33rd Gotham Awards Remove Budget Caps; International Films Allowed to Compete in Most Top Categories

The Gotham Film & Media Institute has announced sweeping changes for its upcoming 33rd Annual Gotham Awards, including removing the budget restriction for submissions, which had previously been set at $35M, just above the $30M budget caps the Film Independent Spirit Awards use. Get ready for Barbenheimer at the Gothams, set to be held on November 27.

“The entire Gotham team is thrilled to kick off another year of the Gotham Awards, which has the distinct role of being the first honors of the film awards season,” said Anthony Bregman, Board of Directors Co-Chair of The Gotham Film & Media Institute. “With the decision by the Board to eliminate the budget cap and make international films eligible for more categories this year, we are excited to welcome more of the world’s best storytellers and projects into the awards season conversation.”

For the first time this year, international films will be eligible for the following categories: Outstanding Lead Performance, Outstanding Supporting Performance, Best Screenplay, and Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award. Best Feature will remain for U.S. features only and Best International Feature will be open to all non-U.S. features. International films are once again eligible for Best Documentary Feature.  In order to provide a more inclusive submission pool, this year there will be no budget cap for submission eligibility.

“For the 33rd Annual Gotham Awards, we’re excited to include more voices from around the globe by expanding eligibility for the many brilliant international films and filmmakers who deserve to be in consideration this year,” said Jeffrey Sharp, Executive Director of The Gotham Film & Media Institute. “Additionally, with shifting budgets, we’ve decided to eliminate arbitrary budget caps for submission eligibility – first instituted over a decade ago – to broaden our reach in terms of recognition and accessibility to the wider community.” 

The deadline for submissions is Thursday, September 14 for the competition categories of Best Feature, Best Documentary Feature, Best International Feature, Outstanding Lead Performance, Outstanding Supporting Performance, Best Screenplay, Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award, Breakthrough Series (Over 40 minutes), Breakthrough Series (Under 40 minutes), and Outstanding Performance in a New Series. 

At last year’s 32nd Annual Gotham Awards, which took place at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City, Everything Everywhere All at Once kicked off its massive award season by winning Best Feature and the Outstanding Supporting Performance Award for Ke Huy Quan (both went on to win respective Oscars), Charlotte Wells took home the Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director award for her feature debut Aftersun, and W. Kamau Bell earned the Breakthrough Nonfiction Series Award for his four-part series We Need to Talk About Cosby. 

Online applications, along with full criteria, are available at https://awards.thegotham.org/. Nominees will be announced on Tuesday, October 24, and winners will be honored at the awards ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street on Monday, November 27.

The Premier Sponsor of the 2023 Gotham Awards is Vanity Fair while Cadillac will serve as the Official Vehicle for the Awards.