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The Gold Years: Coming of Age at the Oscars

Coming of Age stories are stories that focus on the transition from childhood into adulthood. How this transition looks will differ from culture to culture and time period to time period, and of course every individual's experiences will differ as well. Thus, it can sometimes be a little difficult to say what counts as one coming of age, but typically then, these are stories that focus on the teen years or late childhood and revolve around emotional conflicts and the changes that occur in a child's life that then force maturation.

These are the coming age of films that have scored Oscar nominations.

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  • The Champ
  • Little Women
  • David Copperfield
  • Captains Courageous
  • Girls' School
  • The Wizard of Oz
  • Babes in Arms
  • Strike Up the Band
  • How Green Was My Valley
  • Bambi
  • Shadow of a Doubt
  • The Human Comedy
  • Home in Indiana
  • Marie-Louise
  • National Velvet
  • A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
  • The Green Years
  • Shoeshine
  • Great Expectations
  • The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer
  • Bicycle Thieves
  • The Fallen Idol
  • Little Women
  • Forbidden Games
  • The Member of the Wedding
  • Lili
  • East of Eden
  • Rebel Without a Cause
  • The Red Balloon
  • Teenage Rebel
  • April Love
  • Marjorie Morningstar
  • Gigi
  • The 400 Blows
  • The Bridge
  • Boy of Two Worlds
  • The Parent Trap
  • Splendor in the Grass
  • West Side Story
  • Lolita
  • To Kill a Mockingbird
  • David and Lisa
  • The Sword in the Stone
  • Raven's End
  • Inside Daisy Clover
  • Georgy Girl
  • You're a Big Boy Now
  • Closely Watched Trains
  • The Graduate
  • True Grit
  • The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
  • Goodbye, Columbus
  • Last Summer
  • The Sterile Cuckoo
  • Gaily, Gaily
  • The Reivers
  • Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
  • Summer of '42
  • Bless the Beasts & Children
  • The Last Picture Show
  • Murmur of the Heart
  • Butterflies Are Free
  • Sounder
  • Tom Sawyer
  • Paper Moon
  • American Graffiti
  • The Paper Chase
  • Amarcord
  • Lacombe, Lucien
  • The Street
  • Carrie
  • The Rescuers
  • I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
  • Madame Rosa
  • Pete's Dragon
  • Teenage Father
  • Pretty Baby
  • Grease
  • Bloodbrothers
  • Ice Castles
  • A Little Romance
  • The Tin Drum
  • Breaking Away
  • Tess
  • Fame
  • The Blue Lagoon
  • Ordinary People
  • Endless Love
  • Diner
  • Annie
  • E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
  • Fanny and Alexander
  • Boys and Girls
  • The Revolt of Job
  • Footloose
  • The Karate Kid
  • High Schools
  • Streetwise
  • Mask
  • Back to the Future