The changes in the short film categories reveal several things about what's going on in the film industry. The obvious one is the arrival of color as a major filmmaking tool. In a few years, the Academy would yield to the pressure to divide the cinematography and art direction (and eventually costuming) categories into black-and-white and color, a division that would last until color became so ubiquitous that black-and-white would be used only for artistic reasons, as in Raging Bull, Schindler's List, and The Artist. A live action color film, La Cucaracha, had already won the award for short film "Novelty" in 1934, and cartoons were almost always in color. The other is that the division of short films into "Comedy" and "Novelty" categories seemed somehow arbitrary. All of the "Novelties" so far had been documentary shorts, but there was no category for documentaries yet, and makers of short musical and dramatic films protested at being put into competition with them. The result was to create categories for "one-reel" (about eleven minutes) and "two-reel" (about twenty to twenty-four minutes) shorts. Two-reelers would begin to fall out of favor once the double feature became popular.
The nominees were ...
(Cartoon)
- The Country Cousin, Walt Disney, producer
- Old Mill Pond, Harman-Ising
- Sinbad the Sailor, Paramount [Note: Although the Academy Web site lists the title as Sinbad the Sailor, the nominated cartoon appears to be the one released by Paramount as Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor.]
(Color)
- Give Me Liberty, Warner Bros.
- La Fiesta de Santa Barbara, Lewis Lewyn, producer
- Popular Science J-6-2, Paramount
(One-reel)
- Bored of Education, Hal Roach, producer
- Moscow Moods, Paramount
- Wanted, a Master, Pete Smith, producer
(Two-reel)
- Double or Nothing, Warner Bros.
- Dummy Ache, RKO Radio
- The Public Pays, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
And the Oscar went to ...
(Cartoon)
(Color)
Give Me Liberty, Warner Bros.
A two-reel short, centered on Patrick Henry's 1775 speech before the Virginia House of Burgesses. The film invents some tension between Henry (John Litel) and his wife (Nedda Harrigan) over whether he will speak. Directed by B. Reeves (Breezy) Eason, a well-known second-unit director who also filmed the burning of Atlanta in Gone With the Wind.
(One-reel)
Bored of Education, Hal Roach, producer.
The Our Gang kids contrive a way to get out of going to school.
(Two-reel)
The Public Pays, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
No. 8 in the Crime Does Not Pay series, a drama about a protection racket aimed at milk producers.
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