The Gotham Awards (/ˈɡɒθəm/) are American film awards, presented annually to the makers of independent films at a ceremony in New York City, the city first nicknamed "Gotham" by native son Washington Irving, in an issue of Salmagundi, published on November 11, 1807.[1] Part of the Gotham Film & Media Institute (formerly Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP)), "the largest membership organization in the United States dedicated to independent film" (founded in 1979), the awards were inaugurated in 1991 as a means of showcasing and honoring films made primarily in the northeastern region of the United States.[2]
In 2004, the scope of the awards broadened to include the international film scene, when the number of awards presented increased from six awards – given to films and those involved in making them primarily from the northeastern U.S. film community – to nine awards, including in its broader scope films originating in Los Angeles, California, and international locations as well.[citation needed]
Having outgrown its previous locations in the city's Manhattan borough, for the first time in its history, the 17th Annual Gotham Awards gala occurred outside of that borough, in the city's Brooklyn borough at Steiner Studios, in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, on November 27, 2007, and it was "promoted nationally via a partnership with The New York Times and locally via broadcast on WNYE".[1][2][3]
From 1991 to 2002, the Tribute Award, also called Career Tribute, was awarded as a Lifetime Achievement Award to one person each year and the individual achievement awards (Filmmaker Award, Writer Award, Actor Award, Below-the-Line Award, Producer/Industry Executive Award and Independent Vision Award) were given out separately. As of the 2003 Gotham Awards, the IFP replaced all mentioned individual category awards with Career Tributes.[5]
In April 2024, the Gotham Film & Media Institute announced that television series and performances will be honored at a separate ceremony going forward with the first edition of the Gotham TV Awards taking place on June 4, 2024.[6][7] In previous years, television categories had been part of the main awards ceremony, where two television awards for new series were presented for the first time in 2015.[8] In 2021, two further awards, one for performance and one for non-fiction television, were introduced.[9][10] Out of the eight categories to be presented at the inaugural Gotham TV Awards only the award for Breakthrough Nonfiction Series had been given out before (in 2021 and 2022); the three other awards for series, the three awards for outstanding performances and the audience award for television were newly created.
The ceremony, which was previously held at Chelsea Piers, Hammerstein Ballroom and Roseland Ballroom in Manhattan, grew too big for those venues. This year, the event expects to draw more than a thousand film industry notables to the Navy Yard.
