It earned Robinson nominations for the Directors Guild of America Award, the Writers Guild of America Award, and for an Oscar for Best Screenplay Adaptation (the film was also nominated for Best Picture and Best Original Score Oscars).
Other accolades for the film include the Christopher Award, and Premiere Magazine's Readers Poll for Best Picture of 1989.
In 1990, Robinson was named "Screenwriter of the Year" by the National Association of Theatre Owners, and in 1994 received the Writers Guild of America's Valentine Davies Award for contributions to the entertainment industry and the community-at-large.
In 1992, he accompanied the United Nations High Commission for Refugees as an observer on relief missions to Somalia and Bosnia, for which he wrote and directed his first of five documentaries for ABC News Nightline.
Robinson is currently Vice President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, is a past member of the board of directors of the Writers Guild of America, and serves on the Board of Overseers of the UCLA Hammer Museum.