Update the latest… 35th annual Gotham Awards is taking place in Manhattan, and Deadline is publishing the winners live as they are announced. See list below.
The ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street kicks off the film awards season as usual, calling out the first names and handing out the first crop of trophies.
Jafar Panahi won the first award of the night for Best Original Screenplay. its Cannes Palme d'Or winner It was just an accident. This happened a few hours later he was convicted in absentia by Iran and was sentenced to one year in prison and two years probation. “This award goes to all the people who worked with me on this film,” he said on stage through an interpreter. “I would like to dedicate this award to independent filmmakers around the world… I hope that this dedication will be considered a small tribute to all the filmmakers who have been denied the right to see and be seen, but continue to create and exist.”
A short time later, Panahi returned to the stage to accept the Gotham Award for Best International Feature Film. It was just an accident is France's bid for the international artistic Oscars next year. Read Deadline's review from Cannes Here.
Pillion Writer and director Harry Pillon won the award for best adapted screenplay for a drama about gay bikers., which A24 picked up a few months before the premiere of the Cannes Film Festival. On the weekends the picture won best film at the British Independent Film Awards. Read Deadline review Here.
The first acting award of the night went to Wunmi Mosaku, who played Annie in the hit Warner Bros. horror film. Sinners. However, she was not at the ceremony to accept the invitation.
Akinola Davis Jr. won the Breakthrough Director Award for another Cannes debutant, My Father's Shadow. Read our review of the first film from Nigeria to screen on the Croisette. Here and our coverage of Cannes, which is worth watching on Davis Here.
CONNECTED: International feature films for Oscar 2026 by country
My unwanted friends: Part I – Last broadcast in Moscow won the Gotham Award for Best Documentary. Last month, a photo emerged of Vladimir Putin's regime declaring independent journalists “foreign agents.” won the Independent Film Network Network Advocate Award, defeating several top Oscar contenders.
Abu Sangareh received the Breakthrough Performance Award for his role in Suleiman's story from Kino Lorber, another film shown at Cannes. The film, in which Sangare plays a Guinean immigrant struggling to stay afloat in Paris, won the jury prize in the Un Certain Regard sidebar.
The Gotham 2025 event, hosted by the Gotham Film and Media Institute, will see the Paul Thomas Anderson film. One battle after another starring Leonardo DiCaprio go out and lead the field with a record six nominations, including Best Feature, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Outstanding Performer for Chase Infinity and Outstanding Supporting Actor for Benicio Del Toro and Teyana Taylor. Mary Bronstein If I had legs I would kick you received four nominations from A24. Winner of the Cannes Palme d'Or It was just an accident Jafar Panahi, who will be attending the ceremony tonight, and There's no other choice Park Chan Wook, both of Neon, received three nominations each.
CONNECTED: Cannes Film Festival 2025: Read all Deadline film reviews
This year, Gotham expanded its Best Feature category to include 10 nominees instead of five. About 40 full-length films and 25 performances were nominated for the award in 10 categories. It is typically an indie-focused event, although the organization has lifted budget restrictions to qualify in 2023, allowing larger studio films to be included.
Tribute awards announced previously include Luca Guadagnino and Julia Roberts (Visionary Tribute for After the hunt); Noah Baumbach (Director of Tribute for Jay Kelly); cast Sinners (Tribute to the ensemble); Guillermo del Toro, Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi (Vanguard Tribute for Frankenstein); Tessa Thompson (Spotlight Tribute for Hedda); Kate Hudson and Hugh Jackman (Musical Tribute to Song Song Blue); and Jeremy Allen White and Scott Cooper (a tribute to cultural icons for Springsteen: Deliver Me Out of Nowhere).
Here are the winners of the 2025 Gotham Awards, followed by the rest of the nominees:
Winners
Outstanding Performance
Sope Dirisu, My Father's Shadow (Mubi)
Outstanding Supporting Performance
Wunmi Mosaku, Singers (Lener Bros. Pictures)
Breakthrough Performer
Abu Sangareh, The Story of Suleiman (Kino Lorber)
Best Documentary
“My unwanted friends. Part I – Last broadcast in Moscow”: Yulia Lokteva, director; Yulia Lokteva, producer (self-distribution)
Breakthrough Director
Akinola Davis Jr., My Father's Shadow (Mubi)
Best International Feature Film
It was just an accident: Philippe Martin, Jafar Panahi, producers (Neon)
Best Adapted Screenplay
Pillion, Harry Lighton (A24)
Best Original Screenplay
It was just an accident Jafar Panahi (Neon)
Nominees
Best Feature
Bugonia: Ari Asster, Ed Guiney, Lars Knudsen, Jerry Kyungboom Ko, Yorgos Lathimos, Mikiy Lee, Andrew Lowe, Emma Stone, producer (Fata Fedires)
East of the Wall: Kate Beecroft, Shannon Moss, Melanie Ramseyer, Leela Yacoub, producers (Sony Pictures Classics)
A Familiar Touch: Alexandra Bayer, Sarah Friedland, Matthew Thurm, producers (Music Box Films)
Hamnet: Nicholas Gonda, Pippa Harris, Lisa Marshall, Sam Mendes, Steven Spielberg, producers (Focus Features)
If I Had Legs, I'd Kick You: Ronald Bronstein, Eli Bush, Richie Doyle, Conor Hannon, Sarah Murphy, Josh Safdie, Ryan Zacharias, Producers (A24)
Lurkers: Galen Core, Archie Madekwe, Mark Murray, Charlie McDowell, Francesco Melzi d'Eril, Duncan Montgomery, Alex Orlovsky, Olmo Schnabel, Jack Selby, producers (Mooby)
One Battle After Another: Paul Thomas Anderson, Sarah Murphy, Adam Somner, Producers (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Sorry Baby: Mark Seryak, Barry Jenkins, Adele Romanski, producers (A24)
The Testament of Ann Lee: Brady Corbett, Mona Fastvold, Joshua Horsfield, Gregory Jankilevich, Mark Lampert, Lillian LaSalle, Andrew Morrison, Victoria Petranyi, Claudia Smieja-Rostworowska, producers (Searchlight Pictures)
Train Dreams: Michael Heimler, Will Janowitz, Marissa McMahon, Ashley Shleifer, Teddy Schwartzman (producers) (Netflix)
Best Director
Mary Bronstein, If I Had Legs, I Would Kick You (A24)
Jafar Panahi, It Was Just an Accident (Neon)
Kelly Reichardt, “Mastermind” (Mooby)
Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Oliver Lax, Sirat (Neon)
