Every once and a while, a frontrunner in the Best Picture race also garners awards for other, deservedly and not so deservedly.
Examples:
In 1939, the favorite film was “Gone with the Wind,” which prompted multiple Oscar-winner to observe: “Don’t make your best film the year ‘Gone with the Wind’ comes out.
Capra was in the run that year with “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” starring Jimmy Stewart.