Prior to its Los Angeles release, Liberty Films mounted an extensive promotional campaign that included a daily advertisement highlighting one of the film's players, along with comments from reviewers. Jimmy Starr wrote, "If I were an Oscar, I'd elope with It's a Wonderful Life lock, stock and barrel on the night of the Academy Awards". The New York Daily Times published an editorial that declared the film and James Stewart's performance to be worthy of Academy Award consideration.[83]
It's a Wonderful Life received five Academy Award nominations:[84]
| Year | Award | Result | Nominee / Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1946 | Best Picture | Nominated | Liberty Films Winner was Samuel Goldwyn Productions – The Best Years of Our Lives |
| Best Director | Nominated | Frank Capra Winner was William Wyler – The Best Years of Our Lives | |
| Best Actor | Nominated | James Stewart Winner was Fredric March – The Best Years of Our Lives | |
| Best Film Editing | Nominated | William Hornbeck Winner was Daniel Mandell – The Best Years of Our Lives | |
| Best Sound Recording | Nominated | John Aalberg Winner was John P. Livadary – The Jolson Story | |
| Technical Achievement Award | Won | Russell Shearman and RKO Radio Studio Special Effects Dept. For the development of a new method of simulating falling snow on motion picture sets. |
The Best Years of Our Lives, a drama about servicemen attempting to return to their pre-World War II lives, won most of the awards that year, including four of the five for which It's a Wonderful Life was nominated. (The award for "Best Sound Recording" was won by The Jolson Story.) The Best Years of Our Lives, directed by William Wyler, Capra's business partner along with George Stevens in Liberty Films, was also an outstanding commercial success, ultimately becoming the highest-grossing film of the decade, in contrast to the more modest initial box-office returns of It's a Wonderful Life.[85]
It's a Wonderful Life received a Golden Globe Award for Capra as Best Motion Picture Director. He also won a "CEC Award" from the Cinema Writers Circle in Spain, for Mejor Película Extranjera (Best Foreign Film). Jimmy Hawkins won a "Former Child Star Lifetime Achievement Award" from the Young Artist Awards in 1994; the award recognized his role as Tommy Bailey as igniting his career, which lasted until the mid-1960s.[86]
