"Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, the best American play of the last decade and a violently candid one, has been brought to the screen without pussyfooting...This in itself makes it a notable event in our film history...Mike Nichols, after a brilliant and too-brief career as a satirist, proved to be a brilliant theatrical director of comedy. This is his debut as a film director, and it is a successful Houdini feat...Here, with a director who knows how to get an actor's confidence and knows what to do with it after he gets it, [Elizabeth Taylor] does the best work of her career, sustained and urgent." -- The New York Times

"Burton and Taylor's finest hour (together) in searing Edward Albee drama." -- Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide

AWARDS AND HONORS

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was nominated for 13 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Art Direction-Set Direction (Black and White), Best Cinematography (Black and White), Best Costume Design (Black and White), Best Editing, Best Sound and Best Music (Original Score). Of those, it took home five for Best Actress, Supporting Actress, Cinematography, Art Direction and Costume Design.

The film was nominated for seven Golden Globes for Best Picture - Drama, Best Motion Picture Director, Best Motion Picture Actress, Best Motion Picture Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Screenplay.

The film won BAFTA Film Awards for Best Film, Elizabeth Taylor as Best Actress, and Richard Burton for Best Actor.

Editor Sam O'Steen was nominated for an Eddie, the American Cinema Editors (ACE) award for Best Edited Feature Film.

Mike Nichols was nominated by the Directors Guild of America (DGA) for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures.

Composer Alex North was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Show.

Golden Laurel Awards were given to Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor and Sandy Dennis for their performances in the film. George Segal was awarded second place for his performance in the Male Supporting Performance category.

The National Board of Review named Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? as one of the top 10 films of 1966 and named Elizabeth Taylor Best Actress of the year.

The New York Film Critics Circle named Elizabeth Taylor Best Actress. They put Richard Burton in second place as Best Actor, and the film also came in second place as Best Film.

Ernest Lehman won the Writers Guild of America (WGA) Award for Best Written American Drama for his adapted screenplay of Edward Albee's play.

In 2002, the American Film Institute named Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? number 89 on its list of the 100 greatest love stories of all time, "100 Years...100 Passions."

In 2007 the American Film Institute ranked this film number 67 on its 10th Anniversary Edition list of the Greatest 100 American Movies of All Time, "100 Years...100 Movies."

Compiled by Andrea Passafiume