Best Picture: Casablanca
Casablanca also won Academy Awards for Directing (Michael Curtiz) and Writing – Screenplay (Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, and Howard Koch).
For the first time, winners of the Best Supporting Actor and Actress awards were presented with full-size statuettes instead of plaques.
Jack Benny was the master of ceremonies for a radio broadcast of the ceremony sent to the Armed Forces fighting overseas.
Among the presenters that evening were Academy President Walter Wanger, producer Sidney Franklin, writer James Hilton, radio star Dinah Shore, and actresses Greer Garson, Teresa Wright, Rosalind Russell, and Carole Landis.
In January 1943, construction of the Pentagon was completed only 16 months after it began.
In January 1943, Duke Ellington played at Carnegie Hall in New York City for the first time.
On March 31, 1943, the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma! premiered on stage at the St. James Theatre in New York City.
In May 1943, Norman Rockwell’s illustration of Rosie the Riveter made its first appearance on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post.
In June 1943, the Zoot Suit Riots erupted in Los Angeles.
In December 1943, Edward R. Murrow delivered his Orchestrated Hell broadcast over CBS radio, describing a Royal Air Force nighttime bombing raid on Berlin.
Special Award
To George Pal for the development of novel methods and techniques in the production of short subjects known as Puppetoons.
Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award
To Hal B. Wallis