page_title: Citizen Kane
section_title: Accolades
hierarchical_section_title: Citizen Kane / Reception / Accolades
caption_attribution_description: English: Promotional still for the 1941 film, Citizen Kane Image is marked CK-123 at lower right
context_page_description: Citizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film by Orson Welles, its producer, co-screenwriter, director and star. The picture was Welles's first feature film. Nominated for Academy Awards in nine categories, it won an Academy Award for Best Writing by Herman J. Mankiewicz and Welles. Considered by many critics, filmmakers, and fans to be the greatest film ever made, Citizen Kane was voted as such in five consecutive British Film Institute Sight & Sound polls of critics, and it topped the American Film Institute's 100 Years ... 100 Movies list in 1998, as well as its 2007 update. Citizen Kane is particularly praised for Gregg Toland's cinematography, Robert Wise's editing, Bernard Herrmann's music, and its narrative structure, all of which have been considered innovative and precedent-setting.
  The quasi-biographical film examines the life and legacy of Charles Foster Kane, played by Welles, a composite character based in part upon American media barons William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, Chicago tycoons Samuel Insull and Harold McCormick, as well as aspects of the screenwriters' own lives. Upon its release, Hearst prohibited mention of the film in any of his newspapers.
context_section_description: It was widely believed the film would win most of its Academy Award nominations, but it received only the award for Best Original Screenplay. Variety reported that block voting by screen extras deprived Citizen Kane of Best Picture and Best Actor, and similar prejudices were likely to have been responsible for the film receiving no technical awards.
caption: The National Board of Review recognized both Welles and George Coulouris for their performances in Citizen Kane, which was also voted the best film of 1941.
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