32nd Academy Awards

The 32nd Academy Awards honored film achievements of 1959 on 4 April 1960.

MGM's (producer Sam Zimbalist) and director William Wyler's three and a half-hour long epic drama Ben Hur (with a spectacular sea battle and eleven minute chariot race choreographed by Yakima Canutt) broke the previous year's all-time record of Gigi (1958). It was the most-honored motion picture in Academy Awards history up to that time and for many years - until 1997, with its record-breaking eleven Oscars from twelve nominations. And it was the most expensive film of its time, budgeted at $15 million.

Ben-Hur was a re-make of MGM's own 1926 silent film of the same name. Both films were based on or inspired by General Lew Wallace's novel (first published in 1880) about the rise of Christianity. Ironically, the famed director Cecil B. DeMille, who had made 'Ben-Hur-like' films throughout his lifetime - without the same awards success as the 1959 winner, died the same year (on January 21, 1959).

Winners

Pictures

• Best Picture: Ben-Hur - Sam Zimbalist (producer)
• Best Foreign Language Film: Orfeu Negro, France

Best Director

• William Wyler for Ben-Hur

Acting

• Best Actor: Charlton Heston in Ben-Hur
• Best Supporting Actor: Hugh Griffith in Ben-Hur
• Best Actress: Simone Signoret in Room at the Top
• Best Supporting Actress: Shelley Winters in The Diary of Anne Frank

Writing

• Best Story and Screenplay: Pillow Talk by Russell Rouse, Clarence Greene, Stanley Shapiro and Maurice Richlin
• Best Adapted Screenplay: Room at the Top by Neil Paterson

Music

• Best Original Song: "High Hopes" from A Hole in the Head
• Best Scoring of a Comedy or Dramatic Picture: Ben-Hur by Miklos Rozsa
• Best Scoring of a Musical Picture: Porgy and Bess by Andre Previn and Ken Darby

Honorary Oscar

An Honorary Oscar, a bittersweet recognition, was awarded to the under-appreciated Buster Keaton, one of the silent screen's greatest comedic characters, who was known as 'The Great Stone Face.' His award was for "his unique talents which brought immortal comedies to the screen", such as Sherlock, Jr. (1924), The Navigator (1924), The General (1927), Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928), and The Cameraman (1928).