Gotham Independent Film Award for Breakthrough Director

The Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award is one of the annual Gotham Independent Film Awards and honors feature film directorial debuts. Named after Bingham Ray since 2013,^[1][2] the breakthrough director award was first given in 1991 as the Open Palm Award, with Jennie Livingston being the first recipient of the award, for her work in Paris Is Burning. From 1991 to 1996 only the winner was announced, since 1997, a set of 5 to 6 nominees is presented annually.

Gotham Independent Film Award for Breakthrough Director
The 2024 recipient: Vera Drew
Country	United States
Presented by	The Gotham Film & Media Institute
First award	Jennie Livingston for Paris Is Burning (1991)
Currently held by	Vera Drew for The People's Joker (2024)
Website	awards.thegotham.org

Winners and nominees

1990s

Year	Director(s)	Film	Ref.
1991	Jennie Livingston	Paris Is Burning	[3]
1992	Tom Kalin	Swoon	[4]
1993	Leslie Harris	Just Another Girl on the I.R.T.	[5]
1994	Rose Troche	Go Fish	[6]
1995	Rebecca Miller	Angela	[7]
1996	Lisa Krueger	Manny & Lo	[8]
1997	Macky Alston	Family Name	[9]
	Morgan J. Freeman	Hurricane Streets
	John O'Hagan	Wonderland
	Ira Sachs	The Delta
	Alex Sichel	All Over Me
1998	Darren Aronofsky	Pi	[10]
	Lisa Cholodenko	High Art
	Chris Eyre	Smoke Signals
	Vincent Gallo	Buffalo '66
	Harmony Korine	Gummo
1999	David Riker	The City	[11]
	Tim Kirkman	Dear Jesse
	Eric Mendelsohn	Judy Berlin
	Mark Polish and Michael Polish	Twin Falls Idaho
	Frank Whaley	Joe the King

2000s

Year	Director(s)	Film	Ref.
2000	Karyn Kusama	Girlfight	[12]
	Bruno de Almeida	On the Run
	Myles Connell	The Opportunists
	Tom Gilroy	Spring Forward
	Kenneth Lonergan	You Can Count on Me
2001	Henry Bean	The Believer	[13]
	John Cameron Mitchell	Hedwig and the Angry Inch
	Michael Cuesta	L.I.E.
	Daniel Minahan	Series 7: The Contenders
	Randy Redroad	The Doe Boy
	David Wain	Wet Hot American Summer
2002	Eric Eason	Manito	[14]
	Bertha Bay-Sa Pan	Face
	Ethan Hawke	Chelsea Walls
	Moisés Kaufman	The Laramie Project
	Peter Mattei	Love in the Time of Money
	Fisher Stevens	Just a Kiss
2003	Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini	American Splendor	[15]
	Alfredo De Villa	Washington Heights
	Peter Hedges	Pieces of April
	Dylan Kidd	Roger Dodger
	Tom McCarthy	The Station Agent
	Peter Sollett	Raising Victor Vargas
2004	Joshua Marston	Maria Full of Grace	[16]
	Rodney Evans	Brother to Brother
	Debra Granik	Down to the Bone
	Nicole Kassell	The Woodsman
	Lori Silverbush and Michael Skolnik	On the Outs
2005	Bennett Miller	Capote	[17]
	Miranda July	Me and You and Everyone We Know
	Phil Morrison	Junebug
	Andrew Wagner	The Talent Given Us
	Alice Wu	Saving Face
2006	Ryan Fleck	Half Nelson	[18]
	Ramin Bahrani	Man Push Cart
	Laurie Collyer	Sherrybaby
	So Yong Kim	In Between Days
	James Marsh	The King
2007	Craig Zobel	Great World of Sound	[19]
	Lee Isaac Chung	Munyurangabo
	Stephane Gauger	Owl and the Sparrow
	Julia Loktev	Day Night Day Night
	David Von Ancken	Seraphim Falls
2008	Lance Hammer	Ballast	[20]
	Antonio Campos	Afterschool
	Dennis Dortch	A Good Day to Be Black and Sexy
	Barry Jenkins	Medicine for Melancholy
	Alex Rivera	Sleep Dealer
2009	Robert D. Siegel	Big Fan	[21]
	Cruz Angeles	Don't Let Me Drown
	Frazer Bradshaw	Everything Strange and New
	Noah Buschel	The Missing Person
	Derick Martini	Lymelife

2010s

Year	Director(s)	Film	Ref.
2010	Kevin Asch	Holy Rollers	[22]
	Lena Dunham	Tiny Furniture
	Glenn Ficarra and John Requa	I Love You Phillip Morris
	Tanya Hamilton	Night Catches Us
	John Wells	The Company Men
2011	Dee Rees	Pariah	[23]
	Mike Cahill	Another Earth
	Sean Durkin	Martha Marcy May Marlene
	Vera Farmiga	Higher Ground
	Evan Glodell	Bellflower
2012	Benh Zeitlin	Beasts of the Southern Wild	[24] [25]
	Zal Batmanglij	Sound of My Voice
	Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky	Francine
	Jason Cortlund and Julia Halperin	Now, Forager
	Antonio Méndez Esparza	Aquí y allá
2013	Ryan Coogler	Fruitvale Station	[26]
	Adam Leon	Gimme the Loot
	Alexandre Moors	Blue Caprice
	Stacie Passon	Concussion
	Amy Seimetz	Sun Don't Shine
2014	Ana Lily Amirpour	A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night	[27]
	James Ward Byrkit	Coherence
	Dan Gilroy	Nightcrawler
	Eliza Hittman	It Felt Like Love
	Justin Simien	Dear White People
2015	Jonas Carpignano	Mediterranea	[28]
	Desiree Akhavan	Appropriate Behavior
	Marielle Heller	The Diary of a Teenage Girl
	John Magary	The Mend
	Josh Mond	James White
2016	Trey Edward Shults	Krisha	[29]
	Robert Eggers	The Witch
	Anna Rose Holmer	The Fits
	Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert	Swiss Army Man
	Richard Tanne	Southside with You
2017	Jordan Peele	Get Out	[30]
	Maggie Betts	Novitiate
	Greta Gerwig	Lady Bird
	Kogonada	Columbus
	Joshua Z Weinstein	Menashe
2018	Bo Burnham	Eighth Grade	[31]
	Ari Aster	Hereditary
	Jennifer Fox	The Tale
	Crystal Moselle	Skate Kitchen
	Boots Riley	Sorry to Bother You
2019	Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre	The Mustang	[32]
	Kent Jones	Diane
	Joe Talbot	The Last Black Man in San Francisco
	Olivia Wilde	Booksmart
	Phillip Youmans	Burning Cane

2020s

Year	Director(s)	Film	Ref.
2020	Andrew Patterson	The Vast of Night	[33]
	Radha Blank	The Forty-Year-Old Version
	Channing Godfrey Peoples	Miss Juneteenth
	Carlo Mirabella-Davis	Swallow
	Alex Thompson	Saint Frances
2021	Maggie Gyllenhaal	The Lost Daughter	[34][35]
	Shatara Michelle Ford	Test Pattern
	Rebecca Hall	Passing
	Edson Oda	Nine Days
	Emma Seligman	Shiva Baby
2022	Charlotte Wells	Aftersun	[36]
	Elegance Bratton	The Inspection
	Beth de Araújo	Soft & Quiet
	Owen Kline	Funny Pages
	Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović	Murina
	Jane Schoenbrun	We're All Going to the World's Fair
2023	A. V. Rockwell	A Thousand and One	[37]
	Michelle Garza Cervera	Huesera: The Bone Woman
	Raven Jackson	All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt
	Georgia Oakley	Blue Jean
	Celine Song	Past Lives
2024	Vera Drew	The People's Joker	[38]
	India Donaldson	Good One
	Mahdi Fleifel	To a Land Unknown
	Alessandra Lacorazza	In the Summers
	Shuchi Talati	Girls Will Be Girls

See also

• John Cassavetes Award
• Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature