Oscar statuette ©AMPAS


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

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

Best Actor

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

Best Actress

Winner markerSophia 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

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

Actress in a Supporting Role

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

Directing

Winner markerWest 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)

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

(Color)

Winner markerWest 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)

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

(Color)

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

Costume Design

(Black-and-White)

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

(Color)

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

Documentary

(Feature)

Winner markerLe 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)

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

Film Editing

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

Foreign Language Film

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

Music

(Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture)

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

(Scoring of a Musical Picture)

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

(Song)

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

Short Subjects

(Cartoons)

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

(Live Action)

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

Sound

Winner markerWest 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

Winner markerThe 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)

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

(Story and Screenplay—written directly for the screen)

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

Honorary Award

Winner markerTo 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]]
Winner markerTo Fred L. Metzler for his dedication and outstanding service to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. [ [Statuette]]
Winner markerTo Jerome Robbins for his brilliant achievements in the art of choreography on film. [ [Statuette]]

Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award

Winner markerGeorge Seaton

Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award

Winner markerStanley Kramer

Scientific or Technical Award

(Class II)

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

Winner markerTo Hurletron, Inc., Electric Eye Equipment Division, for an automatic light changing system for motion picture printers.
Winner markerTo Wadsworth E. Pohl and Technicolor Corp. for an integrated sound and picture transfer process.