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  Linguistics, Languages, and LiteraturesMotion Pictures
 
Motion Picture Highlights from 1958

Domestic production in 1958 declined to an all-time low of 216 films, while at the same time major U.S. studios were distributing foreign-language pictures, often dubbing them into English.

Academy Awards
(presented on March 26, 1958, for films released in 1957)

Best Picture -- The Bridge on the River Kwai
Best Actress -- Joanne Woodward, The Three Faces of Eve
Best Actor -- Alec Guinness, The Bridge on the River Kwai
Best Supporting Actress -- Miyoshi Umeki, Sayonara
Best Supporting Actor -- Red Buttons, Sayonara
Best Direction -- David Lean, The Bridge on the River Kwai
Best Cinematography -- Jack Hildyard, The Bridge on the River Kwai
Best Original Screenplay -- George Wells, Designing Women
Best Adapted Screenplay -- Pierre Boulle, The Bridge on the River Kwai
Best Song -- "All the Way," The Joker Is Wild, music by James Van Heusen, lyrics by Sammy Cahn
Best Music Scoring -- Malcolm Arnold, The Bridge on the River Kwai
Best Live Action Short Subject -- The Wetback Hound, Walt Disney Productions, Buena Vista
Best Cartoon Short Subject -- Birds Anonymous, Warner Brothers
Best Art Direction -- Ted Haworth, Sayonara
Best Set Direction -- Robert Priestley
Best Costume Design -- Orry-Kelly, Les Girls
Best Film Editing -- Peter Taylor, The Bridge on the River Kwai
Best Documentary Feature Production -- Albert Schweitzer, Hill and Anderson Productions, Louis de Rochemont
Best Sound Recording -- William A. Mueller, Sayonara
Best Special Effects -- The Enemy Below, 20th-Century Fox
Best Sound Effects -- Walter Rossi
Best Foreign Language Feature -- The Nights of Cabria, Dino De Laurentiis

Alec Guinness (left) and Sessue Hayakawa in The Bridge on the River Kwai, which was named the Best Picture of 1957 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Guinness won the Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Colonel Nicholson in the film.
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Miyoshi Umeki and Red Buttons after receiving their Academy Awards as Best Supporting Actress and Actor for their roles in Sayonara.

Top-Grossing Films of 1958
according to Variety

The Bridge on the River Kwai (released December 14, 1957; $18 million)
Peyton Place (December 13, 1957; $12 million)
Sayonara (December 25, 1957; $10.5 million)
No Time for Sergeants (May 29, 1958; $7.2 million)
The Vikings (June 28, 1958; $7 million)
Search for Paradise (September 24, 1957; $6.5 million)
South Pacific (March 19, 1958; $6.4 million)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (September 20, 1958; $6.1 million)
Raintree County (December 20, 1957; $6 million)
Old Yeller (December 25, 1957; $5.9 million)

A Viking ship replica sails into New York Harbor in June 1958. The ship, used in The Vikings, was sailed across the Atlantic from Norway.

Foreign Features Released in the United States in 1958
(original country, U.S. release date)

Rouge et Noir (France, April 8)
Blue Murder at St. Trinian's
(United Kingdom, May 26)
Poor But Beautiful (Italy, June 10)
The Case of Dr. Laurent
(France, June 27)
La Parisienne
(France, July 30)
Dunkirk
(United Kingdom, September 10)
Pather Panchali (India, September 22)
Windom's Way
(United Kingdom, September 30)
The Seventh Seal (Sweden,October 13)

Other 1958 Films

Released on May 15, 1958, Gigi ultimately won nine Academy Awards in 1959, including Best Motion Picture. Its star, Maurice Chevalier, also received a special award for his outstanding and continuing achievement in musical comedy.
Gigi
Trevor Howard (left) and William Holden starred in The Key (September 1), which was namedone of the best films of 1958 by Time magazine.
Folk singer Burl Ives (center) won 1958's Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance in The Big Country (October 1).
France's Jacques Tati wrote, produced, and starred in the Oscar-winning comedy My Uncle (released in France on May 10 and in the United States on November 3).
Susan Hayward won the 1958 Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of a woman convicted of murder and executed in I Want to Live (November 18).
David Niven's portrayal of a discredited British officer in Separate Tables (December 18) earned him the Best Actor Oscar.
Maria Schell laughs after being soaked during the filming of The Hanging Tree on location near Yakima, Washington. The film (released in 1959) was her second in the United States.
  Ingrid Bergman relaxes between takes of The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, filmed in Wales in 1958. The Chinese children appearing with her were recruited in London, England.

Miscellaneous Awards

An international film jury at the Brussels World's Fair picked six films as the best in history: Potemkin (1925) and Mother (1926), Russia; The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) and The Grand Illusion (1957), France; The Bicycle Thief (1948), Italy; and The Gold Rush (1925), United States.

Russia's The Cranes Are Flying won the grand prize at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival.

The Rickshaw Man, from Japan, won the Venice Film Festival's top prize.


In the Year 1958
Brussels World's Fair

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  SKC Films Library > Linguistics, Languages, and Literatures > Motion Pictures

This page was last updated on 06/24/2016.

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