1961 (34th Annual Awards)
Winners Only

Listed below are the Academy Award winners for the year 1961 (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

West Side Story, Mirisch Pictures, Inc. and B and P Enterprises, Inc.; United Artists. Robert Wise, Producer.

Best Actor

Maximilian Schell in Judgment at Nuremberg, Stanley Kramer Productions; United Artists.

Best Actress

Sophia Loren in Two Women, Champion-Les Films Marceau-Cocinor and Societe Generale De Cinematographie Production; Embassy Pictures Corporation. (Italy, France)

Actor in a Supporting Role

George Chakiris in West Side Story, Mirisch Pictures, Inc. and B and P Enterprises, Inc.; United Artists.

Actress in a Supporting Role

Rita Moreno in West Side Story, Mirisch Pictures, Inc. and B and P Enterprises, Inc.; United Artists.

Directing

West Side Story, Mirisch Pictures, Inc. and B and P Enterprises, Inc.; United Artists. Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins.

Art Direction-Set Decoration

(Black-and-White)

The Hustler, Robert Rossen Productions; 20th Century-Fox. Art direction by Harry Horner; set decoration by Gene Callahan.

(Color)

West Side Story, Mirisch Pictures, Inc. and B and P Enterprises, Inc.; United Artists. Art direction by Boris Leven; set decoration by Victor A. Gangelin.

Cinematography

(Black-and-White)

The Hustler, Robert Rossen Productions; 20th Century-Fox. Eugen Shuftan.

(Color)

West Side Story, Mirisch Pictures, Inc. and B and P Enterprises, Inc.; United Artists. Daniel L. Fapp.

Costume Design

(Black-and-White)

La Dolce Vita, Riama Film Production; Astor Pictures, Inc. (Italy, France) Piero Gherardi.

(Color)

West Side Story, Mirisch Pictures, Inc. and B and P Enterprises, Inc.; United Artists. Irene Sharaff.

Documentary

(Feature)

Le Ciel et la Boue (Sky Above and Mud Beneath), Ardennes Films and Michael Arthur Film Productions; Rank Film Distributors of America, Inc. (France, Liechtenstein) Arthur Cohn and Rene Lafuite, Producers.

(Short Subject)

Project Hope, MacManus, John & Adams, Inc./Klaeger Film Production; Ex-Cell-O Corporation. Frank P. Bibas, Producer.

Film Editing

West Side Story, Mirisch Pictures, Inc. and B and P Enterprises, Inc.; United Artists. Thomas Stanford.

Foreign Language Film

Through a Glass Darkly, A.B. Svensk Filmindustri Production; Janus Films. (Sweden)

Music

(Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture)

Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Jurow-Shepherd Production; Paramount. Henry Mancini.

(Scoring of a Musical Picture)

West Side Story, Mirisch Pictures, Inc. and B and P Enterprises, Inc.; United Artists. Saul Chaplin, Johnny Green, Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal.

(Song)

Moon River from Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Jurow-Shepherd Production; Paramount. Music by Henry Mancini; lyrics by Johnny Mercer.

Short Subjects

(Cartoons)

Ersatz (The Substitute), Zagrib Film; Herts-Lion International Corporation. (Yugoslavia)

(Live Action)

Seawards the Great Ships, Templar Film Studios; Lester A. Schoenfeld Films. (UK)

Sound

West Side Story, Mirisch Pictures, Inc. and B and P Enterprises, Inc.; United Artists. Todd-AO Sound Department, Fred Hynes, Sound Director; and Samuel Goldwyn Studio Sound Department, Gordon E. Sawyer, Sound Director.

Special Effects

The Guns of Navarone, Carl Foreman Production; Columbia. (UK) Visual effects by Bill Warrington; audible effects by Vivian C. Greenham.

Writing

(Screenplay—based on material from another medium)

Judgment at Nuremberg, Stanley Kramer Productions; United Artists. Abby Mann.

(Story and Screenplay—written directly for the screen)

Splendor in the Grass, NBI Production; Warner Bros. William Inge.

Honorary Award

To William L. Hendricks for his outstanding patriotic service in the conception, writing and production of the Marine Corps. film, A Force in Readiness, which has brought honor to the Academy and the motion picture industry. [ [Statuette]]

To Fred L. Metzler for his dedication and outstanding service to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. [ [Statuette]]

To Jerome Robbins for his brilliant achievements in the art of choreography on film. [ [Statuette]]

Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award

George Seaton

Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award

Stanley Kramer

Scientific or Technical Award

(Class II)

To Sylvania Electric Products, Inc., for the development of a hand held high-power photographic lighting unit known as the Sun Gun Professional.

To James Dale, S. Wilson, H. E. Rice, John Rude, Laurie Atkin, Wadsworth E. Pohl, H. Peasgood and Technicolor Corp. for a process of automatic selective printing.

To 20th Century-Fox Research Department, under the direction of E. I. Sponable and Herbert E. Bragg, and Deluxe Laboratories, Inc., with the assistance of F. D. Leslie, R. D. Whitmore, A. A. Alden, Endel Pool and James B. Gordon for a system of decompressing and recomposing CinemaScope pictures for conventional aspect ratios.

(Class III)

To Hurletron, Inc., Electric Eye Equipment Division, for an automatic light changing system for motion picture printers.

To Wadsworth E. Pohl and Technicolor Corp. for an integrated sound and picture transfer process.