The tenth film to win the Academy Award for best picture was The Life of Emile Zola. An American film based on French writer Emile Zola's life, the film mostly covers the period of time in which he was involved in exposing the notorious Dreyfus Affair. The film was well-received and is still considered to be one of Hollywood's greatest films.
While many observers at the time of France's Dreyfus Affair felt that the prosecution of Alfred Dreyfus had anti-Semitic overtones, the film ignores this completely. Critics believed this was due to Hollywood's fear of alienating the German market at a time of unrest and tension before World War II. One report suggested that Jack Warner, who was of the Jewish faith himself, had ordered all references to Jews removed from the script, an order his family still denies took place. The controversy has recently been reignited by several books challenging Hollywood's reaction to and alleged of Nazi Germany, though the movie remains one of Hollywood's greatest classics.
