The 1960 Academy Awards were presented April 17, 1961 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.
| Best Motion Picture | The Alamo, John Wayne, producer (United Artists) |
| The Apartment, Billy Wilder, producer (United Artists) |
| Elmer Gantry, Bernard Smith, producer (United Artists) |
| Sons and Lovers, Jerry Wald, producer (Twentieth Century-Fox) |
| The Sundowners, Fred Zinnemann, producer (Warner Bros.) |
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 The Apartment Archive Photos |
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| Best Actor | Trevor Howard, Sons and Lovers |
| Burt Lancaster, Elmer Gantry |
| Jack Lemmon, The Apartment |
| Laurence Olivier, The Entertainer |
| Spencer Tracy, Inherit the Wind |
| Best Actress | Greer Garson, Sunrise at Campobello |
| Deborah Kerr, The Sundowners |
| Shirley MacLaine, The Apartment |
| Melina Mercouri, Never on Sunday |
| Elizabeth Taylor, Butterfield 8 |
| Actor in a Supporting Role | Peter Falk, Murder, Inc. |
| Jack Kruschen, The Apartment |
| Sal Mineo, Exodus |
| Peter Ustinov, Spartacus |
| Chill Wills, The Alamo |
| Actress in a Supporting Role | Glynis Johns, The Sundowners |
| Shirley Jones, Elmer Gantry |
| Shirley Knight, The Dark at the Top of the Stairs |
| Janet Leigh, Psycho |
| Mary Ure, Sons and Lovers |
| Directing | Jack Cardiff, Sons and Lovers |
| Jules Dassin, Never on Sunday |
| Alfred Hitchcock, Psycho |
| Billy Wilder, The Apartment |
| Fred Zinnemann, The Sundowners |
| Writing | | Screenplay Based on Material From Another Medium | Richard Brooks, Elmer Gantry | | James Kennaway, Tunes of Glory | | Gavin Lambert and T. E. B. Clarke, Sons and Lovers | | Isobel Lennart, The Sundowners | | Nedrick Young and Harold Jacob Smith, Inherit the Wind | | Story and Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen | Jules Dassin, Never on Sunday | | Marguérite Duras, Hiroshima, Mon Amour | | Richard Gregson and Michael Craig, story; Bryan Forbes, screenplay, The Angry Silence | | Norman Panama and Melvin Frank, The Facts of Life | | Billy Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond, The Apartment |
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| Cinematography | | Black-and-White | Freddie Francis, Sons and Lovers | | Charles B. Lang, Jr., The Facts of Life | | Joseph LaShelle, The Apartment | | Ernest Laszlo, Inherit the Wind | | John L. Russell, Psycho | | Color | William H. Clothier, The Alamo | | Sam Leavitt, Exodus | | Joe MacDonald, Pepe | | Russell Metty, Spartacus | | Joseph Ruttenberg and Charles Harten, Butterfield 8 |
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| Art Direction | | Black-and-White | Joseph Hurley and Robert Clatworthy, art direction; George Milo, set decoration, Psycho | | Joseph McMillan Johnson and Kenneth A. Reid, art direction; Ross Dowd, set decoration, The Facts of Life | | Tom Morahan, art direction; Lionel Couch, set decoration, Sons and Lovers | | Hal Pereira and Walter Tyler, art direction; Sam Comer and Arthur Krams, set decoration, Visit to a Small Planet | | Alexander Trauner, art direction; Edward G. Boyle, set decoration, The Apartment | | Color | Edward Carrere, art direction; George James Hopkins, set decoration, Sunrise at Campobello | | George W. Davis and Addison Hehr, art direction; Henry Grace, Hugh Hunt and Otto Siegel, set decoration, Cimarron | | Alexander Golitzen and Eric Orbom, art direction; Russell A. Gausman and Julia Heron, set decoration, Spartacus | | Ted Haworth, art direction; William Kiernan, set decoration, Pepe | | Hal Pereira and Roland Anderson, art direction; Sam Comer and Arrigo Breschi, set decoration, It Started in Naples |
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| Sound | Columbia Studio Sound Dept., Pepe |
| MGM Studio Sound Dept., Cimarron |
| Samuel Goldwyn Studio Sound Dept. and Todd-AO Sound Dept., The Alamo |
| Samuel Goldwyn Studio Sound Dept., The Apartment |
| Warner Bros. Studio Sound Dept., Sunrise at Campobello |
| Music | | Song | “The Facts of Life,” The Facts of Life, Johnny Mercer, music and lyrics | | “Faraway Part of Town,” Pepe, André Previn, music; Dory Langdon, lyrics | | “The Green Leaves of Summer,” The Alamo, Dimitri Tiomkin, music; Paul Francis Webster, lyrics | | “Never on Sunday,” Never on Sunday, Manos Hadjidakis, music and lyrics | | “The Second Time Around,” High Time, James Van Heusen, music; Sammy Cahn, lyrics | | Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture | Elmer Bernstein, The Magnificent Seven | | Ernest Gold, Exodus | | Alex North, Spartacus | | André Previn, Elmer Gantry | | Dimitri Tiomkin, The Alamo | | Scoring of a Musical Picture | Johnny Green, Pepe | | Lionel Newman and Earle H. Hagen, Let's Make Love | | André Previn, Bells Are Ringing | | Nelson Riddle, Can-Can | | Morris Stoloff and Harry Sukman, Song Without End |
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| Film Editing | Stuart Gilmore, The Alamo |
| Frederic Knudtson, Inherit the Wind |
| Robert Lawrence, Spartacus |
| Viola Lawrence and Al Clark, Pepe |
| Daniel Mandell, The Apartment |
| Costume Design | | Black-and-White | Edith Head and Edward Stevenson, The Facts of Life | | Howard Shoup, The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond | | Bill Thomas, Seven Thieves | | Deni Vachlioti, Never on Sunday | | Marik Vos, The Virgin Spring | | Color | Marjorie Best, Sunrise at Campobello | | Edith Head, Pepe | | Irene, Midnight Lace | | Irene Sharaff, Can-Can | | Bill Thomas and Valles, Spartacus |
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| Special Effects | A.J. Lohman, visual, The Last Voyage |
| Gene Warren and Tim Baar, visual, The Time Machine |
| Short Subjects | | Cartoon | Goliath II (Walt Disney Productions; Buena Vista) | | High Note (Looney Tune Series) (Warner Bros.) | | Mouse and Garden (Sylvester the Cat Series) (Warner Bros.) | | Munro (Noveltoon Series) (Rembrandt Films; Film Representations) | | A Place in the Sun (Frantisek Vystrecil, producer; George K. Arthur-Go Pictures) | | Live Action | The Creation of Woman (Trident Films, Inc.; Sterling World Distributors) | | Day of the Painter (Little Movies; Kingsley-Union Films) | | Islands of the Sea (True Life Adventure Series) (Walt Disney Productions; Buena Vista) | | A Sport Is Born (Sports Illustrated Series) (Leslie Winik, producer; Paramount) |
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| Documentary | | Short Subject | Beyond Silence (U.S. Information Agency) | | A City Called Copenhagen (Statens Filmcentral; Danish Government Film Office) | | George Grosz' Interregnum (Charles Carey and Altina Carey, producers; Educational Communications Corp.) | | Giuseppina (James Hill Production; Lester A. Schoenfeld Films) | | Universe (National Film Board of Canada; Lester A. Schoenfeld Films) | | Feature | The Horse With the Flying Tail (Walt Disney Productions; Buena Vista) | | Rebel in Paradise (Robert D. Fraser, producer; Tiare Co.) |
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| Foreign Language Film | Kapo, Italy |
| La Verité, France |
| Macario, Mexico |
| The Ninth Circle, Yugoslavia |
| The Virgin Spring, Sweden |
| Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award | Sol Lesser |
| Honorary Awards | To Gary Cooper for his many memorable screen performances and the international recognition he, as an individual, has gained for the motion picture industry |
| To Stan Laurel for his creative pioneering in the field of cinema comedy |
| To Hayley Mills for Pollyana, the most outstanding juvenile performance during 1960 |
