1960 Oscars: Winners and Nominees

50 films were recognised at the 1960 Academy Awards, across 25 categories. 13 of them took home at least one award.

The biggest winner of the year was Ben-Hur, with 11 awards, ahead of The Diary of Anne Frank with 3. The categories below run from International Feature Film, Actor and Actor in a Supporting Role to the smaller prizes, and in every one the winner is listed first, followed by the other nominees.

Each title links to the film's full award history at all four awards, and the links at the bottom step to the previous and next ceremony.

Last updated August 12, 2026

International Feature Film

Black Orpheus(1959)
France
Winner
Dorp aan de Rivier (The Village on the River)(1958)
The Netherlands
Dorp aan de Rivier (The Village on the River)(1958)
The Village on the River
Paw(1959)
Denmark
The Bridge(1959)
West Germany
The Great War(1959)
Italy

Actor

Ben-Hur(1959)
Charlton Heston
Winner
Anatomy of a Murder(1959)
James Stewart
Room at the Top(1958)
Laurence Harvey
Some Like It Hot(1959)
Jack Lemmon
The Last Angry Man(1959)
Paul Muni

Actor in a Supporting Role

Ben-Hur(1959)
Hugh Griffith
Winner
Anatomy of a Murder(1959)
Arthur O'Connell
Anatomy of a Murder(1959)
George C. Scott
The Diary of Anne Frank(1959)
Ed Wynn
The Young Philadelphians(1959)
Robert Vaughn

Actress

Room at the Top(1958)
Simone Signoret
Winner
Pillow Talk(1959)
Doris Day
Suddenly, Last Summer(1959)
Katharine Hepburn
Suddenly, Last Summer(1959)
Elizabeth Taylor
The Nun's Story(1959)
Audrey Hepburn

Actress in a Supporting Role

The Diary of Anne Frank(1959)
Shelley Winters
Winner
Imitation of Life(1959)
Susan Kohner
Imitation of Life(1959)
Juanita Moore
Pillow Talk(1959)
Thelma Ritter
Room at the Top(1958)
Hermione Baddeley

Art Direction (Black-and-White)

The Diary of Anne Frank(1959)
Art Direction: Lyle R. Wheeler, George W. Davis; Set Decoration: Walter M. Scott, Stuart A. Reiss
Winner
Career(1959)
Art Direction: Hal Pereira, Walter Tyler; Set Decoration: Sam Comer, Arthur Krams
Some Like It Hot(1959)
Art Direction: Ted Haworth; Set Decoration: Edward G. Boyle
Suddenly, Last Summer(1959)
Art Direction: Oliver Messel, William Kellner; Set Decoration: Scot Slimon
The Last Angry Man(1959)
Art Direction: Carl Anderson; Set Decoration: William Kiernan

Art Direction (Color)

Ben-Hur(1959)
Art Direction: William A. Horning, Edward Carfagno; Set Decoration: Hugh Hunt
Winner
Journey to the Center of the Earth(1959)
Art Direction: Lyle R. Wheeler, Franz Bachelin, Herman A. Blumenthal; Set Decoration: Walter M. Scott, Joseph Kish
North by Northwest(1959)
Art Direction: William A. Horning, Robert Boyle, Merrill Pye; Set Decoration: Henry Grace, Frank McKelvy
Pillow Talk(1959)
Art Direction: Richard H. Riedel; Set Decoration: Russell A. Gausman, Ruby R. Levitt
The Big Fisherman(1959)
Art Direction: John DeCuir; Set Decoration: Julia Heron

Best Picture

Ben-Hur(1959)
Sam Zimbalist, Producer
Winner
Anatomy of a Murder(1959)
Otto Preminger, Producer
Room at the Top(1958)
John Woolf and James Woolf, Producers
The Diary of Anne Frank(1959)
George Stevens, Producer
The Nun's Story(1959)
Henry Blanke, Producer

Cinematography (Black-and-White)

The Diary of Anne Frank(1959)
William C. Mellor
Winner
Anatomy of a Murder(1959)
Sam Leavitt
Career(1959)
Joseph LaShelle
Some Like It Hot(1959)
Charles Lang, Jr.
The Young Philadelphians(1959)
Harry Stradling, Sr.

Cinematography (Color)

Ben-Hur(1959)
Robert L. Surtees
Winner
Porgy and Bess(1959)
Leon Shamroy
The Big Fisherman(1959)
Lee Garmes
The Five Pennies(1959)
Daniel L. Fapp
The Nun's Story(1959)
Franz Planer

Costume Design (Black-and-White)

Some Like It Hot(1959)
Orry-Kelly
Winner
Career(1959)
Edith Head
The Diary of Anne Frank(1959)
Charles LeMaire, Mary Wills
The Gazebo(1959)
Helen Rose
The Young Philadelphians(1959)
Howard Shoup

Costume Design (Color)

Ben-Hur(1959)
Elizabeth Haffenden
Winner
Porgy and Bess(1959)
Irene Sharaff
The Best of Everything(1959)
Adele Palmer
The Big Fisherman(1959)
Renie
The Five Pennies(1959)
Edith Head

Directing

Ben-Hur(1959)
William Wyler
Winner
Room at the Top(1958)
Jack Clayton
Some Like It Hot(1959)
Billy Wilder
The Diary of Anne Frank(1959)
George Stevens
The Nun's Story(1959)
Fred Zinnemann

Film Editing

Ben-Hur(1959)
Ralph E. Winters, John D. Dunning
Winner
Anatomy of a Murder(1959)
Louis R. Loeffler
North by Northwest(1959)
George Tomasini
On the Beach(1959)
Frederic Knudtson
The Nun's Story(1959)
Walter Thompson

Music (Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture)

Ben-Hur(1959)
Miklos Rozsa
Winner
On the Beach(1959)
Ernest Gold
Pillow Talk(1959)
Frank DeVol
The Diary of Anne Frank(1959)
Alfred Newman
The Nun's Story(1959)
Franz Waxman

Music (Scoring of a Musical Picture)

Porgy and Bess(1959)
Andre Previn, Ken Darby
Winner
Li'l Abner(1959)
Nelson Riddle, Joseph J. Lilley
Say One for Me(1959)
Lionel Newman
Sleeping Beauty(1959)
George Bruns
The Five Pennies(1959)
Leith Stevens

Music (Song)

A Hole in the Head(1959)
High Hopes in "A Hole in the Head" Music by James Van Heusen; Lyrics by Sammy Cahn
Winner
The Best of Everything(1959)
The Best Of Everything in "The Best of Everything" Music by Alfred Newman; Lyrics by Sammy Cahn
The Five Pennies(1959)
The Five Pennies in "The Five Pennies" Music and Lyrics by Sylvia Fine
The Hanging Tree(1959)
The Hanging Tree in "The Hanging Tree" Music by Jerry Livingston; Lyrics by Mack David
The Young Land(1959)
Strange Are The Ways Of Love in "The Young Land" Music by Dimitri Tiomkin; Lyrics by Ned Washington

Short Subject (Live Action)

The Golden Fish(1959)
Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Producer
Winner
Between the Tides(1958)
Ian Ferguson, Producer
Mysteries of the Deep(1959)
Walt Disney, Producer
Skyscraper(1959)
Shirley Clarke, Willard Van Dyke and Irving Jacoby, Producers
The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film(1959)
Peter Sellers, Producer

Sound

Ben-Hur(1959)
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio Sound Department, Franklin E. Milton, Sound Director
Winner
Journey to the Center of the Earth(1959)
20th Century-Fox Studio Sound Department, Carl Faulkner, Sound Director
Libel(1959)
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer London Studio Sound Department, A. W. Watkins, Sound Director
Porgy and Bess(1959)
Samuel Goldwyn Studio Sound Department, Gordon E. Sawyer, Sound Director; and Todd-AO Sound Department, Fred Hynes, Sound Director
The Nun's Story(1959)
Warner Bros. Studio Sound Department, George R. Groves, Sound Director

Writing (Screenplay--based on material from another medium)

Room at the Top(1958)
Neil Paterson
Winner
Anatomy of a Murder(1959)
Wendell Mayes
Ben-Hur(1959)
Karl Tunberg
Some Like It Hot(1959)
Billy Wilder, I. A. L. Diamond
The Nun's Story(1959)
Robert Anderson

Writing (Story and Screenplay--written directly for the screen)

Pillow Talk(1959)
Story by Russell Rouse, Clarence Greene; Screenplay by Stanley Shapiro, Maurice Richlin
Winner
North by Northwest(1959)
Ernest Lehman
Operation Petticoat(1959)
Story by Paul King, Joseph Stone; Screenplay by Stanley Shapiro, Maurice Richlin
The 400 Blows(1959)
Francois Truffaut, Marcel Moussy
Wild Strawberries(1957)
Ingmar Bergman

Documentary (Short Subject)

Glass(1959)
Bert Haanstra, Producer
Winner
Glass Slippers(1959)
Bert Haanstra, Producer
Winner
Donald in Mathmagic Land(1959)
Walt Disney, Producer
From Generation to Generation(1959)
Edward F. Cullen, Producer

Short Subject (Cartoon)

Moonbird(1959)
John Hubley, Producer
Winner
Mexicali Shmoes(1959)
John W. Burton, Producer
Noah's Ark(1959)
Walt Disney, Producer
The Violinist(1959)
Ernest Pintoff, Producer

Documentary (Feature)

Serengeti Shall Not Die(1959)
Bernhard Grzimek, Producer
Winner
The Race for Space(1959)
David L. Wolper, Producer

Special Effects

Ben-Hur(1959)
Visual Effects by A. Arnold Gillespie, Robert MacDonald; Audible Effects by Milo Lory
Winner
Journey to the Center of the Earth(1959)
Visual Effects by L. B. Abbott, James B. Gordon; Audible Effects by Carl Faulkner