Production notes

As of September 2024, the film holds a 92% approval rating on review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 118 reviews with an average rating of 8.3 out of 10. The site's consensus reads, "Patient and restrained, Of Gods and Men asks deep, profound questions that will linger in the audience's mind long after the movie." Metacritic gave the film a weighted score of 86/100, based on 29 reviews, which it ranks as "universal acclaim". Le Monde's Isabelle Regnier wrote: "We can, we must, even, consider this film as a profession of faith. But it is in the cinema where Beauvois always has placed his own, and where he places it here more than ever. Confident in the talent of his cinematographer, Caroline Champetier, ... he signs a powerful and stripped mise en scène[.] ... Relying on the arid majesty of the Atlas' landscapes (Moroccan for the filming), the milky purity of monks' robes, the rhythm of the ritual, Xavier Beauvois plays with the tracking shots with a breathtaking mastery". Didier Péron of the left-wing newspaper Libération was positive overall, but remarked: "Of Gods and Men would no doubt have lost in grandeur and lyricism ... what it would have gained in political content if it had specifically questioned the place of the monks and the profound role of their unctuous paternalism versus a failing state and among a deprived population." In the United Kingdom, Tom Dawson of Total Film gave the film four stars out of five, and Tim Robey rated it three out of five in The Daily Telegraph. Both critics praised the performances of Wilson and Lonsdale. Dawson called the film a "masterful drama", and Robey wrote: "It's a grave and thoughtful film, and certainly not a bad one, for all my twinges of scepticism about how deep its insights really go." Robey's main complaint concerned the ending of the film: "There's one serious mistake, in a picture that's almost passive-aggressively careful in most of its scenes: a last supper, while the monks sip wine, look at each other in silent, welling close-ups, and Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake overture crescendoes over the top. Those last three words are operative – Beauvois could hardly milk this emotional catharsis more coercively if he came down the aisles handing out tissues." Dawson on the other hand approved of the scene's manner: "The Last Supper-style sequence, where the monks listen to Swan Lake and share red wine, is particularly affecting." Radio critic Mark Kermode gave an extremely positive review of the film, later ranking it as the 2nd best film of 2010.

362,671 tickets were sold during the first five days of the French theatrical run. This can be compared to the director's last film, The Young Lieutenant, which had 197,783 admissions after the same number of days in 2005. Of Gods and Men went on to top the French box office for four consecutive weeks. After the fifth week it dropped to number three, having been overtaken by Despicable Me and You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, which both premiered that week. It had received 3,202,645 admissions in France. In United Kingdom, Of Gods and Men was distributed, the first week, in only 16 movie houses. It was part, from the first weekend, of the 15 best at the box office. In United States, the film was distributed, 25 February, in only 33 theaters. It is part, from the first week, of the 25 best at the box office.

The Cannes Film Festival jury, led by American director Tim Burton, honoured the film with the Grand Prix. Of Gods and Men also received the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury. In France, it won the César Awards 2011 for Best Film, Lonsdale as Best Supporting Actor and Best Cinematography. In total it was nominated in eleven categories, which was more than any other film that year. The other nominations were for Wilson as Best Actor, Olivier Rabourdin as Best Supporting Actor, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Sound, Best Editing, Best Costume Design and Best Production Design. It won the 16th Lumière Award for Best Film and Lonsdale received the Best Actor prize. It was also nominated for Best Director and Wilson as Best Actor. At the 23rd European Film Awards, the film was nominated for Best Film and Best Cinematography. It received the 2010 National Board of Review Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts nominated it for Best Film Not in the English Language at the 64th BAFTA Awards. It was selected as France's submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 83rd Academy Awards, but it did not make the final shortlist.