Raiders of the Lost Ark received eight Academy Award nominations.
At the 54th Academy Awards, the film was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Sound, Best Art Direction, and Best Visual Effects. It won five awards: Film Editing, Sound, Art Direction, Visual Effects, and a special achievement award connected with sound effects editing.
The Best Picture nomination recognized the film as more than a conventional action adventure. Its technical nominations also reflected the importance of practical effects, miniature work, sound design, editing, and John Williams’s score.
The film did not win Best Director or Best Picture. That distinction is sometimes obscured because Raiders became one of the most influential and commercially successful adventure films of its era.