The film premiered at the
Toronto International Film Festival on 11 September 1990. At the
Berlin International Film Festival in 1991, the film won the Caligari Film Award for "thematic or stylistic innovation in film in the Forum of New Cinema section of the festival".
Roger Ebert reviewed the film, saying "
All the Vermeers in New York is the kind of film you have to think and think about, and then finally you realize you admire it.... If
All the Vermeers in New York had been in French with subtitles, I would have known right away what to expect. It's unusual to find a film this brainy in English." Emanuel Levy praises the film, saying that "
All the Vermeers in New York, Jon Jost’s most accessible work to date, deservedly winning the L.A. Film Critics Association Award for Best Experimental Film.... The deceptively simple story conceals deeper, more intriguing themes. It’s a meditation on the inner and outer worlds of two mismatched characters who represent the cultural bankruptcy of America’s upper-middle class." ==References==