical Awards) * Greer Garson (Presenter: Best Actress) * James Hilton (Presenter: Writing Awards) *

Carole Landis Carole Landis (born Frances Lillian Mary Ridste; January 1, 1919 – July 5, 1948) was an American actress and singer. She worked as a contract player for Twentieth Century-Fox in the 1940s. Her breakout role was as the female lead in the 1940 ...

(Presenter: Best Art Direction) * George Murphy (Presenter: Best Actor) *

Rosalind Russell Catherine Rosalind Russell (June 4, 1907November 28, 1976) was an American actress, comedienne, screenwriter, and singer,Obituary '' Variety'', December 1, 1976, p. 79. known for her role as fast-talking newspaper reporter Hildy Johnson in the H ...

(Presenter: Best Cinematography) * Mark Sandrich (Presenter: Best Director) * Dinah Shore (Presenter: Music Awards) *

Walter Wanger Walter Wanger (born Walter Feuchtwanger; July 11, 1894 – November 18, 1968) was an American film producer active from the 1910s, his career concluding with the turbulent production of ''Cleopatra,'' his last film, in 1963. He began at Param ...

(Presenter: Short Subject Awards and the Honorary Award) * Teresa Wright (Presenter: Best Supporting Actress) * Darryl F. Zanuck (Presenter: Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award)

Performers

Edgar Bergen Edgar John Bergen (born Edgar John Berggren; February 16, 1903 – September 30, 1978) was an American ventriloquist, actor, comedian, vaudevillian and radio performer, best known for his proficiency in ventriloquism and his characters ...

& Charlie McCarthy *

Ray Bolger Raymond Wallace Bolger (January 10, 1904 – January 15, 1987) was an American actor, dancer, singer, vaudevillian and stage performer (particularly musical theatre) who started in the silent-film era. Bolger was a major Broadway performer in ...

Susanna Foster Susanna Foster (born Suzanne DeLee Flanders Larson, December 6, 1924 – January 17, 2009) was an American film actress best known for her leading role as Christine in the 1943 film version of '' Phantom of the Opera''. Early life Foster wa ...

* Mitzi Gerber *

Lena Horne Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (June 30, 1917 – May 9, 2010) was an American dancer, actress, singer, and civil rights activist. Horne's career spanned more than seventy years, appearing in film, television, and theatre. Horne joined the chorus of th ...

* Betty Hutton * Kay Kyser & His Band *

Red Skelton Richard Red Skelton (July 18, 1913September 17, 1997) was an American entertainer best known for his national radio and television shows between 1937 and 1971, especially as host of the television program ''The Red Skelton Show''. He has stars ...

Multiple nominations and awards

The following 26 films received multiple nominations: * 12 nominations: '' The Song of Bernadette'' * 9 nominations: ''

'' * 8 nominations: ''

Casablanca Casablanca, also known in Arabic as Dar al-Bayda ( ar, الدَّار الْبَيْضَاء, al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, ; ber, ⴹⴹⴰⵕⵍⴱⵉⴹⴰ, ḍḍaṛlbiḍa, : "White House") is the largest city in Morocco and the country's econom ...

'' * 7 nominations: '' Madame Curie'' * 6 nominations: '' The More the Merrier'' and '' The North Star'' * 5 nominations: '' The Human Comedy'' * 4 nominations: ''

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an ...

'', '' Phantom of the Opera'', '' So Proudly We Hail!'', and '' Watch on the Rhine'' * 3 nominations: ''

Five Graves to Cairo ''Five Graves to Cairo'' is a 1943 war film directed by Billy Wilder and starring Franchot Tone and Anne Baxter. Set in World War II, it is one of a number of films based on Lajos Bíró's 1917 play ''Hotel Imperial: Színmű négy felvonásban ...

'', '' Heaven Can Wait'', ''

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'', ''

Saludos Amigos ''Saludos Amigos'' ( Spanish for "Greetings, Friends") is a 1942 American live-action/animated anthology film produced by Walt Disney and released by RKO Radio Pictures. It is the sixth Disney animated feature film and the first of the six pack ...

'', '' This Is the Army'', and ''

Thousands Cheer ''Thousands Cheer'' is a 1943 American musical comedy film directed by George Sidney and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Produced at the height of the Second World War, the film was intended as a morale booster for American troops and their fam ...

'' * 2 nominations: '' Hangmen Also Die!'', '' Hello, Frisco, Hello'', '' Hit Parade of 1943'', '' In Old Oklahoma'', ''

In Which We Serve ''In Which We Serve'' is a 1942 British patriotic war film directed by Noël Coward and David Lean. It was made during the Second World War with the assistance of the Ministry of Information (United Kingdom), Ministry of Information. The scree ...

'', '' The Sky's the Limit'', '' Something to Shout About'', '' Stage Door Canteen'', and '' Star Spangled Rhythm'' The following three films received multiple awards: * 4 wins: '' The Song of Bernadette'' * 3 wins: ''

'' * 2 wins: '' Phantom of the Opera''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Academy Awards, 16 Academy Awards ceremonies 1943 film awards 1944 in Los Angeles 1944 in American cinema CBS Radio programs March 1944 events