The ten films nominated for Best Picture at the 12th Academy Awards (which honored the best in film for 1939)—Dark Victory, Gone with the Wind, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Love Affair, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Ninotchka, Of Mice and Men, Stagecoach, The Wizard of Oz, and Wuthering Heights—range in genre and are considered classics.
[1][2] The top ten 1939 released films by box office gross in North America are as follows: Film historians often rate 1939 as "the greatest year in the history of Hollywood".
[8][9] Hollywood studios were at the height of their Golden Age, producing a number of exceptional motion pictures, many of which became honored as all-time classic films.
The year 1939 was one in which the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominated ten films for Best Picture: These films came from a wide variety of film genres and sources for their stories and settings, including: historical fiction (Gone with the Wind), contemporary affairs (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Of Mice and Men), love stories, classic novels (Wuthering Heights), fantasies/musicals, (The Wizard of Oz), tragic plays (Dark Victory), westerns (Stagecoach), and comedies (Ninotchka).
[citation needed] Gone with the Wind received in all ten Academy Awards (eight competitive, two honorary) from thirteen nominations.