The Battle over Citizen Kane

On one side stood filmmaker Orson Welles, at 25 a Time Magazine cover-boy, Hollywood's new genius, a man whose ambition was nothing less than to elevate his name above all others in the history of drama. On the other, an embittered William Randolph Hearst, giant of American publishing, powerbroker, failed politician and Hollywood mogul, who at 77 still had power unimaginable today. They were outsized Americans, raised to extravagant self-belief by their mothers, who were convinced of their sons’ genius. Both men were driven democrats, convinced that they were destined to speak to the millions; showmen who would pour their lives and private fortunes into public acts to confirm their brilliance to the world, once and for all. In 1941 these two titans of the American imagination battled over what is now considered the greatest moving picture Hollywood has ever produced, Citizen Kane, in a collision that would define and wreck them both. THE BATTLE OVER CITIZEN KANE was nominated in 1996 for both an Emmy Award and an Academy Award and was featured at the Sundance Film Festival, in Berlin at the International Forum of Young Cinema and at the 9th International Audiovisual Programmes Festival (FIPA) in France.