1947 (20th Annual Awards)
Winners Only

Listed below are the Academy Award winners for the year 1947 (non-winning nominations have been omitted from this list). Click on the name of a film, person or song in the list to display more information about that film, person or song Or, click on a year in the column on the right to display the winners from that year.

Best Motion Picture

Gentleman’s Agreement, 20th Century-Fox.

Best Actor

Ronald Colman in A Double Life, Kanin Productions; Universal-International.

Best Actress

Loretta Young in The Farmer’s Daughter, RKO Radio.

Actor in a Supporting Role

Edmund Gwenn in Miracle on 34th Street, 20th Century-Fox.

Actress in a Supporting Role

Celeste Holm in Gentleman’s Agreement, 20th Century-Fox.

Directing

Gentleman’s Agreement, 20th Century-Fox. Elia Kazan.

Art Direction-Set Decoration

(Black-and-White)

Great Expectations, J. Arthur Rank-Cineguild; Universal-International (British). Art direction by John Bryan; set decoration by Wilfred Shingleton.

(Color)

Black Narcissus, J. Arthur Rank-Archers; Universal-International (British). Art direction by Alfred Junge; set decoration by Alfred Junge.

Cinematography

(Black-and-White)

Great Expectations, J. Arthur Rank-Cineguild; Universal-International (British). Guy Green.

(Color)

Black Narcissus, J. Arthur Rank-Archers; Universal-International (British). Jack Cardiff.

Documentary

(Feature)

Design for Death, RKO Radio. Sid Rogell, Executive Producer; Theron Warth and Richard O. Fleischer, Producers.

(Short Subject)

First Steps, United Nations Division of Films and Visual Information (Canada).

Film Editing

Body and Soul, Enterprise Productions; United Artists. Francis Lyon and Robert Parrish.

Music

(Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture)

A Double Life, Kanin Productions; Universal-International. Dr. Miklos Rozsa.

(Scoring of a Musical Picture)

Mother Wore Tights, 20th Century-Fox. Alfred Newman.

(Song)

Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah from Song of the South, Walt Disney Productions; RKO Radio. Music by Allie Wrubel; lyrics by Ray Gilbert.

Short Subjects

(Cartoons)

Tweetie Pie, Warner Bros. [Merrie Melodies Series] Edward Selzer, Producer.

(One-reel)

Good-Bye Miss Turlock, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. [John Nesbitt Passing Parade Series] Herbert Moulton, Producer.

(Two-reel)

Climbing the Matterhorn, Monogram. [Color Series] Irving Allen, Producer.

Sound Recording

The Bishop’s Wife, Samuel Goldwyn Productions; RKO Radio. Samuel Goldwyn Studio Sound Department, Gordon Sawyer, Sound Director.

Special Effects

Green Dolphin Street, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Special visual effects by A. Arnold Gillespie and Warren Newcombe; special audible effects by Douglas Shearer and Michael Steinore.

Writing

(Motion Picture Story)

Miracle on 34th Street, 20th Century-Fox. Valentine Davies.

(Original Screenplay)

The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, RKO Radio. Sidney Sheldon.

(Screenplay)

Miracle on 34th Street, 20th Century-Fox. George Seaton.

Special Award

To James Baskett for his able and heart-warming characterization of Uncle Remus, friend and story teller to the children of the world, in Walt Disney’s Song of the South. [Statuette]

To Bill and Coo, in which artistry and patience blended in a novel and entertaining use of the medium of motion pictures. [Plaque]

To Colonel William N. Selig, Albert E. Smith, Thomas Armat, and George K. Spoor (one of) the small group of pioneers whose belief in the new medium, and whose contributions to its development, blazed the trail along which the motion picture has progressed, in their lifetime, from obscurity to world-wide acclaim. [Statuette]

(Foreign Language Film)

To Shoe-Shine – the high quality of this motion picture, brought to eloquent life in a country scarred by war, is proof to the world that the creative spirit can triumph over adversity. [Statuette]

Scientific or Technical Award

(Class II)

To C. C. Davis and Electrical Research Products Division of Western Electric Company for the development and application of an improved film drive filter mechanism.

To C. R. Daily, the Paramount Studio Film Laboratory, the Paramount Studio Still Department and the Paramount Studio Engineering Department for the development and first practical application to motion picture and still photography of a method of increasing film speed as first suggested to the industry by E. I. duPont de Nemours & Company.

(Class III)

To Nathan Levinson and the Warner Bros. Studio Sound Department for the design and construction of a constant-speed sound editing machine.

To Farciot Edouart, C. R. Daily, Hal Corl, H. G. Cartwright, the Paramount Studio Transparency Department and the Paramount Studio Engineering Department for the first application of a special anti-solarizing glass to high-intensity background and spot arc projectors.

To Fred Ponedel of Warner Bros. Studio for pioneering the fabrication and practical application to motion picture color photography of large translucent photographic backgrounds.

To Kurt Singer and the RCA Victor Division of Radio Corporation of America for the design and development of a continuously variable band-elimination filter.

To James Gibbons of Warner Bros. Studio for the development and production of large dyed plastic filters for motion picture photography.