2024 Gotham Awards: ‘Anora,’ ‘Nickel Boys,’ ‘I Saw the TV Glow’ Lead Nominations

Erik Anderson October 29, 2024

The Gotham Film & Media Institute today announced the nominations for the 34th Gotham Awards where Sean Baker’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner Anora led the way with four nominations: Best Feature, Best Director, Outstanding Lead Performance (Mikey Madison) and Outstanding Supporting Performance (Yura Borisnov).

Next up with three apiece were RaMell Ross’s Nickel Boys (Best Feature, Best Director, Breakthrough Performer – Brandon Wilson) and Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw the TV Glow (Best Director, Outstanding Lead Performance – Justice Smith, Outstanding Supporting Performance – Brigette Lundy-Paine).

Joining Anora and Nickel Boys in the Best Feature category were Babygirl, Challengers (its only nomination) and A Different Man. Equally, the newly added Best Director lineup was filled out with Payal Kapadia for All We Imagine as Light and Guan Hu for Black Dog.

Brady Corbet’s 3h35m opus The Brutalist surprisingly found itself with just two nominations – Outstanding Lead Performance for Adrien Brody and Outstanding Supporting Performance for Guy Pearce. Corbet won the Best Director prize at Venice last month.

Last year, the Gothams lifted their budget cap on eligible films, opening the gates for major studios to get a taste of the traditionally independent awards body, resulting in a nomination for Ryan Gosling in the $100M Barbie. In previous years, to be eligible for the Gothams, a film’s budget couldn’t exceed $35 million. But this year saw no representation from the majors in any category from the nominating committees of five critics.

Last year’s Best Picture Oscar winner Oppeneheimer opted out of consideration for Gothams, which require a mid-September screener, which in turn found major fall and winter releases like Gladiator II, Better Man and A Complete Unknown out of contention as they didn’t submit. Netflix Oscar contenders Maria and Emilia Pérez were ineligible for Best Feature since they’re non-U.S. productions (and/or directed by non-U.S. citizens). While they were eligible in acting, directing and the International Feature category, neither were able to notch a single nod. Alternately, Netflix’s The Piano Lesson grabbed one for Danielle Deadwyler in supporting and two for His Three Daughters, for screenplay and Natasha Lyonne in supporting.

Breaking it down by studio, A24 was the far and away leader with 13 nominations across all categories – including 9 of the 20 acting slots, followed by Amazon MGM with 7 – which included two in Best Feature and three in Breakthrough Performer.

The 34th Gotham Awards will take place live and in person on Monday, December 2, 2024 at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City.

Previously announced tributes and honorees include the cast of Malcolm Washington’s The Piano Lesson, who will receive the 2024 Gotham Awards Ensemble Tribute, Franklin Leonard and his company, the Black List, the platform dedicated to nurturing written storytelling and empowering writers to maximize their professional potential, will receive The Gotham Anniversary Tribute, and Denis Villeneuve will receive The Gotham Director Tribute for Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures’ Dune: Part Two.

Last year’s winners included Celine Song’s Past Lives for Best Feature, Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall for Best International Feature and Best Screenplay, Lily Gladstone in The Unknown Country for Outstanding Lead Performance, and Charles Melton in May December for Outstanding Supporting Performance. Past Lives earned Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay, Lily Gladstone was nominated for Best Actress (but for Killers of the Flower Moon) and Anatomy of a Fall won Best Original Screenplay among its five nominations that also included Best Picture, Best Director for Triet and Best Actress for Sandra Hüller.

The Gothams film nominations for 2024 are:

Best Feature

Anora

Sean Baker, director; Sean Baker, Alex Coco, Samantha Quan, producers (NEON)

Babygirl

Halina Reijn, director; David Hinojosa, Julia Oh, Halina Reijn, producers (A24)

Challengers

Luca Guadagnino, director; Luca Guadagnino, Rachel O’Connor, Amy Pascal, Zendaya, producers (Amazon MGM Studios)

A Different Man

Aaron Schimberg, director; Gabriel Mayers, Vanessa McDonnell, Christine Vachon, producers (A24)

Nickel Boys

RaMell Ross, director; Joslyn Barnes, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, David Levine, producers (Orion Pictures/Amazon MGM Studios)

Best Director

Payal Kapadia, All We Imagine as Light (Sideshow and Janus Films)
Sean Baker, Anora (NEON)
Guan Hu, Black Dog (The Forge)
Jane Schoenbrun, I Saw the TV Glow (A24)
RaMell Ross, Nickel Boys (Orion Pictures/Amazon MGM Studios)

Best Screenplay

Between the Temples, Nathan Silver, C. Mason Wells (Sony Pictures Classics)
Evil Does Not Exist, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (Sideshow and Janus Films)
Femme, Sam H. Freeman, Ng Choon Ping (Utopia)
His Three Daughters, Azazel Jacobs (Netflix)
Janet Planet, Annie Baker (A24)

Breakthrough Director

Shuchi Talati, Girls Will Be Girls (Juno Films, Inc)
India Donaldson, Good One (Metrograph Pictures)
Alessandra Lacorazza, In the Summers (Music Box Films)
Vera Drew, The People’s Joker (Altered Innocence)
Mahdi Fleifel, To a Land Unknown (Watermelon Pictures)

Outstanding Lead Performance

Pamela Anderson, The Last Showgirl (Roadside Attractions)
Adrien Brody, The Brutalist (A24)
Colman Domingo, Sing Sing (A24)
Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Hard Truths (Bleecker Street)
Nicole Kidman, Babygirl (A24)
Keith Kupferer, Ghostlight (IFC Films)
Mikey Madison, Anora (NEON)
Demi Moore, The Substance (MUBI)
Saoirse Ronan, The Outrun (Sony Pictures Classics)
Justice Smith, I Saw the TV Glow (A24)

Outstanding Supporting Performance

Yura Borisov, Anora (NEON)
Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain (Searchlight Pictures)
Danielle Deadwyler, The Piano Lesson (Netflix)
Brigette Lundy-Paine, I Saw the TV Glow (A24)
Natasha Lyonne, His Three Daughters (Netflix)
Clarence Maclin, Sing Sing (A24)
Katy O’Brian, Love Lies Bleeding (A24)
Guy Pearce, The Brutalist (A24)
Adam Pearson, A Different Man (A24)
Brian Tyree Henry, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios)

Breakthrough Performer

Lily Collias, Good One (Metrograph Pictures)
Ryan Destiny, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios)
Maisy Stella, My Old Ass (Amazon MGM Studios)
Izaac Wang, Dìdi (Focus Features)
Brandon Wilson, Nickel Boys (Orion Pictures/Amazon MGM Studios)

Best International Feature

All We Imagine as Light

Payal Kapadia, director; Julien Graff, Thomas Hakim, producers (Sideshow and Janus Films)

Green Border

Agnieszka Holland, director; Fred Bernstein, Agnieszka Holland, Marcin Wierzchoslawski, producers (Kino Lorber)

Hard Truths

Mike Leigh, director; Georgina Lowe, producer (Bleecker Street)

Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell

Thien An Pham, director; Jeremy Chua, Tran Van Thi, producers (Kino Lorber)

Vermiglio

Maura Delpero, director; Francesca Andreoli, Maura Delpero, Santiago Fondevila Sance, Leonardo Guerra Seràgnoli, producers (Sideshow and Janus Films)

Best Documentary Feature

Dahomey

Mati Diop, director; Mati Diop, Judith Lou Lévy, Eve Robin, producers (MUBI)

Intercepted

Oksana Karpovych, director; Darya Bassel, Olha Beskhmelnytsina, Rocío B. Fuentes, Giacomo Nudi, Lucie Rego Pauline Tran Van Lieu, producers (Grasshopper Film)

No Other Land

Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor, directors; Fabien Greenberg, Bård Kjøge Rønning, producers (Antipode Films)

Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat

Johan Grimonprez, director; Rémi Grellety, Daan Milius, producers (Kino Lorber)

Sugarcane

Julian Brave NoiseCat, Emily Kassie, directors; Emily Kassie, Kellen Quinn, producers (National Geographic Documentary Films)

Union

Stephen Maing, Brett Story, directors; Samantha Curley, Mars Verrone, producers (Self-Distributed)

Nominating Committees for The Gothams were:

Nominating Committee for Best Feature, Best Director, and Best Screenplay:

Justin Chang, Film Critic, The New Yorker

Peter Debruge, Film Critic, Variety

David Ehrlich, Chief Film Critic and Reviews Editor for IndieWire

Jessica Kiang, Freelance Film Critic; Programmer, Belfast Film Festival, Berlin Film Festival

Alison Willmore, Film Critic, New York Magazine

Nominating Committee for Best Documentary Feature:

Tania Ahmadi, Director of Editorial, Docunight

Bedatri Datta Choudhury,Programmer, DOC NYC, Arts and Entertainment Editor, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Eric Hynes, Curator of Film, Museum of the Moving Image

Dara Messinger, Director of Programming, DCTV’s Firehouse Cinema

Sky Sitney, Co-Founder and Festival Director, DC/DOX

Nominating Committee for Best International Feature:

David Fear, Chief Film Critic, Rolling Stone

Douglas Greenwood, Film Editor, i-D; Freelance, New York Times and GQ

Wendy Ide, Chief Film Critic, The Observer

Beatrice Loayza, Freelance Film Critic, New York Times, Film Comment, Sight & Sound, Criterion

Guy Lodge, Film Critic, Variety, The Observer

Nominating Committee for Breakthrough Director:

Carlos Aguilar, Film Critic and Journalist

Lindsey Bahr, Film Writer, Associated Press

Kate Erbland, Editorial Director, IndieWire

Lovia Gyarkye, Arts and Culture Critic, The Hollywood Reporter

Jourdain Searles, Film Critic and Programmer

Nominating Committee for Outstanding Lead Performance, Outstanding Supporting Performance, and Breakthrough Performer:

Monica Castillo, Freelance Film Critic, RogerEbert.com; Senior Film Programmer, Jacob Burns Film Center

Robert Daniels, Associate Editor, RogerEbert.com

Tim Grierson, Senior U.S. Critic, Screen International; author, This Is How You Make a Movie

Tomris Laffly, Freelance Film Journalist and Film Critic

Brian Tallerico, Managing Editor, RogerEbert.come

The Gotham celebrates and nurtures independent film and media creators, providing career-building resources, access to industry influencers, and pathways to wider recognition. The organization, under the leadership of Executive Director and award-winning producer Jeffrey Sharp, fosters a vibrant and sustainable independent storytelling community through its year-round programs, which include Gotham Week, Gotham Labs, Filmmaker Magazine, the Gothams, Gotham EDU, Owning It, and Expanding Communities.

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.