Limelight won the Original Dramatic Score Oscar for Charles Chaplin, Ray Rasch, and Larry Russell in 1972, twenty years after the film had first been made. It was eligible for the Oscars that year because it had never been shown in Los Angeles prior to that (current rules no longer allow this). It was the only Oscar Chaplin ever won in a competitive category, although he did not come to the ceremony to collect it. Rasch and Russell did not attend either, having died in 1964 and 1954, respectively.

Another Chaplin film that received untimely nominations was his1925 masterpiece The Gold Rush, which was nominated for Oscars for Sound Recording and Scoring of A Dramatic or Comedy Picture in 1942, after it was released with a soundtrack narrated by Chaplin.