40th Annual Academy Awards Results and Commentary (1968)
©A.M.P.A.S.®
The 40th Annual Academy Awards were scheduled for Monday, April 8th, 1968. However, on April 4th, 1968, the U.S. was stunned by the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. Riots broke out in several cities across the country. Out of respect, the Academy postponed the event for only the second time in its history, to Wednesday, April 10, 1968.
Though Bonnie and Clyde and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner both had ten nominations going into the ceremony, the most awards of the evening went to Norman Jewison’s In the Heat of the Night, which won five out of its seven nominations, including Best Picture, and Best Actor for Rod Steiger.
Mike Nichols won Best Director for The Graduate and Katharine Hepburn won Best Actress for Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.
As Oscar prepared to enter his fifth decade, he said goodbye to Santa Monica, his home for eight years. Next year, he’d be back in Los Angeles and a brand new home.
Results
Best Picture
- In the Heat of the Night
Walter Mirisch [Producer]
Best Directing
- The Graduate
Mike Nichols
Best Actor
- In the Heat of the Night
Rod Steiger
Best Actress
- Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
Katharine Hepburn
Best Actor in a Supporting Role
- Cool Hand Luke
George Kennedy
Best Actress in a Supporting Role
- Bonnie and Clyde
Estelle Parsons
Best Foreign Language Film
- Closely Watched Trains
Best Art Direction
- Camelot
John Truscott [Art Direction], Edward Carrere [Art Direction] and John W. Brown [Set Decoration]
Best Cinematography
- Bonnie and Clyde
Burnett Guffey
Best Costume Design
- Camelot
John Truscott
Best Documentary (Feature)
- The Anderson Platoon
Pierre Schoendoerffer
Best Documentary (Short Subject)
- The Redwoods
Mark Harris and Trevor Greenwood
Best Film Editing
- In the Heat of the Night
Hal Ashby
Best Music (Original Music Score)
- Thoroughly Modern Millie
Elmer Bernstein
Best Music (Scoring of Music - adaptation or treatment)
- Camelot
Alfred Newman and Ken Darby
Best Music (Song)
- Doctor Dolittle "Talk to the Animals"
Leslie Bricusse [Music and Lyrics by]
Best Short Subject (Cartoon)
- The Box
Fred Wolf
Best Short Subject (Live Action)
- A Place to Stand
Christopher Chapman
Best Sound
- In the Heat of the Night
Samuel Goldwyn Studio Sound Department
Best Sound Effects
- The Dirty Dozen
John Poyner
Best Special Visual Effects
- Doctor Dolittle
L.B. Abbott
Best Writing (Screenplay - based on material from another medium)
- In the Heat of the Night
Stirling Silliphant
Best Writing (Story and Screenplay - written directly for the screen)
- Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
William Rose
Honorary Award
- Arthur Freed
Note: …for distinguished service to the Academy and the production of six top-rated Awards telecasts.
Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award
- Alfred Hitchcock
Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award
Scientific or Technical Award (Class III)
- Electro-Optical Division of the Kollmorgen Corporation
Note: …for the design and development of a series of Motion Picture Projection Lenses. - Panavision Inc.
Note: …for a Variable Speed Motor for Motion Picture Cameras. - Fred Wilson [of the Samuel Goldwyn Studio Sound Department]
Note: …for an Audio Level Clamper. - Waldon O. Watson and Universal City Studio Sound Department
Note: …for new concepts in the design of a Music Scoring Stage.