23rd Annual Academy Awards Results and Commentary (1951)
©A.M.P.A.S.®
- Date of Ceremony: Thursday, March 29, 1951
- For films released in: 1950
- Host(s): Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire hosted the 23rd Academy Awards at the RKO Pantage Theatre on Thursday, March 29, 1951.
All About Eve took home six of its record-breaking 14 nominations including Best Picture and Best Director, while Sunset Boulevard went home with three awards out of eleven nominations.
An interesting note: Judy Holliday, Jose Ferrer and Josephine Hull all won Oscars® for roles they had previously performed onstage.
Results
Best Motion Picture
- All About Eve
20th Century-Fox
Best Directing
- All About Eve
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Best Actor
- Cyrano de Bergerac
Jose Ferrer
Best Actress
- Born Yesterday
Judy Holliday
Best Actor in a Supporting Role
- All About Eve
George Sanders
Best Actress in a Supporting Role
- Harvey
Josephine Hull
Honorary Foreign Language Film Award
- Walls of Malapaga
Note: …voted by the Board of Governors as the most outstanding foreign language film released in the United States in 1950.
Best Art Direction (Black-and-White)
- Sunset Blvd.
Hans Dreier [Art Direction], John Meehan [Art Direction], Sam Comer [Set Decoration] and Ray Moyer [Set Decoration]
Best Art Direction (Color)
- Samson and Delilah
Hans Dreier [Art Direction], Walter Tyler [Art Direction], Sam Comer [Set Decoration] and Ray Moyer [Set Decoration]
Best Cinematography (Black-and-White)
- The Third Man
Robert Krasker
Best Cinematography (Color)
- King Solomon's Mines
Robert Surtees
Best Costume Design (Black-and-White)
- All About Eve
Edith Head and Charles LeMaire
Best Costume Design (Color)
- Samson and Delilah
Edith Head, Dorothy Jeakins, Elois Jenssen, Gile Steele and Gwen Wakeling
Best Documentary (Feature)
- The Titan: Story of Michelangelo
Robert Snyder
Best Documentary (Short Subject)
- Why Korea?
Edmund Reek
Best Film Editing
- King Solomon's Mines
Ralph E. Winters and Conrad A. Nervig
Best Music (Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture)
- Sunset Blvd.
Franz Waxman
Best Music (Scoring of a Musical Picture)
- Annie Get Your Gun
Adolph Deutsch and Roger Edens
Best Music (Song)
- Captain Carey, U.S.A. "Mona Lisa"
Ray Evans [Music and Lyrics by] and Jay Livingston [Music and Lyrics by]
Best Short Subject (Cartoon)
- Gerald McBoing-Boing
Stephen Bosustow
Best Short Subject (One-reel)
- Grandad of Races
Gordon Hollingshead
Best Short Subject (Two-reel)
- In Beaver Valley
Walt Disney
Best Sound Recording
- All About Eve
20th Century-Fox Studio Sound Department and Thomas T. Moulton [Sound Director]
Best Special Effects
- Destination Moon
George Pal Productions
Best Writing (Screenplay)
- All About Eve
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Best Writing (Story and Screenplay)
- Sunset Blvd.
Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder and D.M. Marshman, Jr.
Best Writing (Motion Picture Story)
- Panic in the Streets
Edna Anhalt and Edward Anhalt
Honorary Award
- George Murphy
Note: …for his services in interpreting the film industry to the country at large. - Louis B. Mayer
Note: …for distinguished service to the motion picture industry.
Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award
- Darryl F. Zanuck
Scientific or Technical Award (Class II)
- James B. Gordon and 20th Century-Fox Studio Camera Department
Note: …for the design and development of a multiple image film viewer. - John P. Livadary, Floyd Campbell, L.W. Russell and Columbia Studio Sound Department
Note: …for the development of a multi-track magnetic re-recording system. - Loren L. Ryder and Paramount Studio Sound Department
Note: …for the first studio-wide application of magnetic sound recording to motion picture production.