The 13th Academy Awards were held on February 27, 1941, to honor films released in 1940. This was the first year that sealed envelopes were used to keep the names of the winners secret. The accounting firm of Price Waterhouse was hired to count the ballots, after voting results in 1939 were leaked by the Los Angeles Times. The gathering was addressed over the radio by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
13th Academy Awards
David O. Selznick; Best Picture winner
John Ford; Best Director winner
James Stewart; Best Actor winner
The 12th Academy Awards ceremony, held on February 29, 1940 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best in film for 1939 at a banquet in the Coconut Grove at The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. It was hosted by Bob Hope, in his first of nineteen turns as host.
David O. Selznick; Best Picture winner and Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award recipient
Victor Fleming; Best Director winner
Robert Donat; Best Actor winner
Vivien Leigh; Best Actress winner