29th Academy Awards
The 29th Academy Awards were held on March 27, 1957, to honor the films of 1956.
In this year, Academy Award for Best [Foreign Language Film|Best International Feature Film] became a competitive category, having been given as a Special Achievement Award since 1947. The first competitive winner was List of Italian submissions for [the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film|Italy], for Federico Fellini's La Strada, which received a further nomination for Best Original Screenplay.
This was the first year in which all Best Picture nominees were in color, and all were large-scale epics: The [King and I (1956 film)|The King and I], Giant, The [Ten Commandments (1956 film)|The Ten Commandments], Friendly Persuasion, and the winner, Around the World in 80 Days. This established a trend toward blockbusters and colorful spectaculars in the category, with The Bridge on the River Kwai, Gigi, and Ben-Hur following as Best Picture winners.
The Best Original Story category was noteworthy this year for several reasons. The winner, Robert Rich was in fact a pseudonym of Dalton Trumbo, who was blacklisted at the time and thus unable to receive credit under his own name. Edward Bernds and Elwood Ullman withdrew their names from consideration for their work on High Society, as the nomination had been intended for the musical starring Grace Kelly, while Bernds and Ullman had instead written a Bowery Boys film of the same name the year before. The nomination was a double mistake, as High Society was based on the play and film The [Philadelphia Story (film)|The Philadelphia Story] and did not qualify as an original story.
James Dean became the only actor to receive a second posthumous nomination for acting. Ingrid Bergman was not present to collect her award for Best Actress: Cary Grant accepted on her behalf. Bergman, who was doing a play in Paris, praised her own victory, saying that the Oscar is "the most wished-for award by all movie artists because it comes from your co-workers". She later listed the nominees for Best Director via the same pre-recorded segment, while the winner was announced by host Jerry Lewis.
Director John Ford's classic western The Searchers, widely seen as one of the best American films of all time, failed to receive a single nomination.
This was the second time since the introduction of the Supporting Actor and Actress awards that Best Picture, Best Director, and all four acting Oscars were given to different films. This would not happen again until the 78th Academy Awards. Around the World in 80 Days became the sixth film to win Best Picture without any acting nominations and the most recent to win Best Picture without winning Best Director or any acting nominations. It was also the last film to win Best Picture without winning Best Director or any of the acting categories until Chariots of Fire in 1981.
Stephen Bosustow became the only producer in Academy history to receive every nomination in a category.
Winners and nominees
Awards
Nominees were announced on February 18, 1957. Winners are listed first and highlighted in boldface.Honorary Award
- To Eddie Cantor for distinguished service to the film industry.
Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award
Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award
Presenters and performers
Presenters
- Carroll Baker
- Ingrid Bergman
- Ernest Borgnine
- Gower Champion and Marge Champion
- Dorothy Dandridge
- Kirk Douglas
- Janet Gaynor
- Rock Hudson and Eva Marie Saint
- Nancy Kelly
- Deborah Kerr
- Jack Lemmon
- Anna Magnani
- Dorothy Malone
- Mercedes McCambridge and Robert Stack
- Patty McCormack and Mickey Rooney
- George Seaton
- Elizabeth Taylor
- Claire Trevor
Performers
- Johnny Green – Conductor the Academy Awards orchestra
- Bing Crosby
- Dorothy Dandridge
- The Four Aces
- Gogi Grant
- Tommy Sands
Multiple nominations and awards
| Awards | Film |
| 5 | Around the World in 80 Days |
| 5 | The King and I |
| 2 | Somebody Up There Likes Me |