 The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Ben Johnson and Jeff Bridges for Best Supporting Actor, and Ellen Burstyn and Cloris Leachman for Best Supporting Actress, with Johnson and Leachman winning.In 1998 the film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.In 1951 Sonny Crawford and Duane Jackson are high-school seniors and friends in Anarene, Texas, a small declining northern Texas town.