1956 (29th Annual Awards)
Nominations and Winners
Listed below are the Academy Award nominations and winners for the year 1956. The
symbol appears next to the winner in each category. 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 nominations and winners from that year.
Best Motion Picture
Best Actor
Best Actress
Actor in a Supporting Role
Actress in a Supporting Role
Directing
Art Direction-Set Decoration
(Black-and-White)
The Magnificent Seven, Toho Production; Kingsley International Pictures. (USA, Philippines) Takashi Matsuyama.The Proud and Profane, Perlberg-Seaton Production; Paramount. Art direction by Hal Pereira and A. Earl Hedrick; set decoration by Samuel M. Comer and Frank R. McKelvy.The Solid Gold Cadillac, Columbia. Art direction by Ross Bellah; set decoration by William R. Kiernan and Louis Diage.Somebody up There Likes Me, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Art direction by Cedric Gibbons and Malcolm F. Brown; set decoration by Edwin B. Willis and F. Keogh Gleason.Teenage Rebel, 20th Century-Fox. Art direction by Lyle R. Wheeler and Jack Martin Smith; set decoration by Walter M. Scott and Stuart A. Reiss.(Color)
Around the World in 80 Days, The Michael Todd Co., Inc.; United Artists. Art direction by James W. Sullivan and Ken Adam; set decoration by Ross J. Dowd.Giant, Giant Production; Warner Bros. Art direction by Boris Leven; set decoration by Ralph S. Hurst.The King and I, 20th Century-Fox. Art direction by Lyle R. Wheeler and John DeCuir; set decoration by Walter M. Scott and Paul S. Fox.Lust for Life, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Art direction by Cedric Gibbons, Hans Peters and Preston Ames; set decoration by Edwin B. Willis and F. Keogh Gleason.The Ten Commandments, Motion Picture Associates, Inc.; Paramount. Art direction by Hal Pereira, Walter H. Tyler and Albert Nozaki; set decoration by Samuel M. Comer and Ray Moyer.Cinematography
(Black-and-White)
(Color)
Costume Design
(Black-and-White)
The Magnificent Seven, Toho Production; Kingsley International Pictures. (USA, Philippines) Kohei Ezaki.(Color)
The Ten Commandments, Motion Picture Associates, Inc.; Paramount. Edith Head, Ralph Jester, John Jensen, Dorothy Jeakins and Arnold Friberg.Documentary
(Feature)
The Silent World, Filmad-F.S.J.Y.C. Production; Columbia. (France, Italy) Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Producer.Where Mountains Float, Arno Studios, Copenhagen; Brandon Films, Inc. (Denmark) The Government Film Committee of Denmark.(Short Subject)
A City Decides, Charles Guggenheim & Associates, Inc.Film Editing
Around the World in 80 Days, The Michael Todd Co., Inc.; United Artists. Gene Ruggiero and Paul Weatherwax.Foreign Language Film
The Captain of Kopenick, Real-Film G.m.b.H. (West Germany) Gyula Trebitsch and Walter Koppel, Producers.Gervaise, Agnes Delahaie Productions Cinematographiques & Silver Film. (France) Annie Dorfmann, Producer.La Strada, Ponti-De Laurentiis Production; Trans-Lux Distributing Corporation. (Italy) Dino De Laurentiis and Carlo Ponti, Producers.NOTE: First year of nominations; previously honored in the Honorary Award category.
Music
(Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture)
(Scoring of a Musical Picture)
(Song)
Friendly Persuasion (Thee I Love) from Friendly Persuasion, Allied Artists. Music by Dimitri Tiomkin; lyrics by Paul Francis Webster.Julie from Julie, Arwin Productions; Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Music by Leith Stevens; lyrics by Tom Adair.True Love from High Society, Sol C. Siegel Production; Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Music and lyrics by Cole Porter.Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera) from The Man Who Knew Too Much, Filwite Productions, Inc.; Paramount. Music and lyrics by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans.Written on the Wind from Written on the Wind, Universal-International. Music by Victor Young; lyrics by Sammy Cahn.Short Subjects
(Cartoons)
Gerald McBoing-Boing on Planet Moo, UPA (United Productions of America); Columbia. [Jolly Frolics Series] Stephen Bosustow, Producer.The Jay Walker, UPA (United Productions of America); Columbia. [UPA Special Series] Stephen Bosustow, Producer.Mister Magoo’s Puddle Jumper, UPA (United Productions of America); Columbia. [Mister Magoo Series] Stephen Bosustow, Producer.(One-reel)
(Two-reel)
Sound Recording
The Brave One, King Brothers; RKO Radio. King Bros. Productions, Inc. Sound Department, John Myers, Sound Director.Friendly Persuasion, Allied Artists. Westrex Sound Services, Inc., Gordon R. Glennan, Sound Director; and Samuel Goldwyn Studio Sound Department, Gordon Sawyer, Sound Director.The King and I, 20th Century-Fox. 20th Century-Fox Studio Sound Department, Carl Faulkner, Sound Director.The Ten Commandments, Motion Picture Associates, Inc.; Paramount. Paramount Studio Sound Department, Loren L. Ryder, Sound Director.Special Effects
Writing
(Motion Picture Story)
The Brave One, King Brothers; RKO Radio. Dalton Trumbo. [NOTE: 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.]High Society, Allied Artists. Edward Bernds and Elwood Ullman. [NOTE: 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.) This nomination was not included in the final ballot.]The Proud and the Beautiful, La Compagnie Industrielle Commerciale Cinematographique; Kingsley International Pictures. (France, Mexico) Jean Paul Sartre.(Screenplay—Adapted)
Around the World in 80 Days, The Michael Todd Co., Inc.; United Artists. James Poe, John Farrow and S. J. Perelman.Friendly Persuasion, Allied Artists. Michael Wilson. [NOTE: Early in 1956, the name of screenwriter Michael Wilson (a former Oscar winner) had been deleted from the 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 not be. (The bylaw was repealed by the Academy as “unworkable” on January 12, 1959.) This nomination was not included in the final ballot. In 2002 The Academy’s Board of Governors reinstated the nomination.](Screenplay—Original)
La Strada, Ponti-De Laurentiis Production; Trans-Lux Distributing Corporation. (Italy) Federico Fellini and Tullio Pinelli.Honorary Award
To Eddie Cantor for distinguished service to the film industry. [ [Statuette]]Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award
NOTE: The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award was first presented in 1956.
Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award
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.To Ted Hirsch, Carl Hauge and Edward Reichard of Consolidated Film Industries for an automatic scene counter for laboratory projection rooms.To the Technical Departments of Paramount Pictures Corp. for the engineering and development of the Paramount light-weight horizontal-movement VistVision camera.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.To the Construction Department of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio for a new hand-portable fog machine.To Daniel J. Bloomberg, John Pond, William Wade, the Republic Studio Engineering Department and the Republic Studio Camera Department for the Naturama adaptation to the Mitchell camera.