Best Picture Winner
Around the World in 80 Days
Best Picture
Director: Michael Anderson
Studio: United Artists
A Victorian Englishman bets that he can circumnavigate the globe in eighty days with his resourceful valet.
From the Worthy Podcast
A Trip To The Moon
Broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow presents an onscreen prologue, featuring footage from A Trip to the Moon (1902) by Georges Méliès, explaining that it is based loosely on the book From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne.
1902 French adventure short film directed by Georges Méliès. Inspired by a wide variety of sources, including Jules Verne's 1865 novel From the Earth to the Moon and its 1870 sequel Around the Moon, the film follows a group of astronomers who travel to the Moon in a cannon-propelled capsule, explore the Moon's surface, escape from an underground group of Selenites (lunar inhabitants), and return to Earth with a captive Selenite. Its ensemble cast of French theatrical performers is led by Méliès himself as main character Professor Barbenfouillis.
The pseudo-tracking shot in which the camera appears to approach the Man in the Moon was accomplished using an effect Méliès had invented the previous year for the film The Man with the Rubber Head. Rather than attempting to move his weighty camera toward an actor, he set a pulley-operated chair upon a rail-fitted ramp, placed the actor on the chair, and pulled him toward the camera. In addition to its technical practicality, this technique also allowed Méliès to control the placement of the face within the frame to a much greater degree of specificity than moving his camera allowed. A substitution splice allowed a model capsule to suddenly appear in the eye of the actor playing the Moon, completing the shot.
Similarly, film scholars have noted that the most famous moment in A Trip to the Moon plays with temporal continuity by showing an event twice: first the capsule is shown suddenly appearing in the eye of an anthropomorphic moon; then, in a much closer shot, the landing occurs very differently, and much more realistically, with the capsule actually plummeting into believable lunar terrain. This kind of nonlinear storytelling—in which time and space are treated as repeatable and flexible rather than linear and causal—is highly unconventional.
The Travel Film: first glob trotting film about world wide adventures and less about a personal story
All Categories (30)
Best Motion Picture
Around the World in 80 Days— Michael Todd, Producer
Winner
Friendly Persuasion— William Wyler, Producer
Giant— George Stevens and Henry Ginsberg, Producers
The King and I— Charles Brackett, Producer
The Ten Commandments— Cecil B. DeMille, Producer
Actor
James Dean— Giant {"Jett Rink"}
Kirk Douglas— Lust for Life {"Vincent Van Gogh"}
Rock Hudson— Giant {"Bick Benedict"}
Sir Laurence Olivier— Richard III {"Richard III"}
Actor In A Supporting Role
Anthony Perkins— Friendly Persuasion {"Josh Birdwell"}
Don Murray— Bus Stop {"Bo"}
Mickey Rooney— The Bold and the Brave {"Dooley"}
Robert Stack— Written on the Wind {"Kyle Hadley"}
Actress
Carroll Baker— Baby Doll {"Baby Doll"}
Deborah Kerr— The King and I {"Anna"}
Katharine Hepburn— The Rainmaker {"Lizzie Curry"}
Nancy Kelly— The Bad Seed {"Christine Penmark"}
Actress In A Supporting Role
Eileen Heckart— The Bad Seed {"Mrs. Daigle"}
Mercedes McCambridge— Giant {"Luz Benedict"}
Mildred Dunnock— Baby Doll {"Aunt Rose Comfort"}
Patty McCormack— The Bad Seed {"Rhoda Penmark"}
Directing
Around the World in 80 Days— Michael Anderson
Friendly Persuasion— William Wyler
The King and I— Walter Lang
War and Peace— King Vidor
Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
Around the World in 80 Days— James Poe, John Farrow, S.J. Perelman
Winner
Baby Doll— Tennessee Williams
Friendly Persuasion— Michael Wilson
Early in 1956, the name of blacklisted screenwriter Michael Wilson had been deleted from the screen credits of Friendly Persuasion by Allied Artists, the film's distributor, based on a 1952 agreement between the Screen Writers Guild and various production companies. That agreement gave studios the right to omit from the screen the name of any individual who had failed to clear himself before a duly constituted legislative committee of Congress if accused of Communist affiliations, as was the case with Wilson at the time. The Academy, in the awkward position of possibly conferring its highest honor on someone whose name had been omitted from screen credit, revised its bylaws at a special February 6, 1957, meeting. That revision, in essence, allowed that in such cases, the achievement itself could be eligible for nomination, but the specific writer would be ineligible. The following instructions were sent to Price Waterhouse & Co., Certified Public Accountants, who tabulated Academy ballots: "...we ask that if, in tabulating the nominations ballots for Best Screenplay (adapted), Friendly Persuasion is one of the five nominations, you list the other four alphabetically by title and below: Friendly Persuasion - Achievement nominated, but writer ineligible for Award under Academy By-Laws." On February 17, 1957, the Academy's Board of Governors voted to instruct Price Waterhouse & Co. "...to list five nominations, and in the event that one of these is declared ineligible under the By-Law provision, four nominations would appear on the final ballot." THIS NOMINATION WAS NOT INCLUDED ON THE FINAL BALLOT. (The bylaw was repealed by the Academy as "unworkable" on January 12, 1959.) On December 10, 2002, the Academy's Board of Governors voted to reinstate Mr. Wilson's nomination.
Giant— Fred Guiol, Ivan Moffat
Lust for Life— Norman Corwin
Writing (Motion Picture Story)
The Brave One— Dalton Trumbo
Winner
The name of the writer credited with authorship, Robert Rich, turned out to be an alias. Two decades later, the mystery was officially solved and the Academy statuette went (on May 2, 1975, presented by then Academy president Walter Mirisch) to its rightful owner, screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, blacklisted in 1956 by the industry for political affiliations. Robert Rich (who had nothing to do with the film industry) is a nephew of the King Brothers, producers of the film. They chose his name to be the alias for Dalton Trumbo on the screenplay.
High Society— Edward Bernds, Elwood Ullman
THIS IS NOT AN OFFICIAL NOMINATION. Edward Bernds and Elwood Ullman, the authors of this Bowery Boys quickie, respectfully withdrew their own names and the nomination, aware that voters had probably mistaken their film with a 1956 MGM release with the same title written by John Patrick and starring Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly and Frank Sinatra. (Even so, MGM's High Society would only have been eligible for adapted screenplay.)
The Eddy Duchin Story— Leo Katcher
The Proud and the Beautiful— Jean Paul Sartre
Umberto D.— Cesare Zavattini
Writing (Original Screenplay)
The Red Balloon— Albert Lamorisse
Winner
Julie— Andrew L. Stone
La Strada— Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli
The Bold and the Brave— Robert Lewin
The Ladykillers— William Rose
Cinematography (Black-And-White)
Somebody Up There Likes Me— Joseph Ruttenberg
Winner
Baby Doll— Boris Kaufman
Stagecoach to Fury— Walter Strenge
The Bad Seed— Hal Rosson
The Harder They Fall— Burnett Guffey
Cinematography (Color)
Around the World in 80 Days— Lionel Lindon
Winner
The Eddy Duchin Story— Harry Stradling
The King and I— Leon Shamroy
The Ten Commandments— Loyal Griggs
War and Peace— Jack Cardiff
Music (Music Score Of A Dramatic Or Comedy Picture)
Around the World in 80 Days— Victor Young
Winner
Anastasia— Alfred Newman
Between Heaven and Hell— Hugo Friedhofer
Giant— Dimitri Tiomkin
The Rainmaker— Alex North
Music (Scoring Of A Musical Picture)
The King and I— Alfred Newman, Ken Darby
Winner
High Society— Johnny Green, Saul Chaplin
Meet Me in Las Vegas— George Stoll, Johnny Green
The Best Things in Life Are Free— Lionel Newman
The Eddy Duchin Story— Morris Stoloff, George Duning
Art Direction (Black-And-White)
Somebody Up There Likes Me— Art Direction: Cedric Gibbons, Malcolm F. Brown; Set Decoration: Edwin B. Willis, F. Keogh Gleason
Winner
Teenage Rebel— Art Direction: Lyle R. Wheeler, Jack Martin Smith; Set Decoration: Walter M. Scott, Stuart A. Reiss
The Magnificent Seven— Takashi Matsuyama
The Proud and Profane— Art Direction: Hal Pereira, A. Earl Hedrick; Set Decoration: Samuel M. Comer, Frank R. McKelvy
The Solid Gold Cadillac— Art Direction: Ross Bellah; Set Decoration: William R. Kiernan, Louis Diage
Art Direction (Color)
The King and I— Art Direction: Lyle R. Wheeler, John DeCuir; Set Decoration: Walter M. Scott, Paul S. Fox
Winner
Around the World in 80 Days— Art Direction: James W. Sullivan, Ken Adam; Set Decoration: Ross J. Dowd
Giant— Art Direction: Boris Leven; Set Decoration: Ralph S. Hurst
Lust for Life— Art Direction: Cedric Gibbons, Hans Peters, Preston Ames; Set Decoration: Edwin B. Willis, F. Keogh Gleason
The Ten Commandments— Art Direction: Hal Pereira, Walter H. Tyler, Albert Nozaki; Set Decoration: Samuel M. Comer, Ray Moyer
Special Effects
The Ten Commandments— John Fulton
Winner
Forbidden Planet— A. Arnold Gillespie, Irving Ries, Wesley C. Miller
Film Editing
Around the World in 80 Days— Gene Ruggiero, Paul Weatherwax
Winner
Giant— William Hornbeck, Philip W. Anderson, Fred Bohanan
Somebody Up There Likes Me— Albert Akst
The Brave One— Merrill G. White
The Ten Commandments— Anne Bauchens
Sound Recording
The King and I— 20th Century-Fox Studio Sound Department, Carl Faulkner, Sound Director
Winner
Friendly Persuasion— Westrex Sound Services, Inc., Gordon R. Glennan, Sound Director; and Samuel Goldwyn Studio Sound Department, Gordon Sawyer, Sound Director
The Brave One— King Bros. Productions, Inc., Sound Department, John Myers, Sound Director
The Eddy Duchin Story— Columbia Studio Sound Department, John Livadary, Sound Director
The Ten Commandments— Paramount Studio Sound Department, Loren L. Ryder, Sound Director
Costume Design (Black-And-White)
The Solid Gold Cadillac— Jean Louis
Winner
Teenage Rebel— Charles LeMaire, Mary Wills
The Magnificent Seven— Kohei Ezaki
The Power and the Prize— Helen Rose
The Proud and Profane— Edith Head
Costume Design (Color)
The King and I— Irene Sharaff
Winner
Around the World in 80 Days— Miles White
Giant— Moss Mabry, Marjorie Best
The Ten Commandments— Edith Head, Ralph Jester, John Jensen, Dorothy Jeakins, Arnold Friberg
War and Peace— Marie De Matteis
Documentary (Feature)
The Silent World— Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Producer
Winner
The Naked Eye— Louis Clyde Stoumen, Producer
Where Mountains Float— The Government Film Committee of Denmark
Documentary (Short Subject)
The True Story of the Civil War— Louis Clyde Stoumen, Producer
Winner
A City Decides— Charles Guggenheim & Associates, Inc.
Man in Space— Ward Kimball, Producer
The Dark Wave— John Healy, Producer
The House without a Name— Valentine Davies, Producer
Foreign Language Film
La Strada— Italy; Dino De Laurentiis and Carlo Ponti, Producers
Winner
For the 29th Academy Awards, the name(s) of the producer(s) were included in the nomination for the Foreign Language Film category.
Gervaise— France; Annie Dorfmann, Producer
For the 29th Academy Awards, the name(s) of the producer(s) were included in the nomination for the Foreign Language Film category.
Harp of Burma— Japan; Masayuki Takagi, Producer
For the 29th Academy Awards, the name(s) of the producer(s) were included in the nomination for the Foreign Language Film category.
Qivitoq— Denmark; O. Dalsgaard-Olsen, Producer
For the 29th Academy Awards, the name(s) of the producer(s) were included in the nomination for the Foreign Language Film category.
The Captain of Kopenick— Federal Republic of Germany - West; Gyula Trebitsch and Walter Koppel, Producers
For the 29th Academy Awards, the name(s) of the producer(s) were included in the nomination for the Foreign Language Film category.
Honorary Award
To Eddie Cantor for distinguished service to the film industry.
Winner
Buddy Adler
IRVING G. THALBERG MEMORIAL AWARD
Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award
Y. Frank Freeman
Winner
Scientific Or Technical Award (Class III)
To RICHARD H. RANGER of Rangertone, Inc., for the development of a synchronous recording and reproducing system for quarter-inch magnetic tape. [Sound]
Winner
To DANIEL J. BLOOMBERG, JOHN POND, WILLIAM WADE and the ENGINEERING AND CAMERA DEPARTMENTS OF REPUBLIC STUDIO for the Naturama adaptation to the Mitchell camera. [Photography]
To ROY C. STEWART AND SONS of Stewart-Trans Lux Corp., DR. C.R. DAILY and the TRANSPARENCY DEPARTMENT OF PARAMOUNT PICTURES CORP. for the engineering and development of the HiTrans and Para-HiTrans rear projection screens. [Special Photographic]
To TED HIRSCH, CARL HAUGE and EDWARD REICHARD of Consolidated Film Industries for an automatic scene counter for laboratory projection rooms. [Laboratory]
To the CONSTRUCTION DEPARTMENT OF METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER STUDIO for a new hand-portable fog machine. [Stage Operations]
To the TECHNICAL DEPARTMENTS OF PARAMOUNT PICTURES CORP. for the engineering and development of the Paramount light-weight horizontal-movement VistaVision camera. [Camera]
Music (Song)
"Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)" from The Man Who Knew Too Much— Music and Lyrics by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans
Winner
"Friendly Persuasion (Thee I Love)" from Friendly Persuasion— Music by Dimitri Tiomkin; Lyrics by Paul Francis Webster
"Julie" from Julie— Music by Leith Stevens; Lyrics by Tom Adair
"True Love" from High Society— Music and Lyrics by Cole Porter
"Written On The Wind" from Written on the Wind— Music by Victor Young; Lyrics by Sammy Cahn
Short Subject (Cartoon)
Mister Magoo's Puddle Jumper— Stephen Bosustow, Producer
Winner
Gerald McBoing-Boing on Planet Moo— Stephen Bosustow, Producer
The Jaywalker— Stephen Bosustow, Producer
Short Subject (One-Reel)
Crashing the Water Barrier— Konstantin Kalser, Producer
Winner
I Never Forget a Face— Robert Youngson, Producer
Time Stood Still— Cedric Francis, Producer
Short Subject (Two-Reel)
The Bespoke Overcoat— Romulus Films
Winner
Cow Dog— Larry Lansburgh, Producer
Samoa— Walt Disney, Producer
The Dark Wave— John Healy, Producer