Best Short Film, 1945

Awards presented March 7, 1946

The nominees were ... 

(Cartoon) 

• Donald's Crime, Walt Disney, producer
• Jasper and the Beanstalk, George Pal, producer 
• Life With Feathers, Eddie Selzer, producer 
• Mighty Mouse in Gypsy Life, Paul Terry, producer 
• The Poet and Peasant, Walter Lantz, producer 
• Quiet, Please! Frederick Quimby, producer 
• Rippling Romance, Screen Gems 

(One-reel) 

• Along the Rainbow Trail, Edmund Reek, producer 
• Screen Snapshots' 25th Anniversary, Ralph Staub, producer 
• Stairway to Light, Herbert Moulton, producer; Jerry Bresler, executive producer 
• Story of a Dog, Gordon Hollingshead, producer 
• White Rhapsody, Grantland Rice, producer 
• Your National Gallery, Joseph O'Brien and Thomas Mead, producers 

(Two-reel) 

• A Gun in His Hand, Chester Franklin, producer; Jerry Bresler, executive producer 
• The Jury Goes Round 'N' Round, Jules White, producer  
• The Little Witch, George Templeton, producer 
• Star in the Night, Gordon Hollingshead, producer 

And the Oscar went to ... 

(Cartoon) 

Quiet, Please! Frederick Quimby, producer. 

The Academy's love of Tom and Jerry mayhem continues, this time with the addition of Spike, the bulldog, to the household. Spike wants to take a nap, but Jerry, sensing an opportunity to get Tom in trouble, devises ways to make noise and keep Spike awake. One of the few Tom and Jerry cartoons with voices: Spike's is Billy Bletcher, Tom's William Hanna. 

(One-reel) 

Stairway to Light, Herbert Moulton, producer; Jerry Bresler, executive producer.

Glossy and didactic account of the effort of late eighteenth-century French physician Philippe Pinel to bring about humane treatment of the mentally ill. One of MGM's "Passing Parade" shorts with narration by John Nesbitt.

(Two-reel) 

Star in the Night, Gordon Hollingshead, producer.

J. Carrol Naish plays a motel keeper with a Scrooge-like attitude toward Christmas until the star advertising his motel attracts a young couple named Jose and Maria Santos who are looking for shelter. Then three cowboys, who just happen to be carrying gifts, show up too. Get it? One of the first films directed by Don Siegel, who also directed the year's Oscar-winning documentary short Hitler Lives?

Best Short Film, 1943

Awards presented March 2, 1944

The nominees were ... 

(Cartoon) 

• The Dizzy Acrobat, Walter Lantz, producer 
• The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins, George Pal, producer 
• Greetings, Bait! Leon Schlesinger, producer 
• Imagination, Dave Fleischer, producer 
• Reason and Emotion, Walt Disney, producer 
• Yankee Doodle Mouse, Frederick Quimby, producer 

(One-Reel)

• Amphibious Fighters, Grantland Rice, producer 
• Cavalcade of Dance With Veloz and Yolanda, Gordon Hollingshead, producer
• Champions Carry On, Edmund Reek, producer 
• Hollywood in Uniform, Ralph Staub, producer 
• Seeing Hands, Pete Smith, producer 

(Two-Reel) 

• Heavenly Music, Jerry Bresler and Sam Coslow, producers 
• Letter to a Hero, Frederic Ullman Jr., producer 
• Mardi Gras, Walter MacEwen, producer 
• Women at War, Gordon Hollingshead, producer 

And the Oscar went to ... 

(Cartoon)

Yankee Doodle Mouse, Frederick Quimby, producer.

Itchy and Scratchy ... uh, Tom and Jerry wage their usual war, but this time the mayhem is accompanied by patriotic tunes and the weapons are imitations of the real weapons being used in World War II, e.g., a cheese grater becomes a tank for Jerry, and eggs are labeled "hen-grenades." 

(One-Reel) 

Amphibious Fighters, Grantland Rice, producer.

Information about this short film is scarce. It seems to have been part of a series of shorts, some of them under the rubric "Sportslight," produced by Rice, a well-known sportswriter, starting in 1921 and lasting, off and on, through 1948. The title seems to refer to combat vehicles and personnel in World War II, but I can't say for sure.  

(Two-Reel) 

Heavenly Music, Jerry Bresler and Sam Coslow, producers.

A bandleader (Fred Brady) arrives in heaven and has to prove to Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner, Liszt, and the like that his music will stand the test of time. Sweetly vapid program-filler. The songs are by producer Coslow, whose songwriting credits also include "My Old Flame" and "Cocktails for Two," which are probably best-known in their Spike Jones parody versions. Bresler was an orchestra conductor and became nightclub producer in the 1950s for such performers as Robert Goulet, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé, and Kate Smith. He also produced such feature films as The Vikings, Major Dundee, and the 1967 Casino Royale.