The film won six awards at the 1957 Jussi Awards (Finland's national film honors), a record at the time. It was also the second Finnish film to compete for the Palme d'Or prize at the 1957 Cannes Film Festival. The first one was The White Reindeer (1952).
When asked about his favorite own film in 1979, cinematographer Esko Nevalainen chose Elokuu (1956) (also mentioning Black on White (1968) and "Inspector Palmu" film series from the 1960s).