1959 (32nd Annual Awards)
Winners Only

Listed below are the Academy Award winners for the year 1959 (non-winning nominations have been omitted from this list). Click on the name of a film, person or song in the list to display more information about that film, person or song Or, click on a year in the column on the right to display the winners from that year.

Best Motion Picture

Ben-Hur, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Sam Zimbalist, Producer.

Best Actor

Charlton Heston in Ben-Hur, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Best Actress

Simone Signoret in Room at the Top, Romulus Films, Ltd. Production; Continental Distributing, Inc. (UK)

Actor in a Supporting Role

Hugh Griffith in Ben-Hur, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Actress in a Supporting Role

Shelley Winters in The Diary of Anne Frank, 20th Century-Fox.

Directing

Ben-Hur, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. William Wyler.

Art Direction-Set Decoration

(Black-and-White)

The Diary of Anne Frank, 20th Century-Fox. Art direction by Lyle R. Wheeler and George W. Davis; set decoration by Walter M. Scott and Stuart A. Reiss.

(Color)

Ben-Hur, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Art direction by William A. Horning and Edward Carfagno; set decoration by Hugh Hunt.

Cinematography

(Black-and-White)

The Diary of Anne Frank, 20th Century-Fox. William C. Mellor.

(Color)

Ben-Hur, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Robert L. Surtees.

Costume Design

(Black-and-White)

Some Like It Hot, Ashton Productions & The Mirisch Company; United Artists. Orry-Kelly.

(Color)

Ben-Hur, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Elizabeth Haffenden.

Documentary

(Feature)

Serengeti Shall Not Die, Okapia-Film GmbH Production; Transocean-Film. (West Germany) Bernhard Grzimek, Producer.

(Short Subject)

Glass, The Netherlands Government; George K. Arthur-Go Pictures, Inc. (Netherlands) Bert Haanstra, Producer.

Film Editing

Ben-Hur, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Ralph E. Winters and John D. Dunning.

Foreign Language Film

Black Orpheus, Dispatfilm & Gemma Cinematografica. (Brazil, France, Italy)

Music

(Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture)

Ben-Hur, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Miklos Rozsa.

(Scoring of a Musical Picture)

Porgy and Bess, Samuel Goldwyn Productions; Columbia. Andre Previn and Ken Darby.

(Song)

High Hopes from A Hole in the Head, Sincap Productions; United Artists. Music by James Van Heusen; lyrics by Sammy Cahn.

Short Subjects

(Cartoons)

Moonbird, Storyboard, Inc.; Edward Harrison. John Hubley, Producer.

(Live Action)

The Golden Fish, Les Requins Associes; Columbia. (France) Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Producer.

Sound

Ben-Hur, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio Sound Department, Franklin E. Milton, Sound Director.

Special Effects

Ben-Hur, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Visual effects by A. Arnold Gillespie and Robert MacDonald; audible effects by Milo Lory.

Writing

(Screenplay—based on material from another medium)

Room at the Top, Romulus Films, Ltd. Production; Continental Distributing, Inc. (UK) Neil Paterson.

(Story and Screenplay—written directly for the screen)

Pillow Talk, Arwin Productions; Universal-International. Story by Russell Rouse and Clarence Greene; screenplay by Stanley Shapiro and Maurice Richlin.

Honorary Award

To Lee De Forest for his pioneering inventions which brought sound to the motion picture. [ [Statuette]]

To Buster Keaton for his unique talents which brought immortal comedies to the screen. [ [Statuette]]

Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award

Bob Hope

Scientific or Technical Award

(Class II)

To Douglas G. Shearer of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc., and Robert E. Gottschalk and John R. Moore of Panavision, Inc. for the development of a system of producing and exhibiting wide-film motion pictures known as Camera 65.

To Wadsworth E. Pohl, William Evans, Werner Hopf, S. E. Howse, Thomas P. Dixon, Stanford Research Institute and Technicolor Corp., for the design and development of the Technicolor Electronic Printing Timer.

To Wadsworth E. Pohl, Jack Alford, Henry Imus, Joseph Schmit, Paul Fassnacht, Al Lofquist and Technicolor Corp., for the development and practical application of equipment for wet printing.

To Dr. Howard S. Coleman, Dr. A. Francis Turner, Harold H. Schroeder, James R. Benford and Harold E. Rosenberger of the Bausch & Lomb Optical Co. for the design and development of the Balcold Projection Mirror.

To Robert P. Gutterman of General Kinetics, Inc. and Lipsner-Smith Corp. for the design and development of the CF-2 Ultra-sonic Film Cleaner.

(Class III)

To Ub Iwerks of Walt Disney Prods. for the design of an improved optical printer for special effects and matte shots.

To E. L. Stones, Glen Robinson, Winfield Hubbard and Luther Newman of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio Construction Department for the design of a multiple cable remote controlled winch.