Warner's biopicture “The Life of Emile Zola” was nominated for the largest number of awards in 1937, 10, and won 3: film, screenplay, and supporting actor to Joseph Schildkraut, in the role of the wrongly accused Captain Alfred Dreyfus.
Oscar Nominations: 10
Best Picture, produced by Henry Blanke
Director: William Dieterle
Screenplay: Heinz Herald, Geza Herczek, and Norman Reilly Reina
Original Story: Heinz Herald, Geza Herczek
Actor: Paul Muni
Supporting Actor: Joseph Schildkraut
Interior Decoration: Anton Grot
Sound Recording: Nathan Levinson
Assistant Director: Russ Saunders
Score: Max Steiner
Oscar Awards: 3
Picture
Supporting Actor
Screenplay
Oscar Context
In 1937, nine other movies competed with “Life of Emile Zola” for Best Picture, including Leo McCarey's marital comedy “The Awful Truth” with six nominations, and Gregory La Cava's backstage drama, “Stage Door,” with four. The other nominees were: William Wyler's social drama set in a New York City slum, “Dead End,” Frank Capra's utopian comedy “Lost Horizon,” and Henry King's adventure “In Old Chicago,” the first version of “A Star Is Born,” “The Good Earth,” “In Old Chicago,” and the Deana Durbin vehicle, “One Hundred Men and a Girl.”
Next to Life of Emile Zola, the most-nominated films were Fox's adventure “In Old Chicago” and “A Star Is Born.”
Only one of the ten nominated pictures was a comedy, Leo McCarey's sublime screwball, “The Awful Truth,” co-starring Cary Grant and Irene Dunne at their very best.
The Oscars were spread among eight films; the only two pictures that didn't win any award were “Dead End” and “Stage Door.”
