Awards and Nominations
The film won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Film of 1980.
Mary Steenburgen won several awards for her performance, including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture, the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress, the Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress, and the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Jason Robards was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture, and was honored by the Boston critics.
Bo Goldman won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Drama Written Directly for the Screen, the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Screenplay, the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Screenplay, and the Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Screenplay.
Dennis Bingham's Whose Lives Are They Anyway? The Biopic as Contemporary Film Genre cites Melvin and Howard as the first film in the subgenre "biopic of someone undeserving," or "BOSUD," which was later popularized by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski with Ed Wood, Man on the Moon, The People vs. Larry Flynt, and Auto Focus.
Paul Thomas Anderson has cited the film as one of his favorites. Shots in his 2012 feature The Master recall this movie's cinematography. Additionally, Robards' final acting role was in Anderson's Magnolia.
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