35th Annual Gotham Film Awards Submissions Now Open

Erik Anderson August 12, 2025

The Gotham Film & Media Institute has announced that submissions are now open for the 35th Annual Gotham Film Awards, taking place on Monday, December 1st, 2025, in New York City.

The deadline for submissions is September 18th for the following ten competitive categories: Best Feature, Best Documentary Feature, Best International Feature, Best Director, Breakthrough Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Adapted Screenplay, Outstanding Lead Performance, Outstanding Supporting Performance, and Breakthrough Performer.

“As we open submissions for the 35th Annual Gotham Awards, we’re thrilled to continue honoring breakthrough and established creators while championing the bold, original storytelling that shapes our cultural landscape,” said Jeffrey Sharp, Executive Director of The Gotham Film & Media Institute. “Each year, the Gothams serve as a vibrant reflection of cinema’s evolving landscape – this milestone year promises to celebrate the artists redefining the boundaries of the medium while capturing audiences around the world.”

Submission applications, along with full criteria, are available at https://awards.thegotham.org/criteria/. Nominees will be announced on October 28th, and winners will be honored at the awards ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street on December 1st. All television award categories will be presented at the 2026 Gotham Television Awards.

During the 34th Annual Gotham Film Awards, which were held on Monday, December 2, 2024, A Different Man took home the coveted Best Feature award, while All We Imagine as Light earned a win for Best International Feature and the powerful documentary No Other Land received the honor for Best Documentary Feature. Nickel Boys secured two major wins — Best Director for RaMell Ross and Breakthrough Performer for Brandon Wilson. Azazel Jacobs’s poignant His Three Daughters was awarded Best Screenplay, and Vera Drew was named Breakthrough Director for her daring work on The People’s Joker. Colman Domingo earned Outstanding Lead Performance, and Clarence Maclin was honored with Outstanding Supporting Performance for their moving roles in Sing Sing.

The Premier Sponsor of the 2025 Gotham Awards is Vanity Fair.

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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), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) 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.