AWARDS AND HONORS

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was nominated for five Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Musical Score, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, and Best Original Screenplay. It won one for Best Musical Score.

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was nominated for a BAFTA Award as Best Picture.

Stanley Donen received a nomination from the Directors Guild of America as Best Director for Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was selected for preservation into the National Film Registry in 1994.

Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich and Dorothy Kingsley won a Writers Guild of America award for Best Screenplay for their work on Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

In 2006 the American Film Institute named Seven Brides for Seven Brothers as the number 21 Greatest Movie Musical of All Time.

The Critics' Corner: SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS (1954)

"..an inventive musical with enormous zest...Donen's intelligent use of the Cinemascope screen, at that time still an innovation, was especially notable in the dance sequences, all of which were neatly integrated into the plot."
- The Oxford Companion to Film

"Disappointingly studio-bound Western musical distinguished by an excellent score and some brilliant dancing, notably the barn-raising sequence."
- Halliwell's Film & Video Guide

"...this rather archly symmetrical movie musical is best seen as a dance-fest, with Michael Kidd's acrobatic, pas d'action choreography well complemented by ex-choreographer Donen's camera....Keel, avoiding even the odd faked toe-step, is at his least expressive, but it's vigorous and colourful if you can watch the Anscocolor process which also marred Brigadoon."
- W. Stephen Gilbert, TimeOut Film Guide

"...It's marred by a holiday family-picture heartiness - the M-G-M back-lot Americana gets rather thick...The picture is ambitious in its use of dance, and was unusual in that it features male dancers...who are most memorable in the "Lonesome Polecat" ballet in the snow."
- Pauline Kael, 5001 Nights at the Movies

"Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is a fanciful romp which succeeds because of its perfect blending of story, dance, and music. The songs and dances not only compliment the story, but they also actually move it along."
– Magill's Survey of Cinema

"...historic for being the first completely successful marriage of ballet and movie comedy."
- The Hollywood Reporter

"...the liltingest bit of tunesome lollygagging to hit the screen since the same studio brought forth An American in Paris [1951]."
- Time

"This is a happy, hand-clapping, foot-stomping country type of musical with all the slickness of a Broadway show. Johnny Mercer and Gene de Paul provide the slick, showy production with eight songs, all of which jibe perfectly with the folksy, hillbilly air maintained in the picture. Howard Keel's robust baritone and Jane Powell's lilting soprano make their songs extremely listenable. A real standout is the acrobatic hoedown staged around a barn-raising shindig, during which six of the title's seven brothers vie in love rivalry with the town boys for the favor of the mountain belles...The long and the short of the teaming of Keel and Powell is that the pairing comes off very satisfactorily, vocally and otherwise. The brothers are all good, with Russ Tamblyn standing out in particular for performance and his dance work."
- Variety

"Rollicking musical perfectly integrates song, dance, and story...Tuneful Johnny Mercer-Gene de Paul score (with Oscar-winning musical direction by Adolph Deutsch and Saul Chaplin), but it's Michael Kidd's energetic dance numbers that really stand out, with rare screen work by dancers Jacques d'Amboise and Marc Platt. The barn-raising sequence is an absolute knockout."
- Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide

Compiled by Andrea Passafiume