Citizen Kane is a 1941 American
drama film by
Orson Welles, its producer, co-author, director and star. The picture was Welles's
first feature film. Nominated for
Academy Awards in nine categories, it won an
Academy Award for Best Writing (Original Screenplay) by
Herman J. Mankiewicz and Welles. Considered by many critics, filmmakers, and fans to be the
greatest film ever made,
Citizen Kane was voted the greatest film of all time in five consecutive
Sight & Sound polls of critics, until it was displaced by
Vertigo in the 2012 poll. It topped the
American Film Institute's
100 Years ... 100 Movies list in 1998, as well as AFI's
2007 update.
Citizen Kane is particularly praised for its cinematography, music, and narrative structure, which were innovative for its time.