2. Citizen Kane
What Won Instead: How Green Was My Valley Citizen Kane has been considered the greatest film of all time for a long time. Orson Welles first film is a technical marvel for the time, but what hurt this film was the fact that it was purportedly based on the life of legendary newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst. Perhaps the Academy chose not to court controversy by denying Citizen Kane with the Best Picture prize. To this day it is still an impressive film and is easily one of the Academys biggest oversights. How Green Was My Valley is a strong John ford film. Its not one of his masterpieces like The Searchers, Stagecoach, or Young Mr. Lincoln. Its a good film, and thats the problem. It feels like the Academy was honouring Ford instead of recognising the best film of the year.