 The film won the 1981 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Film) Best Screenplay Award, as well as the 1980 Writers Guild of America Award (Screen) for Best Comedy Adapted from Another Medium.It was also nominated for the 1980 Golden Globe Best Screenplay Award (Motion Picture).According to Eliot Weinberger, an American writer, essayist, editor and translator, Kosiński was not the author of "The Painted Bird".