detractors. The New Republic film critic Manny Farber was particularly unenthusiastic, calling the production "costly, tedious and impotent" while writing: "The effect of the movie is similar to the one produced by the sterile post-card albums you buy in railroad stations, which unfold like accordions and show you the points of interest in the city ... The producers must have known far more about the World War, the peace-making at Versailles, and Wilson himself, but that is kept out of the movie in the same way that slum sections are kept out of post-card albums ... About three-quarters of the way through, a large amount of actual newsreel from the first World War is run off and the strength of it makes the film that comes before and after seem comical." President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a protege of Wilson's, screened the film for guests at the Second Quebec Conference in 1944. British Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill, however, was no fan, excusing himself mid-film before going to bed. Awards Despite the negative press and lackluster commercial performance, the film received ten nominations at the 17th Academy Awards, winning five: Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color (Wiard Ihnen and Thomas Little) Best Cinematography, Color (Leon Shamroy) Best Film Editing (Barbara McLean) Best Sound, Recording (E. H. Hansen) Best Writing, Original Screenplay (Lamar Trotti) Wilson was also nominated for: Best Picture (Darryl F. Zanuck) Best Director (Henry King) Best Actor in a Leading Role (Alexander Knox) Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture (Alfred Newman) Best Effects, Special Effects (Fred Sersen and Roger Heman Sr.) Preservation The Academy Film Archive preserved Wilson in 2006. References External links 1944 films 1940s historical films 1940s biographical films American biographical films American historical films Biographical films about Woodrow Wilson Films shot in New Jersey Films shot in Washington, D.C. Films that won the Best Sound Mixing Academy Award Films whose art director won the Best Art Direction Academy Award Films whose writer won the Best Original Screenplay Academy Award Films whose cinematographer won the Best Cinematography Academy Award Films whose editor won the Best Film Editing Academy Award Films featuring a Best Drama Actor Golden Globe winning performance 20th Century Fox films Films directed by Henry King Films produced by Darryl F. Zanuck Films with screenplays by Lamar Trotti Films scored by Alfred Newman Films set in the 1910s American World War I films