Every Award Bob Dylan Has Ever Won

Bob Dylan has won a variety of prestigious awards in his lifetime. The iconic songwriter and musician scored his breakout hit with his 1963 sophomore album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan and is known for songs such as “Like a Rolling Stone,” “The Times They Are a-Changin’,” and “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall.” Some of the most iconic Bob Dylan albums include 1975’s Blood on the Tracks and 1997’s Time Out of Mind as well as the 1965 albums Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited, for which he initially drew controversy for bringing electric instrumentation into folk music.

Dylan’s life has been brought to the screen multiple times in movies including the Martin Scorsese documentary No Direction Home and the experimental Todd Haynes drama I’m Not There, in which Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, and Marcus Carl Franklin all play different facets of Dylan. One of the most recent movies to adapt his life is the 2024 James Mangold-directed biopic A Complete Unknown, in which Timothée Chalamet plays Bob Dylan during his early years in the 1960s. The cast of the movie also includes Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez and Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash.

Bob Dylan Won An Oscar & Golden Globe For Best Original Song

2000’s Wonder Boys Earned Him Two Of His Biggest Awards

Although there have been multiple Bob Dylan movies, the one that earned him an Oscar – the most prestigious prize in cinema – is one in which he does not appear, either as himself or as a character. The movie in question is 2000’s Wonder Boys, which was directed by Curtis Hanson and stars Michael Douglas as a professor with writers’ block who finds himself entangled in the lives of some of his students. Hanson included many songs by singer-songwriters on the soundtrack, including several by Dylan, and invited the artist to record the original song “Things Have Changed” for the movie.

Wonder Boys was eventually nominated for three Oscars, including Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Editing, but the only award it won was Best Original Song, earning Dylan his first and so far only Oscar. It also won just one Golden Globe, in the same category, despite also being nominated for Best Screenplay, Best Picture – Drama, and Best Actor (Michael Douglas). In spite of the movie’s losses in other categories, Dylan took home two of his most prestigious awards that season, beating out other nominees including Randy Newman (for Meet the Parents) and Sting (for The Emperor’s New Groove).

Bob Dylan Won The Nobel Prize In Literature

He Is One Of Very Few Nobel Laureate Songwriters

Another prestigious award that came to Bob Dylan from outside the music industry was a Nobel Prize in Literature that was awarded to him in 2016, making him only the 12th Nobel laureate from the United States of America. He is one of the only songwriters to have earned this honor, which is typically bestowed on authors such as The Remains of the Day‘s Kazuo Ishiguro (awarded in 2017), poet Pablo Neruda (1971), The Good Earth‘s Pearl S. Buck (1938), The Sun Also Rises‘ Ernest Hemingway (1954), and The Lord of the Flies‘ William Golding (1983).

While Bob Dylan was sometimes reported as the first songwriter to have won the Nobel Prize in Literature, previous winners who have earned the Nobel Prize are also songwriters, among other disciplines. This includes Indian polymath Rabindranath Tagore (1913) and Italian playwright Dario Fo (1997).

Every Grammy Bob Dylan Has Won

He Has Been Nominated More Than Three Dozen Times

Over the years, various Bob Dylan songs and albums have won Grammys. The Grammys first began presenting awards for achievement in music in 1959, so he has been eligible since the beginning of his career as a recording artist. In fact, his first album, 1962’s Bob Dylan, earned him his first Grammy nomination just five years into the annual award ceremony’s run. However, he wouldn’t actually win a Grammy until a decade later, an achievement that marked his first of 10 total Grammy wins. Below, see a breakdown of every Grammy won by Bob Dylan and when it was awarded:

Overall, Bob Dylan has so far been nominated for 38 Grammy Awards, so he has won roughly one-quarter of the awards for which he has been nominated. The musician won his tenth and so far final Grammy Award in 2007, though he has been nominated five more times since then, with the most recent nomination being for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for 2017’s Triplicate. Dylan was also an honoree for the Grammys’ Lifetime Achievement Award in 1991, at which point he had only won three of his 10 Grammys.

Bob Dylan Won The Album By A Secular Artist GMA Dove Award

In 1980, the same year he won his second Grammy – for “Gotta Serve Somebody” – the Gospel Music Association awarded Slow Train Coming (on which “Gotta Serve Somebody” was the opening track) with their award for Album by a Secular Artist. That year, his competition was Wings To Fly by Jeannie C. Riley and You Gave Me Love (When Nobody Gave Me a Prayer) by B. J. Thomas.

Bob Dylan Was Inducted Into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame

He Was One Of The Earliest Inductees

Another major honor for the artist was the fact that, in 1988, Bob Dylan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. During the ceremony, which was the third year that performers were inducted (and the first for which he was eligible), his induction was presented by Bruce Springsteen, who would later become an inductee himself in 1999. Alongside Dylan, the 1988 inductees included the iconic groups The Beach Boys, The Beatles, The Drifters, and The Supremes.

Other Awards Bob Dylan Has Won

He Is In Multiple Halls Of Fame

Dylan has won a huge number of additional awards and been honored with many other accolades. This includes having three songs and five albums inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in 2012 during a ceremony where the accolade – the highest possible honor bestowed upon American civilians – was also awarded to Toni Morrison, Madeline Albright, Dolores Huerta, and more. Below, see a breakdown of the other major awards and honors received by Dylan:

Additionally, while Bob Dylan himself is not eligible for any awards for the movie A Complete Unknown, which features his music but does not include an original song penned by the artist, the movie is a strong contender in the 2024-2025 awards season. It already has three 2025 Golden Globe nominations, for Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Actor (Timothée Chalamet), and Best Supporting Actor (Edward Norton). It has also been shortlisted in one Academy Awards category, competing against buzzy titles such as Emilia Pérez and Wicked for a Best Sound nomination.