Best Art Direction, 1932-33

Awards presented March 16, 1934
(Films released from August 1, 1932 through December 31, 1933 were eligible.)

The nominees were ... 

• William S. Darling, Cavalcade 
• Hans Dreier and Roland Anderson, A Farewell to Arms 
• Cedric Gibbons, When Ladies Meet 

... when they should have been ... 

• Carroll Clark and Alfred Herman, King Kong 
• Hans Dreier, Love Me Tonight 
• Anton Grot, Gold Diggers of 1933 

And the Oscar went to ... 

William S. Darling, Cavalcade. The first of three Oscars from a total of seven nominations for the Hungarian-born art director. 

... when it should have gone to ... 

Anton Grot, Gold Diggers of 1933.  

Anton Grot points out a set detail for director Mervyn LeRoy, choreographer Busby Berkeley, and some dancers

"The Waltz of the Shadows" 

Joan Blondell sings "Remember My Forgotten Man" 

"We're in the Money"

 Grot came to the United States from Poland in 1909, bringing with him an awareness of the latest trends in expressionist and modernist design. His breakthrough in film came when he was hired in 1922 to design the sets for Douglas Fairbanks's Robin Hood. In 1928 he began a frequent collaboration with director Michael Curtiz on Noah's Ark, and eventually became head of the art department at Warner Bros., a position he held until he retired in 1948. His imagination happened to mesh beautifully with that of dance director Busby Berkeley, and they also worked together on Footlight Parade (1933) and Gold Diggers of 1935. Grot was nominated five times, but never won, though he shared in the Warners art department's win in 1941 for a "water ripple and wave illusion machine."