32nd Annual Academy Awards Results and Commentary (1960)
©A.M.P.A.S.®
The 32nd Annual Academy Awards took place on Monday, April 4th, 1960. Hosted by Bob Hope, this would be the final year that the ceremony would take place at the RKO Pantages Theatre.
Ben-Hur, nominated for twelve Oscars, broke the record of nine wins set the year before by Gigi when it won eleven awards including Best Picture and Best Actor for Charlton Heston.
French actress Simone Signoret’s win for Room at the Top marked the first time an actress won an Oscar for a role in a foreign-made film.
Host Hope also took home the Academy’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
Results
Best Motion Picture
- Ben-Hur
Sam Zimbalist [Producer]
Best Directing
- Ben-Hur
William Wyler
Best Actor
- Ben-Hur
Charlton Heston
Best Actress
- Room at the Top
Simone Signoret
Best Actor in a Supporting Role
- Ben-Hur
Hugh Griffith
Best Actress in a Supporting Role
- The Diary of Anne Frank
Shelley Winters
Best Foreign Language Film
- Black Orpheus
Best Art Direction (Black-and-White)
- The Diary of Anne Frank
Lyle R. Wheeler [Art Direction], George W. Davis [Art Direction], Walter M. Scott [Set Decoration] and Stuart A. Reiss [Set Decoration]
Best Art Direction (Color)
- Ben-Hur
William A. Horning [Art Direction], Edward Carfagno [Art Direction] and Hugh Hunt [Set Decoration]
Best Cinematography (Black-and-White)
- The Diary of Anne Frank
William C. Mellor
Best Cinematography (Color)
- Ben-Hur
Robert L. Surtees
Best Costume Design (Black-and-White)
- Some Like It Hot
Orry-Kelly
Best Costume Design (Color)
- Ben-Hur
Elizabeth Haffenden
Best Documentary (Feature)
- Serengeti Shall Not Die
Bernhard Grzimek
Best Documentary (Short Subject)
- Glass
Bert Haanstra
Best Film Editing
- Ben-Hur
Ralph E. Winters and John D. Dunning
Best Music (Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture)
- Ben-Hur
Miklos Rozsa
Best Music (Scoring of a Musical Picture)
- Porgy and Bess
Andre Previn and Ken Darby
Best Music (Song)
- A Hole in the Head "High Hopes"
James Van Heusen [Music by] and Sammy Cahn [Lyrics by]
Best Short Subject (Cartoon)
- Moonbird
John Hubley
Best Short Subject (Live Action)
- The Golden Fish
Jacques-Yves Cousteau
Best Sound
- Ben-Hur
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio Sound Department and Franklin E. Milton [Sound Director]
Best Special Effects
- Ben-Hur
A. Arnold Gillespie [Visual Effects by], Robert MacDonald [Visual Effects by] and Milo Lory [Audible Effects by]
Best Writing (Screenplay - based on material from another medium)
- Room at the Top
Neil Paterson
Best Writing (Story and Screenplay - written directly for the screen)
- Pillow Talk
Russell Rouse [Story by], Clarence Greene [Story by], Stanley Shapiro [Screenplay by] and Maurice Richlin [Screenplay by]
Honorary Award
- Lee De Forest
Note: …for his pioneering inventions which brought sound to the motion picture. - Buster Keaton
Note: …for his unique talents which brought immortal comedies to the screen.
Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award
Scientific or Technical Award (Class II)
- Douglas G. Shearer [of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.], Robert E. Gottschalk [of Panavision Inc.] and John R. Moore [of Panavision Inc.]
Note: …for the development of a system of producing and exhibiting wide-film motion pictures known as Camera 65. - Wadsworth E. Pohl, William Evans, Werner Hopf, S.E. Howse, Thomas P. Dixon, Stanford Research Institute and Technicolor Corp.
Note: …for the design and development of the Technicolor Electronic Printing Timer. - Wadsworth E. Pohl, Jack Alford, Henry Imus, Joseph Schmit, Paul Fassnacht, Al Lofquist and Technicolor Corp.
Note: …for the development and practical application of equipment for wet printing. - Dr. Howard S. Coleman [of the Bausch & Lomb Optical Co.], Dr. A. Francis Turner [of the Bausch & Lomb Optical Co.], Harold H. Schroeder [of the Bausch & Lomb Optical Co.], James R. Benford [of the Bausch & Lomb Optical Co.] and Harold E. Rosenberger [of the Bausch & Lomb Optical Co.]
Note: …for the design and development of the Balcold Projection Mirror. - Robert P. Gutterman [of General Kinetics Inc.] and Lipsner-Smith Corp. [of General Kinetics Inc.]
Note: …for the design and development of the CF-2 Ultra-sonic Film Cleaner.
Scientific or Technical Award (Class III)
- Ub Iwerks [of Walt Disney Prods.]
Note: …for the design of an improved optical printer for special effects and matte shots. - E.L. Stones [of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio Construction Department], Glen Robinson [of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio Construction Department], Winfield Hubbard [of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio Construction Department] and Luther Newman [of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio Construction Department]
Note: …for the design of a multiple cable remote controlled winch.