Ben-Hur (1959 film) scope and grand spectacle, "Ben-Hur" still ranks among Hollywood's finest examples of pure entertainment." "Ben-Hur" was nominated for 12 Academy Awards and won an unprecedented 11. , only "Titanic" in 1998 and "" in 2004 have matched the film's wins. The lone category where "Ben-Hur" did not win was for Best Adapted Screenplay (losing to "Room at the Top"), and most observers attributed this to the controversy over the writing credit. MGM and Panavision shared a special technical Oscar in March 1960 for developing the Camera 65 photographic process. "Ben-Hur" also won three Golden Globe Awards – Best Motion Picture
Ben-Hur (2016 film) wrote, "Overseen by a director not known for his human touch and lacking a name star, except for Mr. Freeman, "Ben-Hur" feels like a film made on the cheap, although it looks costly." Richard Roeper gave the film two stars out of four, writing: ""Ben-Hur" struggles to find an identity and never really gets there. The well-intentioned efforts to achieve moving, faith-based awakenings are undercut by the casually violent, PG-13 action sequences." "The Hollywood Reporter"s Todd McCarthy described the film's chariot race scene as being "heavily digitized and over-edited", and called it the worst scene of the film he described