Oscar Ledger › Ceremonies › 29th Academy Awards

Around the World in 80 Days poster
Best PictureAround the World in 80 Days

29th Academy Awards

The 1956 file: winners first, ballot trails on demand, and the films that shaped the ceremony.

Year 1956
Nominations 134
Categories Decided All 31
Top Winner The King and I
Full Ballot Open Full Ledger

Ceremony at a glance

Best Picture went to Around the World in 80 Days. The winning leader is The King and I with 5 wins. The most nominated title is Giant with 10 nominations. 36 winners named across 31 categories.

Most awarded titles

  1. The King and I 5 wins9 nominations
  2. Around the World in 80 Days 5 wins8 nominations
  3. Somebody Up There Likes Me 2 wins3 nominations
  4. Giant 1 win10 nominations
  5. The Ten Commandments 1 win7 nominations

Best Picture Nominees

The major races

Around the World in 80 Days took Picture; The King and I controlled the board. Picture, Director, Actor and Actress: 4 of 4 decided, 20 nominees in all.

Complete Ceremony Ledger

Every winner and nominee in every category, with film, person and review links.

Use Fast View

27 categories134 records36 winners

1 winner5 records

1 winner5 records

1 winner5 records

1 winner5 records

1 winner5 records

1 winner5 records

1 winner5 records

1 winner5 records

Nominee

Friendly Persuasion

Credit: Michael Wilson

NOTE: Early in 1956, the name of blacklisted screenwriter Michael Wilson had been deleted from the screen 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 be ineligible. The following instructions were sent to Price Waterhouse & Co., Certified Public Accountants, who tabulated Academy ballots: "...we ask that if, in tabulating the nominations ballots for Best Screenplay (adapted), Friendly Persuasion is one of the five nominations, you list the other four alphabetically by title and below: Friendly Persuasion - Achievement nominated, but writer ineligible for Award under Academy By-Laws." On February 17, 1957, the Academy's Board of Governors voted to instruct Price Waterhouse & Co. "...to list five nominations, and in the event that one of these is declared ineligible under the By-Law provision, four nominations would appear on the final ballot." THIS NOMINATION WAS NOT INCLUDED ON THE FINAL BALLOT. (The bylaw was repealed by the Academy as "unworkable" on January 12, 1959.) On December 10, 2002, the Academy's Board of Governors voted to reinstate Mr. Wilson's nomination.

Film History Person History

1 winner5 records

1 winner5 records

1 winner5 records

1 winner5 records

1 winner2 records

1 winner5 records

1 winner5 records

1 winner5 records

1 winner5 records

1 winner5 records

1 winner5 records

1 winner3 records

1 winner5 records

1 winner5 records

1 winner3 records

1 winner3 records

1 winner4 records

1 winner5 records

1 winner5 records

Winner

The Brave One

Credit: 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. Robert Rich (who had nothing to do with the film industry) is a nephew of the King Brothers, producers of the film. They chose his name to be the alias for Dalton Trumbo on the screenplay.

Film History Person History
Nominee

High Society

Credit: Edward BerndsElwood Ullman

NOTE: THIS IS NOT AN OFFICIAL NOMINATION. Edward Bernds and Elwood Ullman, 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.)

Film History

Ceremony Highlights

Categories in this ceremony

Best Actor Best Supporting Actor Best Actress Best Supporting Actress ART DIRECTION (Black-and-White) ART DIRECTION (Color) Best Picture CINEMATOGRAPHY (Black-and-White) CINEMATOGRAPHY (Color) COSTUME DESIGN (Black-and-White) COSTUME DESIGN (Color) Best Director DOCUMENTARY (Feature) DOCUMENTARY (Short Subject) FILM EDITING HONORARY AWARD INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM IRVING G. THALBERG MEMORIAL AWARD JEAN HERSHOLT HUMANITARIAN AWARD MUSIC (Original Score) MUSIC (Original Song Score or Adaptation Score) MUSIC (Original Song) SCIENTIFIC OR TECHNICAL AWARD (Class III) SHORT FILM (Animated) SHORT SUBJECT (One-reel) SHORT SUBJECT (Two-reel) SOUND RECORDING VISUAL EFFECTS WRITING (Adapted Screenplay) WRITING (Original Screenplay) WRITING (Original Story)

Winner Circle

Sortable ledger

Every nomination from this ceremony as a sortable table, for research that needs the raw record beside the posters and winners above.

Poster View Data Explorer