“A Different Man” was named the best independent film of the year at the 2024 Gotham Awards, which took place on Monday night in New York City.
The win for the drama starring Sebastian Stan came as a surprise at the end of a show in which “Nickel Boys” and “Sing Sing” had been the big winners, and in which “Anora” came in with the most nominations but left empty-handed.
In the gender-neutral acting categories, Colman Domingo and Clarence Maclin won the lead and supporting awards for “Sing Sing.” Domingo’s category also included Pamela Anderson for “The Last Showgirl,” Nicole Kidman for “Babygirl,” Marianne Jean-Baptiste for “Hard Truths” and Mikey Madison for “Anora,” while Maclin’s included Yura Borisov for “Anora,” Guy Pearce for “The Brutalist,” Kieran Culkin for “A Real Pain” and Danielle Deadwyler for “Nickel Boys.”
“Nickel Boys” star Brandon Wilson won the award for breakthrough actor, while that film’s director, RaMell Ross, won the first-ever Gotham Award in the new Best Director category.
The award for international film went to Payal Kapadia’s “All We Imagine as Light,” an understated drama set in India that was bypassed by that country’s Oscar submission committee because they felt it wasn’t Indian enough.
The Best Documentary Feature winner was “No Other Land,” which was made by an Israeli-Palestinian collective and was filmed over five years on the West Bank.
Azazel Jacobs won the screenplay award for “His Three Daughters.” The Breakthrough Director award went to Vera Drew for “The People’s Joker.”
Going into the show, “Anora” led all films with four awards. “Nickel Boys” and “I Saw the TV Glow” were nominated for three, while films with two nominations included “All We Imagine As Light,” “His Three Daughters,” “The Brutalist,” “Sing Sing,” “Hard Truths,” “A Different Man” and “The Fire Inside.”
In the first 20 years of the Gotham Awards’ Best Feature category, its winner went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture only six times, beginning with “The Hurt Locker” in 2009 and also including “Birdman,” “Spotlight,” “Moonlight,” “Nomadland” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” But the Gotham winner was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar 13 times in that stretch.
The show also included special tributes to Zendaya (Spotlight Tribute), Denis Villeneuve (Director Tribute), Franklin Leonard and the Black List (Anniversary Tribute), “The Piano Lesson” (Ensemble Tribute), “Sing Sing” (Social Justice Tribute), Angelina Jolie (Performer Tribute) and Timothee Chalamet and James Mangold for “A Complete Unknown” (Visionary Tribute).
The ceremony took place at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City.
Here is the complete list of nominees. Winners are indicated by *WINNER.
Best Feature
“Anora”
“Babygirl”
“Challengers”
“A Different Man” *WINNER
“Nickel Boys”
Best International Feature
“All We Imagine as Light” *WINNER
“Green Border”
“Hard Truths”
“Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell”
“Vermiglio”
Best Documentary Feature
“Dahomey”
“Intercepted”
“No Other Land” *WINNER
“Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat”
“Sugarcane”
“Union”
Best Director
Payal Kapadia, “All We Imagine as Light”
Sean Baker, “Anora”
Guan Hu, “Black Dog”
Jane Schoenbrun, “I Saw the TV Glow”
RaMell Ross, “Nickel Boys” *WINNER
Best Screenplay
“Between the Temples,” Nathan Silver, C. Mason Wells
“Evil Does Not Exist,” Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
“Femme,” Sam H. Freeman, Ng Choon Ping
“His Three Daughters,” Azazel Jacobs *WINNER
“Janet Planet,” Annie Baker
Breakthrough Director
Shuchi Talati, “Girls Will Be Girls”
India Donaldson, “Good One”
Alessandra Lacorazza, “In the Summers”
Vera Drew, “The People’s Joker” *WINNER
Mahdi Fleifel, “To a Land Unknown”
Outstanding Lead Performance
Pamela Anderson, “The Last Showgirl”
Adrien Brody, “The Brutalist”
Colman Domingo, “Sing Sing” *WINNER
Marianne Jean-Baptiste, “Hard Truths”
Nicole Kidman, “Babygirl”
Keith Kupferer, “Ghostlight”
Mikey Madison, “Anora”
Demi Moore, “The Substance”
Saoirse Ronan, “The Outrun”
Justice Smith, “I Saw the TV Glow”
Outstanding Supporting Performance
Yura Borisov, “Anora”
Kieran Culkin, “A Real Pain”
Danielle Deadwyler, “The Piano Lesson”
Brigette Lundy-Paine, “I Saw the TV Glow”
Natasha Lyonne, “His Three Daughters”
Clarence Maclin, “Sing Sing” *WINNER
Katy O’Brian, “Love Lies Bleeding”
Guy Pearce, “The Brutalist”
Adam Pearson, “A Different Man”
Brian Tyree Henry, “The Fire Inside”
Breakthrough Performer
Lily Collias, “Good One”
Ryan Destiny, “The Fire Inside”
Maisy Stella, “My Old Ass”
Izaac Wang, “Didi”
Brandon Wilson, “Nickel Boys” *WINNER