Bob Dylan Is One of Only Two People to Win Both an Oscar and a Nobel

Bob Dylan has the rare distinction of holding both a competitive Academy Award and the Nobel Prize in Literature, a feat shared only with George Bernard Shaw. Dylan became the first songwriter to win the Nobel Prize for Literature and took home the Oscar for Best Original Song for “Things Have Changed” from Wonder Boys.

Shaw also won a Nobel Prize and an Oscar—his Academy Award came for Best Adapted Screenplay for Pygmalion, an adaptation of his own play—but his legacy is more divisive because of expressed pro‑eugenics and anti‑vaccination views. Dylan’s Nobel, by contrast, reflected an expanded view of what “literature” can include, acknowledging songs that function as standalone poetry.

Dylan’s words have long resonated in film: his soundtrack for Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, the Oscar-winning “Things Have Changed,” and the way that song mirrors Wonder Boys’ themes all show that connection.

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