Oscar Nominations: 2

 

Film Editing: Frederic Knudtson

Scoring (Dramatic or Comedy): Ernest Gold

 

Oscar Awards: None

 

Oscar Context:

 

Ben-Hur won 11 out of its 12 nominations, thus becoming the most honored film to date, including Oscars for Miklos Rozsa's score and Ralph E. Winters and John D. Dunning for editing.  Significantly, the film lost the Screenplay Oscar due to debate about who wrote what; in his acceptance speech Best Actor Winner Charlton Heston thanked Christopher Frye, though, like other writers (Gore Vidal among them), he didn't get credit. 

 

“Ben-Hur” won over Preminger's courtroom drama Anatomy of a Murder,” which lost in each of its 7 categories; the Holocaust drama, “The Diary of Anne Frank,” which received 7 nominations and won 3; Fred Zinnemann's morality tale “The Nine's Story,” which also lost in each of its 7 nominations, and the superb British drama “Room at the Top,” which won 2 out of its 6 nominations.