Best Short Film, 1940

Awards presented February 27, 1941

The nominees were ... 
(Cartoon) 

• The Milky Way, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer 
• Puss Gets the Boot, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer 
• A Wild Hare, Leon Schlesinger, producer 

(One-Reel) 

• London Can Take It, Warner Bros. 
• More About Nostradamus, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer 
• Quicker 'N a Wink, Pete Smith, producer 
• Siege, RKO Radio 

(Two-Reel) 

• Eyes of the Navy, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer 
• Service With the Colors, Warner Bros. 
• Teddy, the Rough Rider, Warner Bros. 

And the Oscar went to ... 

(Cartoon) 

The Milky Way, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

For the first time since the short film category was established, there was no Walt Disney cartoon nominee. The winner is a rather cutesy Rudolf Ising cartoon in which the three little kittens who lost their mittens sail off to the Milky Way in search of the milk they've been denied as punishment. It's worth noting that it beat not only the first Bugs Bunny cartoon, A Wild Hare, but also the first cartoon to feature Tom and Jerry, Puss Gets the Boot. The Disney cartoon hegemony had ended.

(One-Reel) 

Quicker 'N a Wink, Pete Smith, producer. 

MIT professor Harold Edgerton demonstrates stroboscopic photography in this short directed by George Sidney, with the usual wise-ass narration and lame gags by Smith. The nominees London Can Take It and Siege (about the siege of Warsaw by the Nazis) demonstrate how close Hollywood was to going to war, but the Academy chose distraction over confrontation. 

(Two-Reel) 

Teddy, the Rough Rider, Warner Bros. 

Sidney Blackmer plays Theodore Roosevelt in this Technicolor short directed by Ray Enright and photographed by Ray Rennahan. Although the winner is the most removed historically from the coming conflict, all of the two-reel nominees reflect the imminence of World War II. 

Best Short Films, 1937

Awards presented March 10, 1938

The nominees were ... 
(Cartoon) 

• Educated Fish, Paramount 
• The Little Match Girl, Charles Mintz, producer 
• The Old Mill, Walt Disney, producer 

(Color) 

• The Man Without a Country, Warner Bros. 
• Penny Wisdom, Pete Smith, producer 
• Popular Science J-7-1, Paramount 

(One-reel) 

• A Night at the Movies, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer 
• The Private Life of the Gannets, Skibo Productions 
• Romance of Radium, Pete Smith, producer 

(Two-reel) 

• Deep South, RKO Radio 
• Should Wives Work? RKO Radio 
• Torture Money, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer 

And the Oscar went to ... 
(Cartoon) 
The Old Mill, Walt Disney, producer. 
One of the most celebrated of the Disney Silly Symphonies, The Old Mill was in part a test of the Disney Studios' multiplane camera, which was designed to move layers of images at differing speeds to provide a three-dimensional effect. Directed by Wilfred Jackson, with a score by Leigh Harline. 



(Color) 
Penny Wisdom, Pete Smith, producer. 

Produced and narrated by Smith, this tale of the kitchen mishaps of a housewife called on at the last minute to cook dinner for her husband's boss features Hearst newspaper columnist "Prudence Penny" (real name: Leona Malek), who saves the day. Directed by David Miller, who would eventually graduate to such feature films as Sudden Fear and Lonely Are the Brave.  

(One-reel) 
The Private Life of the Gannets, Skibo Productions.
Originally produced in Great Britain in 1934 and directed by biologist Julian Huxley, this documentary short received an award at the Venice International Film Festival in 1935 and was picked up by 20th Century-Fox for American distribution.




(Two-reel) 
Torture Money, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. 
An entry in the MGM "Crime Does Not Pay" series dealing with insurance fraud. The cast is made up of many familiar character actors, including King Baggot, Raymond Hatton, and Jason Robards -- the father of the Oscar winner.