Awards and Nominations
André Previn and Ken Darby won the Academy Award for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture. Leon Shamroy was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography (Color) but lost to Robert Surtees for Ben-Hur. Irene Sharaff was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design (Color) but lost to Elizabeth Haffenden for Ben-Hur. Gordon Sawyer and Fred Hynes were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Sound but lost to Franklin Milton for Ben-Hur.
The film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy. Sidney Poitier and Dorothy Dandridge were nominated in the musical/comedy performance category but lost to Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe, both for Some Like It Hot.
N. Richard Nash was nominated for the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Musical but lost to Robert Smith, Jack Rose, and Melville Shavelson for The Five Pennies.
The film's soundtrack album won the Grammy Award for Best Sound Track Album or Recording of Original Cast From a Motion Picture or Television.
In 2011, Porgy and Bess was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. The Registry noted the film's production history, a period when "the civil rights movement gained momentum and a number of African-American actors turned down roles they considered demeaning," but that, over time, it was "now considered an 'overlooked masterpiece' by one contemporary scholar".
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