The 32nd Academy Awards honored film achievements of 1959 on 4 April 1960.
MGM's (producer Sam Zimbalist) and director William Wyler's three and a half-hour long epic drama Ben-Hur (with a spectacular sea battle and eleven minute chariot race choreographed by Yakima Canutt) won 11 Oscars in 1959, breaking the previous year's all-time record of nine (Gigi (1958)). With its record-breaking eleven Oscar wins out of twelve nominations, it was the most honored motion picture in Academy Award history until Titanic and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King both equaled the feat in 1997 and 2003, respectively.
Ben-Hur was a re-make of MGM's own 1926 silent film of the same name, and it was the most expensive film of its time, budgeted at $15 million. Both films were based on or inspired by General Lew Wallace's novel (first published in 1880) about the rise of Christianity.
Ben-Hur was also the 3rd film to win both Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, and was the last to do that until 2004 when Mystic River did it.
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