1937

Academy winnerThe Life of Emile Zola poster

The Life of Emile Zola

Composite 65.02

vs
Should have wonSnow White and the Seven Dwarfs poster

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Composite 73.6

The Academy's ballot

Your #1 was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (#1).

The full slate

#1
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs poster

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 73.6

Dir. David Hand · Adriana Caselotti · Lucille La Verne · Harry Stockwell · Roy Atwell

IMDb 7.6 (238,259 votes) · TMDB 7.123

A beautiful girl, Snow White, takes refuge in the forest in the house of seven dwarfs to hide from her stepmother, the wicked Queen. The Queen is jealous because she wants to be known as "the fairest in the land," and Snow White's beauty surpasses her own.

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#2
Make Way for Tomorrow poster

Make Way for Tomorrow (1937)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 69.6

Dir. Leo McCarey · Victor Moore · Beulah Bondi · Fay Bainter · Thomas Mitchell

IMDb 8.1 (10,662 votes) · TMDB 7.5

An elderly couple are forced to separate themselves from each other after their children refuse to take both into one house.

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#3
The Awful Truth poster

The Awful Truth (1937)

🎬 Nominee⭐ Top-rated💰 Box office #1

Composite 69.6

Dir. Leo McCarey · Irene Dunne · Cary Grant · Ralph Bellamy · Alexander D'Arcy

IMDb 7.6 (23,348 votes) · TMDB 7.223

Unfounded suspicions lead a married couple to begin divorce proceedings, whereupon they start undermining each other's attempts to find new romance.

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#4
Captains Courageous poster

Captains Courageous (1937)

🎬 Nominee⭐ Top-rated

Composite 69.25

Dir. Victor Fleming · Freddie Bartholomew · Spencer Tracy · Lionel Barrymore · Melvyn Douglas

IMDb 7.9 (11,997 votes) · TMDB 7.419

Harvey, the arrogant and spoiled son of an indulgent absentee-father, falls overboard from a transatlantic steamship and is rescued by a fishing vessel on the Grand Banks. Harvey fails to persuade them to take him ashore, nor convince the crew of his wealth. The captain offers him a low-paid job, until they return to port, as part of the crew that turns him into a mature, considerate young man.

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#5
Lost Horizon poster

Lost Horizon (1937)

🎬 Nominee⭐ Top-rated

Composite 67.95

Dir. Frank Capra · Ronald Colman · Jane Wyatt · Edward Everett Horton · John Howard

IMDb 7.6 (15,758 votes) · TMDB 7.0

British diplomat Robert Conway and a small group of civilians crash-land in the Himalayas, where they are rescued by the inhabitants of the hidden, idyllic valley of Shangri-La. Protected by the mountains from the world outside, where the clouds of World War II are gathering, Shangri-La provides a seductive escape for the world-weary Conway.

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#6
A Day at the Races poster

A Day at the Races (1937)

⭐ Top-rated💰 Box office #3

Composite 67.92

Dir. Sam Wood · Groucho Marx · Chico Marx · Harpo Marx · Allan Jones

IMDb 7.5 (15,380 votes) · TMDB 7.1

Doctor Hugo Hackenbush, Tony, and Stuffy try and save Judy's sanitarium by winning a big race with a finicky horse owned by Judy's boyfriend Gil. There are a few problems. Hackenbush, who was recently put in charge of the sanitarium, isn't really a doctor, he's a veterinarian.

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#7
Pépé le Moko poster

Pépé le Moko (1937)

⭐ Top-rated💰 Box office #7

Composite 67.31

Dir. Julien Duvivier · Jean Gabin · Mireille Balin · Gabriel Gabrio · Lucas Gridoux

IMDb 7.6 (8,725 votes) · TMDB 7.223

Pépé le Moko, one of France's most wanted criminals, hides out in the Casbah section of Algiers. He knows police will be waiting for him if he tries to leave the city. When Pépé meets Gaby, a gorgeous woman from Paris who is lost in the Casbah, he falls for her.

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#8
Stage Door poster

Stage Door (1937)

🎬 Nominee⭐ Top-rated💰 Box office #5

Composite 67.29

Dir. Gregory La Cava · Katharine Hepburn · Ginger Rogers · Adolphe Menjou · Gail Patrick

IMDb 7.7 (9,848 votes) · TMDB 7.07

A spirited heiress wishing to break into theatre on her own merit arrives at a boardinghouse where aspiring young actresses and showgirls are brought together through their cynicism and disappointments.

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#9
A Star Is Born poster

A Star Is Born (1937)

🎬 Nominee⭐ Top-rated💰 Box office #2

Composite 67.22

Dir. William A. Wellman · Janet Gaynor · Fredric March · Adolphe Menjou · May Robson

IMDb 7.3 (11,916 votes) · TMDB 7.2

Esther Blodgett is just another starry-eyed farm kid trying to break into the movies. Waitressing at a Hollywood party, she catches the eye of her idol Norman Maine, is sent for a screen test, and before long attains stardom as newly minted Vicki Lester. She and Norman marry, though his career soon dwindles to nothing due to his chronic alcoholism.

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#10
Way Out West poster

Way Out West (1937)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 67.13

Dir. James W. Horne · Stan Laurel · Oliver Hardy · Rosina Lawrence · James Finlayson

IMDb 7.6 (9,584 votes) · TMDB 7.1

Stan and Ollie try to deliver the deed to a valuable gold mine to the daughter of a dead prospector. Unfortunately, the daughter's evil guardian is determined to have the gold mine for himself and his saloon-singer wife.

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#11
Shall We Dance poster

Shall We Dance (1937)

⭐ Top-rated💰 Box office #4

Composite 67.11

Dir. Mark Sandrich · Fred Astaire · Ginger Rogers · Edward Everett Horton · Eric Blore

IMDb 7.4 (8,391 votes) · TMDB 7.3

Ballet star Petrov arranges to cross the Atlantic aboard the same ship as the dancer and musical star he's fallen for but barely knows. By the time the ocean liner reaches New York, a little white lie has churned through the rumour mill and turned into a hot gossip item—that the two celebrities are secretly married.

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#12
Dead End poster

Dead End (1937)

🎬 Nominee⭐ Top-rated

Composite 66.19

Dir. William Wyler · Sylvia Sidney · Joel McCrea · Humphrey Bogart · Wendy Barrie

IMDb 7.2 (9,622 votes) · TMDB 7.044

The lives of a young man and woman, an infamous gangster and a group of street kids converge one day in a volatile New York City slum.

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#13
Stella Dallas poster

Stella Dallas (1937)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 65.63

Dir. King Vidor · Barbara Stanwyck · John Boles · Anne Shirley · Barbara O'Neil

IMDb 7.4 (7,008 votes) · TMDB 6.9

A working-class woman is willing to do whatever it takes to give her daughter a socially promising future.

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#14
Topper poster

Topper (1937)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 65.08

Dir. Norman Z. McLeod · Constance Bennett · Cary Grant · Roland Young · Billie Burke

IMDb 7.2 (9,105 votes) · TMDB 6.7

Madcap couple George and Marion Kerby are killed in an automobile accident. They return as ghosts to try and liven up the regimented lifestyle of their friend and bank president, Cosmo Topper. When Topper starts to live it up, it strains relations with his stuffy wife.

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#15
The Life of Emile Zola poster

The Life of Emile Zola (1937)

🏆 Winner

Composite 65.02

Dir. William Dieterle · Paul Muni · Gale Sondergaard · Joseph Schildkraut · Gloria Holden

IMDb 7.1 (10,042 votes) · TMDB 6.7

A fictionalized account of famous French writer Emile Zola and his involvement in the Dreyfus Affair. After struggling to establish himself, Zola wins success writing about the unsavory side of Paris and settles into a comfortable upper-class life. However, Zola's complacency is shaken when Jewish officer Alfred Dreyfus is imprisoned for being a spy. Realizing that Dreyfus is an innocent victim of anti-Semitism, Zola boldly pens a newspaper article exposing the truth, is charged with libel and must defend himself in a dramatic courtroom testimony.

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#16
The Good Earth poster

The Good Earth (1937)

🎬 Nominee

Composite 63.67

Dir. Sidney Franklin · Paul Muni · Luise Rainer · Walter Connolly · Tilly Losch

IMDb 7.4 (5,767 votes) · TMDB 6.34

China, during the rule of the Qing Dynasty. The arranged marriage between Wang Lung, a humble farmer, and O-Lan, a domestic slave, will endure the many hardships of life over the years; but the temptations of a fragile prosperity will endanger their love and the survival of their entire family.

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#17
In Old Chicago poster

In Old Chicago (1937)

🎬 Nominee

Composite 62.01

Dir. Henry King · Tyrone Power · Alice Faye · Don Ameche · Alice Brady

IMDb 6.7 (2,861 votes) · TMDB 6.7

The O'Leary brothers -- honest Jack and roguish Dion -- become powerful figures, and eventually rivals, in Chicago on the eve of its Great Fire.

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#18
One Hundred Men and a Girl poster

One Hundred Men and a Girl (1937)

🎬 Nominee

Composite 61.73

Dir. Henry Koster · Deanna Durbin · Leopold Stokowski · Adolphe Menjou · Alice Brady

IMDb 6.7 (1,391 votes) · TMDB 6.4

The daughter of a struggling musician forms a symphony orchestra made up of his unemployed friends and through persistence, charm and a few misunderstandings, is able to get Leopold Stokowski to lead them in a concert that leads to a radio contract.

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How scoring works: films are ranked by a composite of a weighted (Bayesian) IMDb rating — the same method as the IMDb Top 250, so a high score from few voters can't outrank a strong score from many — blended with TMDB. Box office is a tiebreaker and a badge, never part of the score. Raw IMDb ratings and vote counts are shown on each card.