2025 Gotham Award Predictions [GVN-FYC]

Ah, award season, don’t we love it? It’s the perfect time to celebrate all forms of filmmaking, but it’s also the moment when predictions start spilling out of everyone’s pockets, whether we want them to or not. And the Gotham Awards, year after year, are the unofficial starter pistol of the long, unpredictable sprint toward the Oscars. Now, obviously, they don’t determine everything, but they do set a tone and sometimes help give a head start to movies/performers deemed as frontrunners early on. They tell us who’s buzzing, who’s suddenly very real in the awards conversation, and who you should probably catch up on before “the discourse” swallows all of us whole.

This year, Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another walks into the ceremony with the swagger of a frontrunner, six nominations, including Best Feature. The Gothams don’t always reward the most “obvious” contender, but PTA showing up like this absolutely matters. Add to that a wide-reaching list of honorees from Luca Guadagnino and Julia Roberts receiving the Visionary Tribute for After the Hunt, to Tessa Thompson being celebrated for Hedda, to the ensemble of Sinners picking up a tribute of their own, and this year’s ceremony feels unusually stacked. 

With winners being announced on December 1st, here’s where things stand and where I think they’re heading.

(** means who we have winning)

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 

Best International Feature

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

Best Documentary Feature

2000 Meters to Andriivka
BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions**
My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow
The Perfect Neighbor
Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk

Best Director

Mary Bronstein – If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Jafar Panahi – It Was Just an Accident
Kelly Reichardt – The Mastermind
Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another**
Oliver Laxe – Sirât 

Breakthrough Director

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

Best Original Screenplay

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

Best Adapted Screenplay

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

Outstanding Lead Performance

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

Outstanding 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
Alexander Skarsgård – Pillion
Stellan Skarsgård – Sentimental Value**
Teyana Taylor – One Battle After Another

Breakthrough Performer

A$AP Rocky – Highest 2 Lowest
Sebiye Behtiyar – Preparation for the Next Life**
Chase Infiniti – One Battle After Another
Abou Sangaré – Souleymane’s Story
Tonatiuh – Kiss of the Spider Woman 

The 2025 Gotham Award ceremony will be held tonight in New York City.