The 35th annual Gotham Awards opened this year’s film awards season with an evening full of surprises. Paul Thomas Anderson’s action epic ‘One Battle After Another’ claimed the top honour of Best Feature; its only win despite a record six nominations.
Iranian director Jafar Panahi emerged as the night’s standout winner, collecting three awards for ‘It Was Just an Accident’: International Feature, Original Screenplay and Best Director.
Held at Cipriani Wall Street and presented by the Gotham Film & Media Institute, this year marked the third edition since the organisation scrapped its previous $35 million budget cap for eligibility. The Gotham’s Best Feature winner has often gone on to secure the Oscar for Best Picture, with past victors including ‘Spotlight’, ‘Moonlight’ and ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’.
Among the evening’s unexpected moments were wins for Julia Loktev’s self-distributed ‘My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow’ and A24’s ‘Pillion’, which earned Harry Lighton the award for Adapted Screenplay.
All acting prizes went to absent winners: Sopé Dìrísù took Best Lead Performance for ‘My Father’s Shadow’; Wunmi Mosaku won Best Supporting Performance for ‘Sinners’ and Abou Sangaré earned Breakthrough Performer for ‘Souleymane’s Story’.
The ceremony also featured several tributes. Guillermo del Toro stirred the crowd during a salute to Netflix’s Frankenstein while Adam Sandler delivered a comedic tribute, alongside Jay Kelly co-writer Emily Mortimer to director Noah Baumbach.
