January 19, 1999:  "Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life" won a Golden Satellite Award for Best Documentary Film. The award was given by the International Press Academy at the 3rd Annual Golden Satellite Awards ceremony at the Beverly Hills Hotel. The IPA is made up of  “over 200 members of the Foreign and Domestic Press who cast their votes for the extraordinary efforts, projects and performances of the past year.”

At the 70th Annual Academy Awards ceremony, "Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life" was honored with an Oscar nomination in the category of Best Documentary Feature.

“In a loving—but not fawning—documentary look at this fascinating figure of 20th-century intellectual life, director Michael Paxton has created an exhaustive and definitive history of a challenging subject.”

“The film, narrated by Sharon Gless, is an expertly assembled collection of news films, interviews with various people and television clips showing Rand being interviewed by people such as Mike Wallace and Phil Donahue....It’s fun settling in to watch a filmed tribute to a woman and her mind.”

“...Paxton makes "Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life" a testament to the woman. In explaining the person behind the great novels, the film conveys her sense of life and establishes Rand as one of the greatest visionaries of her time.”

“Details a fascinating life...with skill and intelligence...an admirable job of humanizing a previously forbidding subject.” —

“...In this absorbing and rich documentary which deservedly won an Oscar Nomination, Rand’s life is not merely explored but decoded.”