The film won Academy Awards for Jimmy Stewart (Best Actor), and screenwriter Donald Ogden Stewart (Best Adapted Screenplay).
It also received Academy Award nominations for George Cukor (Best Director) Katharine Hepburn (Best Actress), Ruth Hussey (Best Supporting Actress), and Best Picture.
The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. It was remade in 1956 as a musical titled High Society.