<P> The 14th Academy Awards honored American film achievements in 1941 and was held in the Biltmore Bowl at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles , California . The ceremony is now considered notable , in retrospect , as the year in which Citizen Kane failed to win Best Picture , which instead was awarded to John Ford 's How Green Was My Valley . Ford won his third award for Best Director , becoming the second to accomplish three wins in that category , and the first to win in consecutive years ( having won for The Grapes of Wrath the previous year ) . </P>
what film beat citizen kane for best picture
John Ford 's How Green Was My Valley