- 10 January, Paris: Max Ophüls has finished shooting From Mayerling to Sarajevo, in the Billancourt studio. The film, which traces the life of François-Ferdinand Hapsburg was interrupted by the declaration of war. Ophüls received permission to leave his sector on the Front to finish the film.
- 11 January, Hollywood: Release of His Girl Friday, directed by Howard Hawks, from Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's play The Front Page, with Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell and Ralph Bellamy.
- 20 January, Warsaw: German authorities in all the newly occupied countries want to re-open the movie theaters so that German propaganda films can be screened in aid of the war effort.
- 24 January, Hollywood:
 John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath is a triumph. Rigorously adapted (by Nunnally Johnson) from the celebrated novel by John Steinbeck, the picture follows the poignant journey of the Joad family of Oklahoma farmers to California during the Great Depression. These "Okies" have joined the mass exodus from the Dust Bowl to cross the country in an old truck, hoping for a better life. But when they get to the "Promised Land," they come across only miserable campsites, and the horrors of exploited farm labor. Despite its harsh subject, Ford has still evoked a nostalgic poetry in the beautifully lit studio exteriors (photographed by Gregg Toland) and in the composed shots of poverty. Yet there were scenes shot in the actual migrant camps around Los Angeles, and the film's romanticism does not prevent it from also being a trenchant social statement in which the cast, and in particular Henry Fonda and Jane Darwell, become representatives of ordinary, suffering humanity.
- 25 January, New York: Release of Ernst Lubitsch's The Shop Around the Corner, with James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan.
- 5 February, London: Producer-director Alexander Korda has announced his intention to join his brother, the film director Zoltan Korda, in the United States, where he plans to continue working with his acress wife Merle Oberon.
- 9 February, Hollywood:
 Universal has paired two comic heavyweights, Mae West and W.C. Fields, in My Little Chicadee. Taking its cue from the success of the comedy-Western Destry Rides Again, the studio has sent them west to Greasewood City in the roles of two competing con-artists, Cuthbert J. Twille and Flowerbelle Lee, who contract, but perhaps fortunately do not consummate, a phony marriage. When an amorous Fields then finds himself barred from the marital bed chamger, he bellows through the keyhole, "I have certain very definite pear-shaped ideas to discuss with you." The collaboration between the two idiosyncratic stars was, by all accounts, a stormy one. West, who hones her lines to perfection, did not appreciate Fields' ad-libbing, or his drinking. Indeed, she told the press, "There is no one quite like Bill... My only doubts about him come in bottles." However, Fields sneaked the last laugh, ad-libbing West's immortal line, "Come up and see me some time," and then adding, "in Philadelphia."
 - 10 February, Hollywood: A terrific new cartoon cat and mouse team has been created by Joe Barbera and William Hanna for a short film called Puss Gets the Boot. The wicked cat is continually frustrated in his pursuit of the wily mouse. This might prove to be the start of a new series for the MGM cartoon department, headed by producer Fred Quimby. Up to now, this studio's animated section has been outshone by Walt Disney and the Fleischer brothers' cartoon shorts, such as Popeye.
- 14 February, Rome: Fire ravaged Cinecittà this morning destroying two sound stages and jeopardizing the work of Mario Bonnard and Vittorio De Sica.
- 20 February, Lyon: The reopening of the Normandy movie theater after undergoing a complete transformation. The interior decor (starry sky, guardrails) represents a liner in the middle of the ocean.
- 29 February, Hollywood:
 David O. Selznick's Gone With the Wind has swept all before it at the Academy Awards ceremony at the Ambassador Hotel. Master of ceremonies bob hope quipped that the whole thing had turned into a benefit night for the triumphant Selznick. Gone With the Wind won nine Oscars®, including Best Picture, Best Director (Victor Fleming), Best Actress (Vivien Leigh) and Best Supporting Actress (Hattie McDaniel). There was a particularly warm welcome for McDaniel's award, for her heartwarming performance as the eternal black mammy, but special permission was needed to enable her to sit at Selznick's table during the ceremony. Leigh's Oscar® seemed inevitable from the moment she was chosen to play Scarlett O'Hara, but the strongly favored Clark Gable was edged out for the Best Actor prize by Robert Donat in Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939). Rumors are circulating that Gable is furious, convinced that his strained relations with Selznick led to a trade-off that ultimately got Donat the award. Thomas Mitchell was voted Best Supporting Actor for his performance as the drunken doctor in Stagecoach, a special mini-Oscar® was presented to Judy Garland, and a posthumous award was made to Douglas Fairbanks, the first president of the Academy. A separate posthumous award went to Sidney Howard for the screenplay of the year's all-conquering Gone With the Wind.
- 13 March, Los Angeles: Release of Victor Schertzinger's latest musical, Road to Singapore, starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour.
- 16 March, Madrid: The French ambassador, Marshal Philippe Pétain, has organized a screening of Guitry's film Les Perles de la couronne (The Pearls of the Crown), for the diplomatic corps.
- 23 March, Billancourt: Filmmaker Maurice Tourneur has resumed production on Volpone, with Harry Baur, Louis Jouvet and Charles Dutton.
- 28 March, Hollywood:
 After the extraordinary success of Gone With the Wind, David O. Selznick has pulled off another remarkable coup with Rebecca, the first Hollywood film handled by the immensely talented British director Alfred Hitchcock. The screen version of Daphne du Maurier's Gothic bestseller went into production three months before the release of Gone With the Wind. Selznick, determined to evoke a genuine British atmosphere with Rebecca, hired Hitchcock, whom he had been trying to lure to Hollywood since 1937. The role of Maxim de Winter, the brooding master of Manderley -- the house haunted by his first wife Rebecca -- went to Laurence Olivier, who established his star credentials in Sam Goldwyn's film Wuthering Heights. In contrast, the casting of Maxim's timid, mousy second wife, through whose eyes the story unfolds, was a long drawn-out affair. Vivien Leigh was tested for the role, as were Margaret Sullavan, Loretta Young, Anne Baxter and also Anita Louise, all of them unsuccessfully. Finally, Hitchcock decided on Joan Fontaine, a choice urged by fellow director George Cukor. This was against Selznick's wishes, but it was part of manipulative Hitchcock's plans to ensure that Fontaine, until now very much in shadow of her older sister Olivia De Havilland,, came to the part with all the anxiety and self-doubt that afflicts the character she plays. The supporting cast is superb: Judith Anderson as sinister housekeeper Mrs. Danvers, guardian of Rebecca's flame, and George Sanders as the Savile Row-suited blackmailer Jack Favell, his insinuating drawl lingering in Manderley's paneled rooms long after he has left them. But, in an impeccable production, the acting honors go to Fontaine, previously considered a beautiful but wooden performer.
- 2 April, Madrid: A recently published circular forbids any reference to the names of American movie personalities, such as Charles Chaplin, Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, who gave support to the Spanish Republic.
- 10 April, New York: The French film La Femme du boulanger (The Baker's Wife), by Marcel Pagnol, has been given an enthusiastic reception by the critics.
- 25 April, Paris: Henri Decoin's Battements de cœur (Heartbeats), starring his wife Danniele Darrieux and Claude Dauphin has reached its 14th week at the Madeleine Cinema.
- 28 April, Los Angeles: The Laurel and Hardy film released today, Saps at Sea, from director Gordon Douglas is the troublesome two's last film for Hal Roach. They have decided not to renew the contract that has bound them to the producer since 1926.
- 18 June, Hollywood: Writer Herman J. Mankiewicz has decided on the final version of the script for Orson Welles' film The American, and has now changed the title to Citizen Kane.
- 14 August, Hollywood: Release of the first film to be directed by scriptwriter Preston Sturges, The Great McGinty, with Brian Donlevy and Akim Tamiroff.
- 16 August, New York:
 Alfred Hitchcock's second American feature, Foreign Correspondent, has just opened here, and is very different indeed from Rebecca, his first. Whereas that was a solidly crafted and well acted Selznick production, here the director has taken the opportunity to demonstrate the other side of his filmmaking persona. This one is a faster-moving film original, an exciting spy thriller in the tradition of his 1930s British pictures, using a mixed British and American cast. It tells the story of a likeable but naïve American newspaper correspondent, played by Joel McCrea, who is sent abroad to cover events taking place in August 1939 just before the outbreak of war. However, for the highly dramatic ending, there is a leap in time to the summer of 1940 when McCrea broadcasts an impassioned plea to America asking for support of the British cause, and during which the sound of bombs dropping on London outside the radio station can be heard. For the English-born Hitchcock it was important to present the British viewpoint to the American public in his highly effective way. His film is but one of a number of pro-British or anti-German productions that have come out of the US studios during the past year, beginning with Confessions of a Nazi Spy from Warner Bros, while Chaplin's just completed The Great Dictator is due to open shortly. Meanwhile, the official American government policy remains one of neutrality.
- 25 August, Moscow: The Kiev Studios have presented the latest film by Alexander Dovzhenko and Julia Solntseva, Osvobojkeniye (Liberation).
- 30 August, New York: Two British stars who have made their mark on Hollywood, Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, are getting married and will have their wedding here in the US. The couple met in England in 1936 when they played the young lovers for Alexander Korda in his historical Elizabethan film, Fire Over England, and have been closely involved ever since. But it hasn't been easy. Miss Leigh (born Mary Hartley in India), whose Oscar-winning Scarlett O'Hara has brought her worldwide fame, was divorced from her first husband Herbert Leigh five years ago. However, the handsome Olivier, who made his mark as Heathcliffe in Wuthering Heights, has only just been freed from his marriage to Jill Esmond. Larry and Viv, as they are known in their profession, had hoped to co-star in Wuthering Heights, but Merle Oberon won over Leigh.
- 5 September, Paris: Jean-Louis Barrault and Madeleine Renaud, both actors at the Comèdie-Française, have married. They first met on the set of Hélène, by Jean Benoit-Lévy.
- 6 September, Hollywood: After watching the preview of his new film The Great Dictator, Charles Chaplin has decided to cut and re-shoot certain scenes.
 - 24 September, Berlin:
 With his Jew Süss, Veit Harlan has directed a work of allegiance to the Third Reich, though he has already glorified Nazi ideology in his two previous films. With the personal encouragement of Reichsminister Josef Goebbels, Harlan has made an anti-Jewish film from the famous 1925 pro-Jewish novel by Lion Feuchtwanger. As the plot goes, in the 18th century Süss Oppenheimer, financial advisor and tax collector for the Duke of Würtemberg, uses evil methods to gain power for himself and his people. Rejected by the Duke's daughter, Oppenheimer rapes her. His is then hanged for the crime, and the Jews are exiled. The title role, played by Ferdinand Marian, is a crude caricature, and the climax of the film seems to condone all the pogroms, deportations and genocide of the Jewish people.
 - 15 October, New York: With much of Western Europe under German domination, Charles Chaplin has delivered his damning verdict on fascism and his first dialogue film, The Great Dictator. It's also the first Chaplin picture to start with a completed script, which originally ran to 300 pages, and the first in which Chaplin has assembled a talented and well-balanced cast to work alongside him. The story goes that The Great Dictator was initially prompted by the British film magnate Alexander Korda's observation of the physical similarity between the Tramp and Adolf Hitler. Chaplin has cast himself in the dual role of Adenoid Hynkel, the ranting dictator of Tomania, and his doppelganger, a downtrodden little Jewish barber. However, their identities are confused, and it is the barber who delivers the picture's lengthy final speech in which he pleads for an end to tyranny in the world. Strong support is provided by lovely Paulette Goddard (presently estranged from Chaplin), Henry Daniell, playing Hynkel's henchman Garbitsch, and portly Jack Oakie, blustering magnificently as Hynkel's rival dictator, the Mussolini-like Benzino Napoloni, the ruler of Bacteria. Chaplin relished the upstaging battle with Oakie. On the set he joked, "If you really want to steal a scene from me, you son-of-a-bitch, just look straight at the camera." Some of The Great Dictator's impact is muffled by its clumsy construction and Chaplin's tendency to resort to sentimentality, but it is full of his inspired pantomime, not least a ballet, both delicate and macabre, in which the idly capering Hynkel dances with a huge balloon globe of the world.
- 30 October, Paris: The distributor Henri Beauvais has presented a reconstructed version of the film L'Atalante to the Ursuline studios, in honor of the late Jean Vigo, who directed the original film in the early 1930s.
- 1 November, Hollywood: Walter Lantz has released his new cartoon, Knock, Knock, presenting Woody Woodpecker.
- 2 November, Paris: The Journal officiel has published a decree to reorganize the movie industry. The decree will allow for the creation of a film authority called the Comité d'organisation de l'industrie cinématographique (COIC). This body will oversee all aspects of the industry, including equipment manufacture, pre-production activitis, film production, publicity and exhibition. One of the measures is an identity card for all professionals, with the exception of Jews, who are not entitled to be card-holders.
 - 13 November, Los Angeles:
 In the last few years, Walt Disney has been working simultaneously on various projects in preparation for the transfer of his studios to Burbank. The result of all this impressive activity has been the release of two full-length cartoon films within nine months of each other. Last February, Pinocchio was released following the enormous success of his first animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Based on the story by Collodi, Pinocchio is a technical advance on the earlier film, giving audiences even more of a feeling of depth of vision. For the characters, the designers were inspired by clay and wooden models, as well as actors filmed in their costumes. Now Disney is offering us Fantasia, an even more audacious and original work. It was first conceived as a short film, featuring Mickey Mouse acting out "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" by Paul Dukas, conducted by Leopold Stokowski. This grew into a full-length musical feature of an experimental nature. Divided into eight parts, including the Dukas bit, the film also finds visual equivalents to the music of Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Schubert, Beethoven, Mussorgsky, Ponchielli and Bach. Stokowski collaborated with Disney at each stage of the production, and was the one responsible for the experiment in stereophonic sound that makes the music swoop across the screen in synchronization with the animated drawings.
- 15 November, Prague: The release of Babicka (Grandmother), by Frantisek Cap, has caused many patriotic anti-Nazi demonstrations. The film has been banned in numerous towns in Bohemia.
- 21 November, Berlin: All filmed news produced by UFA, Tobis and Deulig has been placed under Goebbels' personal control.
- 19 December, Los Angeles: Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, the comic duo who are better known simply as Abbott and Costello, have starred in their first film, One Night in the Tropics.
- 20 December, Bordeaux: Jean Renoir and his companion Dido Freire have boarded the ship Siboney, for the US. Renoir is sharing a cabin with Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
- 27 December, New York:
 The picture breaking all records of the Radio City Music Hall since its premiere last month is The Philadelphia Story, splendidly directed by George Cukor. Who would believe that its star, Katharine Hepburn, had been put on the infamous "Box-Office Poison" list only last year? But after her triumph in the stage version of The Philadelphia Story, she secured the film rights to the play and convinced MGM to give her a chance on screen in this sophisticated romantic comedy. As society girl Tracy Lord, almost lured away from marriage to stuffed-shirt Cary Grant by the antics of James Stewart, Hepburn is terrific. How could it miss?
- 27 December, New York: Release of Kitty Foyle: The Natural History of a Woman, directed by Sam Wood, and starring Ginger Rogers and James Craig. A somewhat slow melodrama about a hard-working white-collar girl from Philadelphia who meets and falls in love with a big city socialite, but his family is against her. Rogers shows her dramatic side in this non-singing, non-dancing role.
- 29 December, London: Release of Carol Reed's spy thriller, Night Train to Munich, starring Margaret Lockwood, Rex Harrison and Paul Henreid.
- 31 December, Berlin: The Agfa company is experimenting with a trichrome color process for the movie industry by making a series of short documentary films.
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3 January - USA, Thelma Schoonmaker