In 2013, this film was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
In 2023, The New Yorker magazine added Bless Their Little Hearts (1983) to their list of "The Greatest Independent Films of the Twentieth Century."
This film has a 100% rating based on 6 critic reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.
In 2019, it was released on home video in a 2K restoration by Milestone Films.
Preserved by the UCLA Film and Television Archive.