2025 Gotham Award Nominees

by Nick Taylor

With yesterday's announcement from the Gotham Awards, our very first nominees of the 2025 awards season have arrived. Setting aside my inherent disdain for the big-budget American films now allowed to compete alongside genuine independent cinema across the world, this looks like a pretty neat set of films! Let's dive into the nominees, and as always, share somoe verbose opinions despite not seeing all these features . . . .

BEST FEATURE

•  Bugonia
•  East of Wall
•  Familiar Touch
•  Hamnet
•  If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
•  Lurker
•  One Battle After Another
• Sorry, Baby
• The Testament of Ann Lee
• Train Dreams 

Bugonia, East of Wall, and Lurker all received lone nominations in the top category. On the flipside, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You and One Battle After Another were the only Feature nominees which received more than two citations across the Gotham Award's entire 2025 lineup.

BREAKTHROUGH DIRECTOR

• Akinola Davies Jr, My Father’s Shadow
• Harris Dickinson, Urchin
• Sarah Friedland, Familiar Touch
• Carson Lund, Eephus
• Constance Tsang, Blue Sun Palace

I’m very psyched for Familiar Touch and Eephus (the only two films in this category I’ve seen), two sturdily ambitious debuts that deserve as many eyes on them as possible. Sad to say I missed Urchin’s brief theatrical run in Columbus, and have had no prior opportunity to see My Father’s Shadow. But I will be making time for Blue Sun Palace, which is currently streaming on MUBI.

BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE

• A$AP Rocky, Highest 2 Lowest
• Sebiya Behtiyar, Preparations for the Next Life
• Chase Infiniti, One Battle After Another
• Abou Sangare, Souleymane’s Story
• Tonatiuh, Kiss of the Spider Woman

If Chase Infiniti is the most expected name to appear here, I had absolutely no expectation of reading Abou Sangaré’s name alongside hers. Both give tremendous, full-bodied performances worthy of winning the top prize, but I hope this citation gets more eyes on Souleymane’s Story - not many performers shoulder their film so completely as Sangaré carries his film. A$AP Rocky is the only supporting performance in this category, and while I suspect this wouldn't have happened if the budget cap was still in place, he's fantastic in Highest 2 Lowest and deserves the attention. Kiss of the Spider Woman has already shuttered its theatrical run in most of the US after a bad opening week, while Preparations for the Next Life is available to rent as we speak.

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

• It Was Just an Accident
• No Other Choice
• Nouvelle Vague
• Resurrection
• Sound of Falling

Three of these five divas - It Was Just an Accident, No Other Choice, and Sound of Falling - have been submitted for this year’s International Film Oscar. That’s a big change from last year’s lineup, where only Vermiglio contended for the Academy’s attention. Do we think these films will have legs as the season progresses? Should the American-made Nouvelle Vague have been allowed a nomination at all? And how funny would it be if the wildly experimental Resurrection pipped them all for this award?

 BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

• 2,000 Meters to Andriivka
• BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions
• My Undesirable Friends: Part 1 - Last Air in Moscow
• The Perfect Neighbor
• Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk

I have seen exactly none of these films, which impedes my ability to evaluate this category on its own merits or on any expected films that might have missed out. I can pine for Mistress Dispeller in theory, but was she contending? Hell if I know.

BEST DIRECTOR

• Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another
• Mary Bronstein, If I Had Legs I'd Kick You
• Oliver Laxe, Sirat
• Jafar Panahi, It Was Just An Accident
• Kelly Reichardt, The Mastermind

Oliver Laxe is this year's sole lone directing nominee, while Anderson, Bronstein, and Panahi received corresponding notices for their screenplays. What a gaunlet-throw by the Gothams to start the season with such an incredibly cool Best Director lineup.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

• If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, Mary Bronstein
• It Was Just An Accident, Jafar Panahi
• The Secret Agent, Kleber Mendoca Filho
• Sorry, Baby, Eva Victor
• Sound of Falling, Mascha Schilinski and Louise Peter

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

• No Other Choice – Park Chan-wook, Lee Kyoung-mi, Jahye Lee and Don McKellar
• One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson
• Pillion, Harry Lighton
• Preparations for the Next Life, Martyna Majok
• Train Dreams, Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar

I’ll admit it, I wasn’t psyched to read the Gothams had split their sole Screenplay category into Original and Adapted. We couldn’t have a First Screenplay instead? Also, where the fuck are Twinless and Eddington? But even if it’s weird for any awards body to have zero lone Screenplay nominees, these look like pretty exciting groups. Normalize honoring non-English language screenplays just as often (if not more often!) than English language ones.

BEST LEADING PERFORMANCE

• Jessie Buckley, Hamnet
• Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
• Sope Dirisu, My Father’s Shadow
• Ethan Hawke, Blue Moon
• Jennifer Lawrence, Die My Love
• Lee Byung-hun, No Other Choice
• Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent
• Josh O’Connor, The Mastermind
• Amanda Seyfried, The Testament of Ann Lee
• Tessa Thompson, Hedda

Lots of starry names in buzzy festival titles, not in the way CCA slavishly attempts to predict the Oscars but akin to actual celebrations of cool, risky acting and FYCs for folks who very much deserve them. There's absolutely a world where Jessie Buckley is the only one of these performers cited by the Academy. As much as I love Leo in OBAA, I’m very glad he missed out on principle. Also, it’s very bizarre to me that Familiar Touch received two major nominations and one of them was not Kathleen Chalfant’s incredible performance.

 BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE

• Benicio del Toro, One Battle After Another
• Jacob Elordi, Frankenstein
• Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Sentimental Value
• Indya Moore, Father Mother Sister Brother
• Wunmi Mosaku, Sinners
• Adam Sandler, Jay Kelly
• Andrew Scott, Blue Moon
• Alexandar Skarsgard, Pillion
• Stellan Skarsgard, Sentimental Value
• Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another

The duality of big-budget films gratuitously muscling their way into the Gothams: I hate to see Frankenstein show up here, even if Elordi is the one of the only elements deserving of recognition, but God I’m psyched to see Teyana Taylor. Does she need this? Almost certainly not, especially compared to Indya Moore or Alexander Skarsgard, but I want to see Taylor win an Oscar for OBAA, so let her get every bit of momentum she possibly can. Also, with Wunmi Mosaku nominated here and Sope Dirisu showing up in Lead, we got a His House reunion!

SPECIAL AWARDS

• Director Tribute: Noah Baumbach for Jay Kelly
• Ensemble Tribute: The cast of Sinners
• Spotlight Tribute: Tessa Thompson in Hedda
• Vanguard Tribute: Guillermo del Toro, Oscar Isaac, and Jacob Elordi for Frankenstein

Love the special shout-out to Tessa Thompson, who is so fluid and creative in Hedda. Hate the Frankenstein tribute, especially when Oscar Isaac is so middling and del Toro’s direction is so plasticky and unimpressive. Split on the Sinners ensemble tribute when the cast is so uneven, but any chance for Delroy Lindo to earn a trophy and give a speech is worth it in my book. Haven’t seen Jay Kelly, so, whatever.

As always, what do you all think of this lineup? Who should have been nominated given the eligible films, and who do we hope continues to show up as the yearr continues? Sound off in the comments, and thanks for reading.

Comments

[Travis C]

Happy for MY FATHER'S SHADOW, which was one of the best films I saw at the recently closed Adelaide Film Festival. I know it won't go any further (unless it manages to pull off a surprise win in either category).

BUGONIA was another AFF highlight, but it has a higher profile. I hope it manages to translate into Oscar.

2000 MILES TO ANDRIIVKA is another one, and I am hoping it can pull of the double nomination in International Film and Documentary Feature. It's that amazing.

I currently have Ethan Hawke in my predictions for Best Actor.This nomination, combined with the poor reviews for SPRINGSTEEN, gives me reason to stick with him for now.

And my final favourite film from AFF, IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT, is definitely a worthy screenplay.

From previous festivals, SOULEYMANE and SENTIMENTAL have my stamp of approval as well. As does SINNERS.

But, for the life of me, I can't work out what it is that people see in NO OTHER CHOICE. It's a fun movie, but not a well-structured one and, as much as I love PCW, this is a minor film for him. (From my ageing memory, I think I judged that THE AX did it much better.)

Final note: I had to give up my ticket to SIRAT last night due to a work commitment. I am hoping this doesn't come back to bite me this season.