Backroads was a great success at the 1978 Berlin film festival, where it attracted high praise from German directors Werner Herzog and Wim Wenders. As a result, the film was a big success at the Cannes film festival later that year, and consequently was invited to screen at the British Film Instute in London. Backroads ultimately screened for six months at the Scala Cinema in London,first as a double with Stephen Wallace film, Love Letters from Teralba Road, and then as a support to the legendary Jimmy Cliff Reggae film, The Harder They Come.