13th Academy Awards

Infobox Academy AwardsB
name = 13th
date = February 27, 1941
site = Biltmore Bowl, Biltmore Hotel, Los Angeles, California, USA
host = Walter Wanger
last = 12th
next = 14thThe 13th Academy Awards honored American film achievements in 1940. This was the first year that sealed envelopes were used to keep secret the names of the winners which led to the famous phrase: "May I have the Envelope, please." The accounting firm of Price Waterhouse was hired to count the ballots, after the fiasco of leaked voting results in 1939 by the "Los Angeles Times".

A new category was added this year for Best Original Screenplay.

Independent producer David O. Selznick, who had produced the previous year's big winner "Gone with the Wind" (1939), also produced the Best Picture winner in 1940 - and campaigned heavily for its win. Selznick was the first to produce two consecutive winners of the Best Picture Oscar. "Rebecca" was based on Daphne du Maurier's popular novel about a shrinking, child-like bride (Joan Fontaine) who lives in the shadow of her enigmatic widower husband's (Laurence Olivier) first wife at a somber estate named Manderley (run by a mad, steely-eyed and devoted housekeeper (Judith Anderson). Although "Rebecca" had eleven nominations, it only won for Best Picture and Best Cinematography, Black and White.

The film's studio - United Artists - was the last of the original film studios (the others were MGM, Columbia, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros., Universal, and Paramount) to win the Best Picture Oscar. "Rebecca" was the first American-made film directed by British suspense master Alfred Hitchcock.

Awards

Best Picture : "Rebecca"

Best Director : John Ford, "The Grapes of Wrath"

Best Actor : James Stewart, "The Philadelphia Story"

Best Supporting Actor : Walter Brennan, "The Westerner"

Best Actress : Ginger Rogers, "Kitty Foyle"

Best Supporting Actress : Jane Darwell, "The Grapes of Wrath"

Best Original Screenplay : Preston Sturges, "The Great McGinty

Best Original Story : Benjamin Glazer and Hans Szekely, "Arise, My Love"

Best Screenplay : Donald Ogden Stewart, "The Philadelphia Story"

1941 Oscar firsts

For the first time, names of all winners remained secret until the moment they received their awards.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave a six minute direct radio address to the attendees from the White House. It is the first time an American president participates in the event.