A British 'Victory' Over The U.S. Marked The First Oscar Win For Best Documentary Feature

In 1944, 'Desert Victory' beat four American training and propaganda films to make history and prove the British were still masters of the nonfiction combat film.

This week, the pioneering documentary feature The Battle of the Somme turned 110 years old. The 74-minute film, depicting genuine combat during the First World War, was a huge hit in the UK in 1916. But it’s not as well known as other early features considered significant to the history of documentary cinema (I’m looking at you, Nanook of the North). The anniversary makes this a good time to get to the 1944 Academy Awards in our ongoing series spotlighting every documentary to win an Oscar. Like The Battle of the Somme nearly 30 years earlier, Desert Victory captured actual war footage up close and crafted it into a compelling, triumphant narrative, going above and beyond mere reportage or historical record. It was also very popular at the time but doesn’t receive much recognition today.

Part of Desert Victory’s modern critical obscurity is, of course, due to its age. That’s one of the motivations for this column: to look at the older documentary Oscar winners and determine whether they’re dated and rightfully ignored, or if they’re still worthy of being seen and appreciated (and whether they’re even available to admire at all). Another reason for the film’s lack of notoriety might be that it’s not properly acknowledged as the first winner of the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. In much of the general Oscar historicism out there, the four winners in the one-and-done Best Documentary category are inaccurately credited as being the inaugural recipients of the documentary feature award.