The 1940 Alfred Hitchcock film starring Laurence Olivier that won the Academy Award for Best Picture is Rebecca.
Olivier plays Maxim de Winter, a wealthy widower who marries a young woman whose name is never revealed. After she arrives at Manderley, the de Winter estate, the memory of Maxim's first wife, Rebecca, dominates the household. The new Mrs. de Winter faces constant pressure from the sinister housekeeper Mrs. Danvers, creating the film's distinctive psychological suspense.
Rebecca was Hitchcock's first American film and his first project with producer David O. Selznick. It adapts Daphne du Maurier's 1938 novel and was shot in atmospheric black and white. Joan Fontaine plays the second Mrs. de Winter, while Judith Anderson gives the famous performance of Mrs. Danvers.
The film received 11 Academy Award nominations at the 13th ceremony and won Best Picture and Best Cinematography. Olivier was nominated for Best Actor but did not win. Rebecca remains the only Hitchcock-directed film to win Best Picture, which helps distinguish it from his later classics Psycho and Notorious.