Gone with the Wind was well received.
Gone with the Wind (film) . The film received positive reviews upon its release in December 1939 , although some reviewers found it dramatically lacking and bloated . At the 12th Academy Awards , it received ten Academy Awards ( eight competitive , two honorary ) from thirteen nominations , including wins for Best Picture , Best Director ( Fleming ) , Best Adapted Screenplay ( posthumously awarded to Sidney Howard ) , Best Actress ( Leigh ) , and Best Supporting Actress ( Hattie McDaniel , becoming the first African-American to win an Academy Award ) . The film was immensely popular , becoming the highest-earning film made up to that point , and retained the record for over a quarter of a century . Gone with the Wind (novel) . Gone with the Wind was popular with American readers from the outset and was the top American fiction bestseller in the year it was published and in 1937 .