30th Annual Gotham Winners Announced

The 30th annual Gotham Awards handed out their prizes tonight in the first major awards ceremony of this unusual season. The Gothams are in a similar playing field with the Independent Spirit Awards, honoring the independent movies of the previous year, leading to big nomination hauls for titles like Nomadland and First Cow. In fact, for the first time ever in the history of the ceremony, all five Best Feature nominees were directed by women. 

The big winner tonight was Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland, winning both the Best Feature prize and the Audience Award. Riz Ahmed continued his streak of wins for Best Actor, further solidifying his potential to garner an Oscar nomination for his work in Sound of Metal. Meanwhile, Nicole Beharie pulled off a huge upset victory in Best Actress, beating out Oscar frontrunners Frances McDormand and Yuh-Jung Youn (who has been running in supporting, but the Gothams only have one category each for actors and actresses) for her performance in Miss Juneteenth. 

Kingsley Ben-Adir won the award for Breakthrough Actor for his work in One Night in Miami. Our editor will hear more from the actor later this week when he gets the chance to interview him, so be on the lookout for that in the near future. 

Along with the 11 competitive prizes, the Gothams also handed out five tributes throughout the ceremony. The Actor Tribute went to the late Chadwick Boseman, who was also a Best Actor nominee for his work in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. The Actress Tribute was given to Viola Davis, while Steve McQueen was given a Director Tribute, Ryan Murphy was given an Industry Tribute, and an Ensemble Tribute was handed out to the cast of The Trial of the Chicago 7. They also gave out a special Made in New York Award to actor Jeffrey Wright. 

For the full list of Gotham Award winners, see below: 

BEST FEATURE

Nomadland 

BEST DOCUMENTARY

A Thousand Cuts and Time (tie) 

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

Identifying Features 

BINGHAM RAY BREAKTHROUGH DIRECTOR AWARD 

Andrew Patterson, The Vast of Night 

BEST SCREENPLAY

Radha Blank, The Forty-Year-Old Version and Dan Sallitt, Fourteen (tie) 

BEST ACTOR

Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal 

BEST ACTRESS

Nicole Beharie, Miss Juneteenth 

BREAKTHROUGH ACTOR 

Kingsley Ben-Adir, One Night in Miami 

BREAKTHROUGH SERIES – LONG FORM

Watchmen 

BREAKTHROUGH SERIES – SHORT FORM 

I May Destroy You 

AUDIENCE AWARD

Nomadland