2026 Gotham Awards: Five Films Lead With Four Nominations Each

Five films lead the 2026 Gotham Awards with four nominations each: All of a Sudden, Clarissa, La Gradiva, The Invite and Tender Loving Care. The Gothams, the first major year-end awards ceremony, will hand out its prizes on November 30.

The Best Feature race spans eleven titles, from Jesse Eisenberg's The Debut to Jane Schoenbrun's Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma. It's a wide field. A24 lands three of the eleven slots — Club Kid, The Debut and Primetime — while NEON takes two with Clarissa and James Gray's Paper Tiger. Rounding out the category: Shatara Michelle Ford's Dreams in Nightmares (Lunette Films), Olivia Wilde's The Invite (A24), Beth de Araújo's Josephine (Sumerian Pictures), Kelly O'Sullivan and Alex Thompson's Mouse (Independent Film Company), Lance Oppenheim's Primetime, and Bassam Tariq's Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother (Amazon MGM Studios).

"It has been a remarkable year for film, with audiences turning out in theaters for bold, distinctive work from first-time filmmakers and established artists alike," said Jeffrey Sharp, Executive Director of The Gotham Film & Media Institute. "This year's nominations, alongside our Tributes and the return of the Audience Award, reflect that abundance and celebrate the creative community that has been at the heart of The Gothams for more than three decades."

Who dominates the international field?

Best International Feature collects its own ten-title slate, heavy on auteurs. Ryusuke Hamaguchi's All of a Sudden (NEON), Andrey Zvyagintsev's Minotaur (MUBI), Lee Chang-dong's Possible Love (Netflix) and Mike Leigh's Tender Loving Care (Bleecker Street) compete alongside Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo's Ben'Imana, Sophy Romvari's Blue Heron (Janus Films), Sandra Wollner's Everytime (1-2 Special), Pawel Pawlikowski's Fatherland (MUBI), Rafael Manuel's Filipiñana (Kino Lorber) and Marine Atlan's La Gradiva (1-2 Special).

Best Documentary Feature runs five deep: Michal Marczak's Closure (1-2 Special), Soraya Akhlaghi and Mehrdad Oskouei's A Fox Under a Pink Moon (Kino Lorber), Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor's NAZA (NEON), David Greaves' Once Upon a Time in Harlem (NEON), and Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim's You Can See Everything (A24).

Which directors and writers got the call?

Best Director pits Hamaguchi, Wollner, Zvyagintsev, Schoenbrun and Leigh against each other — a lineup that reads like a festival jury's shortlist. Breakthrough Director skews newer: Romvari, Jordan Firstman (Club Kid), Aleshea Harris (Is God Is), Atlan, Joel Alfonso Vargas (Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo)), and John Early (Maddie's Secret).

In Best Original Screenplay, Wollner (Everytime), Atlan and Anne Brouillet (La Gradiva), Lee Chang-dong and Oh Jung-mi (Possible Love), Leigh (Tender Loving Care) and Martin McDonagh (Wild Horse Nine) compete. Best Adapted Screenplay covers Hamaguchi (All of a Sudden), Chuko Esiri (Clarissa), Rashida Jones and Will McCormack (The Invite), Simon Lyashenko and Zvyagintsev (Minotaur), and Ajon Singh (Primetime).

Note that Early pulls double duty this year. He directs Maddie's Secret and stars in it — a rare Gotham twofer.

Who made the performance shortlists?

Outstanding Lead Performance names ten contenders:

• Mahershala Ali – Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother
• Gillian Anderson – Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma
• Jeon Do-yeon – Possible Love
• John Early – Maddie's Secret
• John Malkovich – Wild Horse Nine
• Ian McKellen – The Christophers
• Julianne Moore – The Debut
• Sophie Okonedo – Clarissa
• Andrew Scott – Elsinore
• John Turturro – The Only Living Pickpocket in New York

Outstanding Supporting Performance matches with ten of its own: Tom Courtenay (Queen at Sea), Esmé Creed-Miles (Sense and Sensibility), Penélope Cruz (The Invite), Adam Driver (Paper Tiger), Andrew Garfield (Artificial), Skyler Gisondo (Primetime), Sandra Hüller (Fatherland), Kate O'Flynn (Tender Loving Care), Tao Okamoto (All of a Sudden) and Channing Tatum (Josephine).

Breakthrough Performer names five: Adia (Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother), India Amarteifio (Clarissa), Guitarricadelafuente (La Bola Negra), Colas Quignard (La Gradiva) and Mason Reeves (Josephine).

What does the Audience Award's return signal?

The revived Gotham Audience Award fields eight titles, and the studios treated it as a popularity contest — which, to be fair, is the point. Kane Parsons' Backrooms (A24) and Kristoffer Borgli's The Drama (A24) join The Invite, Fielder and Oppenheim's You Can See Everything, La Bola Negra (Netflix), Antoine Fuqua's Michael (Lionsgate), Curry Barker's Obsession (Focus Features), and Phil Lord and Christopher Miller's Project Hail Mary (Amazon MGM Studios).

The Gothams have served for more than three decades as an early Oscar-season bellwether for independent film, and this year's spread — five four-time leaders, no single dominant studio, and a Best Feature list mixing first-timers with Gray, Leigh and Hamaguchi — suggests an unusually open race. Winners arrive November 30.