Released in Europe to acclaim in 1952, "Othello" won the "Grand Prix du Festival International du Film" at the Cannes Film Festival under the Moroccan flag. Welles could not find the film a distributor in the United States for over three years, and even after its U.S. release it was largely ignored. The film was re-released to theaters in a 1992 restoration that screened out of competition at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival and was shown to acclaim in the United States. The film has a 93% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 32 reviews with an average rating of 7.9/10. The website's critical consensus states, "This ragged take on Othello may take liberties with the source material, but Orson Welles's genius never fails to impress."