The question seems simple enough. The Outsiders — S.E. Hinton's 1967 novel, Coppola's 1983 film, a staple of middle school English classes for decades. You'd think the awards shelf would be crowded.
It's not Most people skip this — try not to..
That's not because the book or movie lacked impact. Here's the thing — they didn't. But the awards conversation around The Outsiders is weirder, quieter, and more interesting than most people realize. If you're here because you saw a trivia question, a crossword clue, or you're just trying to settle an argument — here's the real story.
What Is The Outsiders
In case you need the quick version: The Outsiders is a coming-of-age novel written by Susan Eloise Hinton when she was sixteen. Now, seventeen when it published. It follows Ponyboy Curtis, a greaser in 1960s Tulsa, navigating class conflict, loyalty, and the kind of grief that rearranges your insides. The greasers versus the Socs. Plus, "Stay gold. " You know the lines.
The film came sixteen years later. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, Tom Cruise, Diane Lane. The cast reads like a time capsule of young Hollywood: C. That said, francis Ford Coppola directed. Some of them hadn't hit their growth spurts yet Practical, not theoretical..
Both versions are cultural bedrock. But awards? That's where it gets complicated.
Why It Matters / Why People Care
People ask about awards for The Outsiders for a few reasons.
Sometimes it's academic. Day to day, you're writing a paper on YA literature's legitimacy and need to know if the genre's foundational text got institutional recognition. Sometimes it's nostalgia — you loved the book, you loved the movie, and you assume the world honored them properly. Sometimes it's pure trivia. Consider this: "Did The Outsiders win an Oscar? " is a legitimate pub quiz question.
But there's a deeper reason the answer feels unsatisfying: The Outsiders changed things without winning the usual trophies. It helped invent the modern young adult novel. It forced publishers to take teenagers seriously as readers and writers. It got banned. It got taught. It survived The details matter here..
Awards are one metric. Cultural staying power is another. They don't always align.
Awards for the Novel
Here's the short version: The Outsiders did not win any major literary awards at publication Took long enough..
No Newbery. Consider this: no National Book Award. That's why the American Library Association didn't give it a major medal in 1967. On the flip side, no Pulitzer — obviously, it's not that kind of book, but the point stands. The New York Times didn't name it a best book of the year Most people skip this — try not to..
What it did get instead
- ALA Best Books for Young Adults (1967) — This was a list, not a medal. But it mattered. It signaled librarians saw value where critics didn't.
- Massachusetts Children's Book Award (1979) — Twelve years later. Voted on by kids. That tells you something.
- ALA "Best of the Best" (1970s) — Retrospective recognition.
- Margaret A. Edwards Award (1988) — This one's important. It didn't go to The Outsiders specifically. It went to S.E. Hinton for her body of work — The Outsiders, That Was Then, This Is Now, Rumble Fish, Tex. The citation explicitly names The Outsiders as the book that "provided a realistic, gritty portrayal of teenage life that had been missing from young adult literature."
That last one? It's the closest thing to a lifetime achievement award for YA writers. Worth adding: hinton was the first recipient. She was thirty-nine Still holds up..
Why the silence at launch?
A few reasons. Consider this: the publishing establishment didn't know what to do with a novel written by a teenager about teenagers that didn't talk down to them. Even so, reviewers called it "melodramatic" and "sensational. " Some praised its honesty. But the award committees — mostly adults, mostly oriented toward "literary" children's books — didn't know where to put it.
Also: Hinton used initials. E. On the flip side, s. They didn't know she was a girl. Her publisher suggested it because they thought a male name would sell better to boys. The Newbery committee that year? Which means hinton. They didn't know she was sixteen. They judged the book on the page — and passed.
Irony, meet The Outsiders Worth keeping that in mind..
Awards for the Film
The 1983 movie had a different awards trajectory. It wasn't ignored — but it wasn't decorated either Most people skip this — try not to..
Academy Awards
Zero nominations. Zero wins.
Not for cinematography (Stephen H. Burum shot it beautifully — all golden light and smoke). Not for score (Carpenter's synth theme is iconic). Not for adapted screenplay (Kathleen Rowell). Not for any of those young actors, several of whom delivered career-defining work.
Golden Globes
One nomination. Matt Dillon for New Star of the Year — Actor. He didn't win. (Eddie Murphy won for Trading Places Easy to understand, harder to ignore..
Other Recognition
- Young Artist Awards (1984) — The film won Best Family Motion Picture. The entire young ensemble won Best Young Ensemble Cast. C. Thomas Howell won Best Young Actor in a Motion Picture. Diane Lane won Best Young Actress in a Motion Picture.
- National Board of Review — Named it one of the Top Ten Films of 1983. That's a critics' group. It carries weight.
- Tokyo International Film Festival (1983) — Francis Ford Coppola won Best Director. The film was nominated for the Grand Prix.
The "Complete Novel" Re-Release (2005)
Coppola re-cut the film in 2005, adding twenty-two minutes of footage he'd originally cut to meet studio runtime demands. He called it The Outsiders: The Complete Novel. It screened at festivals. It got rave reviews. It won Best Director at the San Sebastián International Film Festival — twenty-two years after the original release Less friction, more output..
That's a weird awards timeline. But it happened The details matter here..
Common Mistakes / What Most People Get Wrong
"It won the Newbery."
Nope. The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox won in 1974. The Outsiders wasn't even a finalist Which is the point..
"It won an Oscar for Best Picture."
Terms of Endearment won that year. The Outsiders wasn't nominated Worth keeping that in mind..
"S.E. Hinton won the Nobel Prize."
She didn't. She won the Margaret A. Edwards Award and the Anne V. Zarrow Award. Both are significant in their circles. Neither is the Nobel But it adds up..
"The movie flopped."
It didn't. Made $25.
million. Practically speaking, against an $8. 5 million budget, that's a solid return — not a blockbuster, but not a failure. Think about it: in 1983 dollars, that's respectable. In cultural impact? Incalculable.
The real box office wasn't measured in ticket sales. Day to day, it was measured in how many kids walked out of theaters feeling seen. How many teenagers who'd never seen themselves reflected in a novel suddenly had a protagonist who looked like them, talked like them, fought like them — and still had a conscience That's the part that actually makes a difference..
The Legacy
Here's what the awards don't capture.
The book has never gone out of print. Not once. Since 1967, The Outsiders has been continuously available on shelves — in libraries, in classrooms, in used bookstores with cracked spines and underlined passages in the margins. It's been translated into over thirty languages. It's been taught in schools across the world, often as the first "real" book a reluctant reader picks up Easy to understand, harder to ignore..
The film has become a rite of passage. Now, not a classic in the way Casablanca is a classic — but something arguably more powerful. Which means it's a generational touchstone. Here's the thing — every few years, a new wave of kids discovers it. On top of that, they wear the haircuts. Practically speaking, they quote Ponyboy. They argue about whether Dallas Winston was a hero or a tragedy.
The cast has remained remarkably close. In the decades since, they've reunited on multiple occasions — for the 2005 re-release, for charity events, for the simple fact that they were a family for four months on a set in Tulsa and that bond never fully broke Easy to understand, harder to ignore..
Why It Endures
Hinton wrote the book when she was sixteen. She wrote it from the inside — from the specific, suffocating reality of being young and poor and angry and intelligent and invisible to the adults around you. She didn't write a morality play. Plus, she didn't write a cautionary tale. She wrote a story — honest, unglamorous, painful, and strangely hopeful Easy to understand, harder to ignore..
Coppola understood that. He shot the film with the same reverence. He let the silence sit. He trusted the silence. And he cast kids who weren't performing — they were living Nothing fancy..
That's the thread that connects a sixteen-year-old girl in Tulsa, Oklahoma, writing by hand in a notebook, to a film that still plays on late-night television to kids who weren't born when it was made That's the whole idea..
The awards were slow in coming and sparse in number. But the recognition that matters — the kind that doesn't fit on a trophy or a certificate — has been there all along Small thing, real impact..
The Outsiders didn't need a gold statuette. It had something better: it had an audience that refused to forget it.
And that's the kind of award no committee can give you.
