Raiders of the Lost Ark won five Academy Awards.
The film was honored at the 54th Academy Awards ceremony in 1982, recognizing movies released during 1981. Its competitive wins included Best Art Direction, Best Film Editing, Best Sound and Best Visual Effects. It also received a Special Achievement Award for Sound Effects Editing, bringing its total to five Oscars.
The victories reflected the film’s technical achievement as much as its popularity. Douglas Slocombe’s cinematography, Michael Kahn’s fast-paced editing, Ben Burtt’s sound work and the visual-effects team helped define the modern action-adventure blockbuster.
A frequent confusion is counting only the four standard competitive categories and overlooking the separate sound-effects prize. The film did not win Best Picture, Director or Actor, although it was widely acclaimed and received several major nominations. Raiders later entered the United States National Film Registry in 1999.