Best Actress, 1944

Awards presented March 15, 1945
The nominees were ...
... when they should have been ... 

Was Bergman's first Oscar win a consolation prize for losing the year before, when she was nominated for For Whom the Bell Tolls and starred in the year's best-picture winner, Casablanca? She was discovered by Kay Brown, who worked in David O. Selznick's New York office, in the 1936 Swedish film Intermezzo, to which Selznick bought the rights and starred Bergman in the 1939 remake. When MGM decided to make Gaslight, Selznick demanded that she receive top billing, which Charles Boyer, who had been a star much longer, protested. So for a time there was talk of replacing Bergman with Greer Garson, Irene Dunne, or Hedy Lamarr. Selznick finally relented on the billing of Bergman when Joseph Cotten, another Selznick player, was cast in a secondary role.  

... when it should have gone to ... 

Stanwyck in Double Indemnity 
Stanwyck was one of the most courageous actresses in Hollywood, second only to Bette Davis in her willingness to take on parts that made audiences love to hate her. And few of her roles were more hateable than Phyllis Dietrichson, who inveigles insurance salesman Walter Neff (a terrific Fred MacMurray) into a scheme to kill her husband and collect the insurance. In fact, Stanwyck was initially reluctant to take the role until writer-director Billy Wilder made her see what a great acting part  it was. This was her third nomination, and it found her at the peak of her career: In 1944 the Internal Revenue Services records showed that she was the highest-paid woman in America.
Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray in Double Indemnity

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