The Katie-Bar-The-Door Awards (1961)

I think most people would go with George C. Scott in The Hustler for best supporting actor, but I'm going with his co-star Jackie Gleason. Both were nominated for Oscars, both deserved to win (both lost to George Chakiris in West Side Story).

Gleason as Minnesota Fats doesn't have much to say but he inhabits the character as fully as any actor I've seen play a role. Written on his face and in his body language is every compromise he's ever had to make to do the thing he does better than anybody else, and one look at him tells you everything you need to know about the empty world of big time pool hustling.

But you'll get no kick from me if you go with Scott. It's one of the best performances of his very great career.

PICTURE (Drama)
winner: The Hustler (prod. Robert Rossen)
nominees: The Guns of Navarone (prod. Carl Foreman); The Innocents (prod. Jack Clayton); Judgment At Nuremberg (prod. Stanley Kramer); A Raisin in the Sun (prod. Ronald H. Gilbert, Philip Rose and David Susskind)

PICTURE (Comedy/Musical)
winner: West Side Story (prod. Robert Wise)
nominees: Breakfast At Tiffany's (prod. Martin Jurow and Richard Shepherd); Lover Come Back (prod. Martin Melcher and Stanley Shapiro); One Hundred and One Dalmatians (prod. Walt Disney); One, Two, Three (prod. Billy Wilder)

PICTURE (Foreign Language)
winner: Yôjinbô (Yojimbo) (prod. Akira Kurosawa)
nominees: Divorzio all'italiana (Divorce—Italian Style) (prod. Franco Cristaldi); L'année dernière à Marienbad (Last Year at Marienbad) (prod. Pierre Courau, Anatole Dauman and Raymond Froment); Ningen no jôken (The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer) (prod. Masaki Kobayashi and Shigeru Wakatsuki); La notte (prod. Emanuele Cassuto); Såsom i en spegel (Through A Glass Darkly) (prod. Allan Ekelund); Viridiana (prod. Gustavo Alatriste)

ACTOR (Drama)
winner: Paul Newman (The Hustler)
nominees: Clark Gable (The Misfits); Sidney Poitier (A Raisin in the Sun); Vincent Price (Pit and the Pendulum); Maximilian Schell (Judgment At Nuremberg)

ACTOR (Comedy/Musical)
winner: Rock Hudson (Lover Come Back)
nominees: James Cagney (One, Two, Three); Fred MacMurray (The Absent-Minded Professor); Marcello Mastroianni (Divorzio all'italiana a.k.a. Divorce—Italian Style); Toshirô Mifune (Yôjinbô a.k.a. Yojimbo)

ACTRESS (Drama)
winner: Piper Laurie (The Hustler)
nominees: Anouk Aimée (Lola); Harriet Andersson (Såsom i en spegel a.k.a. Through A Glass Darkly); Deborah Kerr (The Innocents); Marilyn Monroe (The Misfits); Natalie Wood (Splendor in the Grass)

ACTRESS (Comedy/Musical)
winner: Audrey Hepburn (Breakfast At Tiffany's)
nominees: Doris Day (Lover Come Back); Anna Karina (Une femme est une femme a.k.a. A Woman Is A Woman); Hayley Mills (The Parent Trap); Margaret Rutherford (Murder She Said)

DIRECTOR (Drama)
winner: Alain Resnais (L'année dernière à Marienbad a.k.a. Last Year At Marienbad)
nominees: Michelangelo Antonioni (La notte); Luis Buñuel (Viridiana); Masaki Kobayashi (Ningen no jôken a.k.a. The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer); Robert Rossen (The Hustler)

DIRECTOR (Comedy/Musical)
winner: Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins (West Side Story)
nominees: Blake Edwards (Breakfast At Tiffany's); Pietro Germi (Divorzio all'italiana a.k.a. Divorce—Italian Style): Akira Kurosawa (Yôjinbô a.k.a. Yojimbo); Billy Wilder (One, Two, Three)

SUPPORTING ACTOR
winner: Jackie Gleason (The Hustler)
nominees: Gunnar Björnstrand (Såsom i en spegel a.k.a. Through A Glass Darkly); George Chakiris (West Side Story); Montgomery Clift (Judgment At Nuremberg); Tony Randall (Lover Come Back); George C. Scott (The Hustler)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
winner: Rita Moreno (West Side Story)
nominees: Edie Adams (Lover Come Back); Fay Bainter (The Children's Hour); Ruby Dee (A Raisin in the Sun); Marlene Dietrich (Judgment At Nuremberg); Judy Garland (Judgment At Nuremberg); Lotte Lenya (The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone); Pamela Tiffin (One, Two, Three)

SCREENPLAY
winner: Robert Rossen and Sidney Carroll, from the novel by Walter Tevis (The Hustler)
nominees: George Axelrod, from the novel by Truman Capote (Breakfast At Tiffany's); Luis Buñuel (story and screenplay) and Julio Alejandro, from the novel Halma by Benito Pérez Galdós (Viridiana); Akira Kurosawa (story and screenplay) and Ryûzô Kikushima (screenplay) (Yôjinbô a.k.a Yojimbo)

SPECIAL AWARDS
"Moon River" (Breakfast At Tiffany's) music by Henry Mancini; lyrics by Johnny Mercer (Song); Dede Allen (The Hustler) (Film Editing); Edward Beyer (The Hustler) (Sound); Eugen Schüfftan (The Hustler) (Cinematography)