Hitchcock’s first American movie was nominated for the largest number of awards in 1940, 10, winning two.
The other most nominated pictures were John Ford’s working-class drama
The Grapes of Wrath and William Wyler’s melodrama The Letter, each with 7.
Oscar Nominations: 10
Picture, produced by David O. Selznick
Director: Hitchcock
Screenplay: Robert E. Sherwood and Joan Harrison
Actor: Laurence Olivier
Actress: Joan Fontaine
Supporting Actress: Judith Anderson
Cinematography (b/w): George Barnes
Interior Decoration (b/w): Lyle Wheeler
Score (Original): Franz Waxman
Special Effects: Jack Cosgrove, photographic; Arthur Johns, sound
Oscar Awards:
Picture
Cinematography
Oscar Context
Rebecca competed for the top Oscar with nine other films: Hitchcock’s own Foreign Correspondent (on of his lesser movies), All This and Heaven Too, The Grapes of Wrath, The Great Dictator, Kitty Foyle, The Letter, The Long Voyage Home, Our Town, and The Philadelphia Story.
Like Hitchcock, John Ford had two movies in contention: The Grapes of Wrath, starring Henry Fonda and The Long Voyage Home with John Wayne.
With the exception of Jonathan Demme, no other filmmaker has ever won the Director Oscar for a thriller, including Hitchcock, the acknowledged master of this genre. Hitchcock was nominated five times, for “Rebecca,” “Lifeboat” (1944), “Spellbound” (1945), “Rear Window” (1954), and “Psycho” (1960). And four of Hitchcok films were nominated for Best Picture, the aforementioned “Rebecca” and “Foreign Correspondent,” “Suspicion” (1941) and “Spellbound.”
However, Hitchcock never won a legit Oscar, though the Academy later compensated him with an Honorary Award.
