# 4th Academy Awards

The 4th Academy Awards were held on November 10, 1931, by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, awarding films released between August 1, 1930, and July 31, 1931. Cimarron was the first Western to win Best Picture, and would remain the only to do so until Dances with Wolves won in 1990. Cimarron received a then-record seven nominations, and was the first film to win more than two awards; it and A Free Soul were the first films to receive multiple acting nominations.
Nine-year-old Jackie Cooper was the first child actor to receive a nomination and was the youngest nominee until Tatum O'Neal received a nomination for her performance in 1973's Paper Moon. He remains the second-youngest Oscar nominee of all time, and the only Best Actor nominee under age 18. At the ceremony, he fell asleep on the shoulder of Best Actress nominee Marie Dressler; when Dressler was announced as the winner, Cooper had to be eased onto his mother's lap.
Vice President Charles Curtis came in from Washington to address the 1,800 guests, making the ceremony a national event.
Best Actor winner Lionel Barrymore became the first person to have received nominations in multiple categories, having been nominated for Best Director for Madame X at the 2nd Academy Awards, as well as the only Best Actor winner born in the 1870s.

## Winners and nominees

Nominees were announced on October 5, 1931. Winners are listed first and highlighted in boldface.
| Outstanding Production Cimarron – William LeBaron for RKO Pictures‡ East Lynne – Winfield Sheehan for Fox Film Corporation The Front Page – Howard Hughes for United Artists Skippy – Adolph Zukor for Paramount Pictures Trader Horn – Irving Thalberg for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | Best Director Norman Taurog – Skippy‡ Wesley Ruggles – Cimarron Clarence Brown – A Free Soul Lewis Milestone – The Front Page Josef von Sternberg – Morocco |
| Best Actor Lionel Barrymore – A Free Soul as Stephen Ashe‡ Jackie Cooper – Skippy as Skippy Skinner Richard Dix – Cimarron as Yancey Cravat Fredric March – The Royal Family of Broadway as Tony Cavendish Adolphe Menjou – The Front Page as Walter Burns | Best Actress Marie Dressler – Min and Bill as Min Divot‡ Marlene Dietrich – Morocco as Amy Jolly Irene Dunne – Cimarron as Sabra Ann Harding – Holiday as Linda Seton Norma Shearer – A Free Soul as Jan Ashe |
| Best Original Story The Dawn Patrol – John Monk Saunders‡ The Doorway to Hell – Rowland Brown Laughter – Harry d'Abbadie d'Arrast, Douglas Doty, and Donald Ogden Stewart The Public Enemy – John Bright and Kubec Glasmon Smart Money – Lucien Hubbard and Joseph Jackson | Best Adaptation Cimarron – Howard Estabrook, based on the novel by Edna Ferber‡ The Criminal Code – Seton I. Miller and Fred Niblo Jr., based on the play by Martin Flavin Holiday – Horace Jackson, based on the play by Philip Barry Little Caesar – Francis Edward Faragoh and Robert N. Lee, based on the novel by William R. Burnett Skippy – Joseph L. Mankiewicz and Sam Mintz, based on the comic strip by Percy Crosby |
| Best Sound Recording Paramount Publix Studio Sound Department‡ MGM Studio Sound Department RKO Radio Studio Sound Department Samuel Goldwyn-United Artists Studio Sound Department | Best Art Direction Cimarron – Max Rée‡ Just Imagine – Stephen Goosson and Ralph Hammeras Morocco – Hans Dreier Svengali – Anton Grot Whoopee! – Richard Day |
| Best Cinematography Tabu – Floyd Crosby‡ Cimarron – Edward Cronjager Morocco – Lee Garmes The Right to Love – Charles Lang Svengali – Barney McGill ||

## Multiple nominations and awards

Films with multiple nominations :
| Nominations | Film |
| 7 | Cimarron |
| 4 | Skippy |
| 4 | Morocco |
| 3 | The Front Page |
| 3 | A Free Soul |
| 2 | Holiday |
| 2 | Svengali |
Films with multiple wins :
| Wins | Film |
| 3 | Cimarron |