Pollyanna (1960) is a Walt Disney Productions feature film starring child actress Hayley Mills, Jane Wyman, Karl Malden and Richard Egan in a story about a cheerful orphan changing the outlook of a small town. Based upon the novel Pollyanna (1913) by Eleanor Porter, the film was written and directed by David Swift. The film marks Mills' first of six films for Disney and won the actress an Academy Juvenile Award.

Pollyanna (Hayley Mills) is the orphaned daughter of missionaries who arrives in the small town of Harrington to live with her rich aunt, Polly Harrington (Jane Wyman). Pollyanna is a cheerful youngster who focuses on the goodness of life and, in doing so, makes a wide variety of friends in the community including the hypochondriac Mrs. Snow (Agnes Moorehead) and the acidic recluse Mr. Pendergast (Adolphe Menjou).

Aunt Polly's wealth controls the town, and, when Harrington citizens want a derelict orphanage razed and rebuilt, Aunt Polly opposes the idea. The townspeople defy her by planning a carnival to raise funds for a new structure, however, due to the control Aunt Polly asserts over every facet of the town, numerous townspeople are reluctant to show their support. Aunt Polly is furious with their audacity and forbids Pollyanna to participate.

Pollyanna is a best-selling 1913 novel by Eleanor H. Porter that is now considered a classic of children's literature, with the title character's name becoming a popular term for someone with the same optimistic outlook. The book was such a success that Porter soon produced a sequel, Pollyanna Grows Up (1915). Eleven more Pollyanna sequels, known as "Glad Books", were later published, most of them written by Elizabeth Borton or Harriet Lummis Smith. Further sequels followed, including Pollyanna Plays the Game by Colleen L. Reece, published in 1997.

Pollyanna has been adapted for film several times. Some of the best-known include Disney's 1960 version starring child actress Hayley Mills, who won a special Oscar for the role, and the 1920 version starring Mary Pickford.

The title character is named Pollyanna Whittier, a young orphan who goes to live in Beldingsville, Vermont, with her wealthy but stern Aunt Polly. Pollyanna's philosophy of life centers on what she calls "The Glad Game", an optimistic attitude she learned from her father. The game consists of finding something to be glad about in every situation. It originated in an incident one Christmas when Pollyanna, who was hoping for a doll in the missionary barrel, found only a pair of crutches inside. Making the game up on the spot, Pollyanna's father taught her to look at the good side of things—in this case, to be glad about the crutches because "we didn't need to use them!"

The year 1960 in film involved some significant events, with Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho the top-grossing release in the U.S.

(*) After theatrical re-issue(s)

Academy Awards:

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Palme d'Or (Cannes Film Festival):

Golden Lion (Venice Film Festival):

Golden Bear (Berlin Film Festival):

U.S.A. unless stated

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Year 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. It was the first year of the 1960s and is also known as the "Year of Africa".

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects. The process of filmmaking has developed into an art form and industry.

Films are cultural artifacts created by specific cultures, which reflect those cultures, and, in turn, affect them. Film is considered to be an important art form, a source of popular entertainment and a powerful method for educating – or indoctrinating – citizens. The visual elements of cinema give motion pictures a universal power of communication. Some films have become popular worldwide attractions by using dubbing or subtitles that translate the dialogue into the language of the viewer.

Films are made up of a series of individual images called frames. When these images are shown rapidly in succession, a viewer has the illusion that motion is occurring. The viewer cannot see the flickering between frames due to an effect known as persistence of vision, whereby the eye retains a visual image for a fraction of a second after the source has been removed. Viewers perceive motion due to a psychological effect called beta movement.