Citizen Kane
(1941)
Rusty: National Film RegistryAward nominations: Academy Award for Best Actor (Orson Welles)
Academy Award for Best Art Direction, Black and White (Van Nest Polglase)
Academy Award for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White (Gregg Toland)
Academy Award for Best Director (Orson Welles)
Academy Award for Best Film Editing (Robert Wise)
Academy Award for Best Original Dramatic Score (Bernard Herrmann)
Academy Award for Best Picture
Academy Award for Best Sound MixingAward details: (details at IMDb)
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Citizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film produced by, co-written by, directed by and starring Orson Welles. The picture was Welles's first feature film. The film was 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 the greatest film of all time in five consecutive Sight & Sound 's polls of critics, until it was displaced by Vertigo in the 2012 poll. It topped the American Film Institute's 100 Years ... 100 Movies list in 1998, as well as AFI's 2007 update. Citizen Kane is particularly praised for its cinematography, music, and narrative structure, which were innovative for its time. The story is a film à clef that examines the life and legacy of Charles Foster Kane, played by Welles, a character based in part upon the American newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, Chicago tycoons Samuel Insull and Harold McCormick, and aspects of Welles's own life. Upon its release, Hearst prohibited mention of the film in any of his newspapers.