A film critic since the early 1960s, John Howard Reid spent most of the decade writing articles, interviews and reviews for French movie periodicals including Cahiers du Cinema, Presence du Cinema and Cinema d'Aujourd'hui.

As a freelance writer, living near London's famous Pinewood studios, Reid interviewed many of the period's prominent actors and directors including George Raft, Clifton Webb, William Holden, Richard Widmark, Yvonne De Carlo, Dan Duryea, William Bendix, Gregory Peck, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, John Farrow, Anthony Asquith, Roy Baker, Leo McCarey, Richard Thorpe, George Cukor, Robert Siodmak, Joseph Losey, Anthony Mann and Otto Preminger.

"Award-Winning Films of the 1930s" is John Howard Reid's third film anthology, following "Memorable Films of the Forties" and "Popular Pictures of the Hollywood 1940s". Unlike the films discussed in the earlier books, all the movies in "Award-Winning Films of the 1930s" won one or more of the annual awards presented by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Hollywood, California. Films such as "Gone With the Wind", "The Wizard of Oz", "Grand Hotel", "San Francisco", "The Garden of Allah", "Lost Horizon", "It Happened One Night", "Broadway Melody", "The Hurricane", "Goodbye Mr Chips", "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde", "Cleopatra", "Kentucky", "Naughty Marietta", "A Damsel in Distress", "Gold Diggers of 1935", "The Awful Truth" and "In Old Chicago".

"Award-Winning Films of the 1930s" is a useful handbook for those interested in movie facts, credits, reviews and trivia.