The 28th Academy Awards were held on March 21, 1956 to honor the films of 1955, at the RKO Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
At just 90 minutes, Marty became the shortest film to win Best Picture, as well as the second to have also won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival (after The Lost Weekend in 1945).
This was the final year in which the Best Foreign Language Film was a Special/Honorary award. Beginning with the 29th Academy Awards, it became a competitive category.
Awards
Nominees were announced on February 18, 1956. Winners are listed first and highlighted in boldface. { | class=wikitable |- ! style="background:#EEDD82; width:50%" | Best Motion Picture ! style="background:#EEDD82; width:50%" | Best Director |- | valign="top" | Marty – Harold Hecht for United Artists Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing – Buddy Adler for 20th Century Fox Mister Roberts – Leland Hayward for Warner Bros. Picnic – Fred Kohlmar for Columbia Pictures The Rose Tattoo – Hal B. Wallis for Paramount Pictures | valign="top" | Delbert Mann – Marty John Sturges – Bad Day at Black Rock Elia Kazan – East of Eden Joshua Logan – Picnic David Lean – Summertime |- ! style="background:#EEDD82" | Best Actor ! style="background:#EEDD82" | Best Actress |- | valign="top" | Ernest Borgnine – Marty as Marty Piletti James Cagney – Love Me or Leave Me as Martin Snyder James Dean (posthumous nomination) – East of Eden as Caleb Trask Frank Sinatra – The Man with the Golden Arm as Frankie "Dealer" Machine Spencer Tracy – Bad Day at Black Rock as John J. Macreedy | valign="top" | Anna Magnani – The Rose Tattoo as Serafina Delle Rose Susan Hayward – I'll Cry Tomorrow as Lillian Roth Katharine Hepburn – Summertime as Jane Hudson Jennifer Jones – Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing as Dr. Han Suyin Eleanor Parker – Interrupted Melody as Marjorie Lawrence |- ! style="background:#EEDD82" | Best Supporting Actor ! style="background:#EEDD82" | Best Supporting Actress |- | valign="top" | Jack Lemmon – Mister Roberts as Ensign Frank Thurlowe Pulver Arthur Kennedy – Trial as Bernard Castle Joe Mantell – Marty as Angie Sal Mineo – Rebel Without a Cause as John "Plato" Crawford Arthur O'Connell – Picnic as Howard Bevans | valign="top" | Jo Van Fleet – East of Eden as Cathy Ames/Kate Trask Betsy Blair – Marty as Clara Peggy Lee – Pete Kelly's Blues as Rose Hopkins Marisa Pavan – The Rose Tattoo as Rosa Delle Rose Natalie Wood – Rebel Without a Cause as Judy |- ! style="background:#EEDD82" | Best Screenplay ! style="background:#EEDD82" | Best Story and Screenplay |- | valign="top" | Marty – Paddy Chayefsky from Marty by Paddy Chayefsky Bad Day at Black Rock – Millard Kaufman from "Bad Time at Honda" by Howard Breslin Blackboard Jungle – Richard Brooks from Blackboard Jungle by Evan Hunter East of Eden – Paul Osborn from East of Eden by John Steinbeck Love Me or Leave Me – Daniel Fuchs and Isobel Lennart | valign="top" | Interrupted Melody – William Ludwig and Sonya Levien The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell – Milton Sperling and Emmet Lavery It's Always Fair Weather – Betty Comden and Adolph Green Mr. Hulot's Holiday – Jacques Tati and Henri Marquet The Seven Little Foys – Melville Shavelson and Jack Rose |- ! style="background:#EEDD82" | Best Motion Picture Story ! style="background:#EEDD82" | Best Documentary Feature |- | valign="top" | Love Me or Leave Me – Daniel Fuchs The Private War of Major Benson – Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher Rebel Without a Cause – Nicholas Ray The Sheep Has Five Legs – Jean Marsan, Henri Troyat, Jacques Perret, Henri Verneuil, and Raoul Ploquin Strategic Air Command – Beirne Lay Jr. | valign="top" | Helen Keller in Her Story Heartbreak Ridge |- ! style="background:#EEDD82" | Best Documentary Short Subject ! style="background:#EEDD82" | Best Live Action Short Subject, One-Reel |- | valign="top" | Men Against the Arctic – Walt Disney The Battle of Gettysburg The Face of Lincoln | valign="top" | Survival City – Edmund Reek 3rd Ave.