Which 1945 Billy Wilder film about an alcoholic writer won the Academy Award for Best Picture?

The 1945 Billy Wilder film about an alcoholic writer that won the Academy Award for Best Picture is The Lost Weekend.

Ray Milland plays Don Birnam, a New York writer whose drinking controls his life over a disastrous holiday weekend. Jane Wyman plays Helen, his devoted partner, while Phillip Terry portrays his brother Wick. The screenplay by Wilder and Charles Brackett adapts Charles R. Jackson’s 1944 novel.

The film was unusually frank for its era in depicting alcoholism, including cravings, delirium tremens, hospitalization and desperate attempts to obtain liquor. Wilder combined film-noir expressionism with location shooting in New York, including scenes filmed near Bellevue Hospital’s alcoholic ward.

At the 18th Academy Awards in 1946, The Lost Weekend won four Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Milland and Best Adapted Screenplay. A common mix-up is confusing it with Wilder’s later Billy Wilder classics such as Sunset Boulevard or Some Like It Hot.