Which John Ford film beat Citizen Kane for the Best Picture Oscar?

The John Ford film that beat Citizen Kane for the Best Picture Oscar was How Green Was My Valley.

How Green Was My Valley won Best Picture at the 14th Academy Awards, which honored films released in 1941. Ford's film portrays the joys, hardships, labor disputes, and family fractures of a Welsh coal-mining community. Its emotional, traditional storytelling appealed strongly to Academy voters, even though later generations often placed Citizen Kane higher in discussions of cinematic innovation.

Citizen Kane received nine nominations but won only one Oscar, for Best Original Screenplay. How Green Was My Valley earned ten nominations and won five awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. The result is now one of the Academy's most frequently discussed upsets because Orson Welles's film later became a landmark of modern filmmaking.

The wording can cause confusion: Citizen Kane was nominated for Best Picture but did not win, and How Green Was My Valley was not a film directed by Orson Welles. The two films competed directly in the same 1941 awards race.