"Days of Heaven" was finally released in 1978 to mostly positive responses from critics. Its cinematography was widely praised, although some found its story lackluster. In "The New York Times", Harold C. Schonberg wrote that it "is full of elegant and striking photography; and it is an intolerably artsy, artificial film." However, it later won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography and the prize for Best Director at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival. "Days of Heaven" has since grown in stature, having been voted one of the 50 greatest American films ever made in a 2015 critics' poll published by BBC.