The Gotham Independent Film Audience Award was one of the annual Gotham Independent Film Awards awarded between 2010 and 2020. The winner was determined via an online vote, in earlier years by the independent film community and film fans (2010–2013), and later by members of the Independent Filmmaker Project (2014–2020).
Nomination eligibility From 2010 to 2013, the five nominees were selected in a first round of online voting from American films that had won an audience award at an American or Canadian film festival in the previous year. Beginning in 2014, the nominees were the films nominated for Best Feature, Best Documentary, and Breakthrough Director. In 2020, the nominees for the newly created award for Best International Feature were also nominated for this award.
Winners and nominees 2010s YearFilmDirector(s) 2010 Waiting for "Superman" | style="background:#B0C4DE" | Davis Guggenheim|rowspan="5" style="text-align:center;"| |- | 9000 Needles || Doug Dearth |- | Brotherhood || Will Canon |- | Winter's Bone || Debra Granik |- | White Irish Drinkers || John Gray |- |rowspan="5" style="text-align:center;"| 2011 | style="background:#B0C4DE" | Girlfriend | style="background:#B0C4DE" | Justin Lerner|rowspan="5" style="text-align:center;"| |- | Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey || Constance Marks |- | Buck || Cindy Meehl |- | The First Grader || Justin Chadwick |- | Wild Horse, Wild Ride || Alex Dawson and Greg Gricus |- |rowspan="5" style="text-align:center;"| 2012 | style="background:#B0C4DE" | Artifact | style="background:#B0C4DE" | Jared Leto|rowspan="5" style="text-align:center;"| |- | Beasts of the Southern Wild || Benh Zeitlin |- | Burn || Tom Putnam and Brenna Sanchez |- | The Invisible War || Kirby Dick |- | Once in a Lullaby: The PS 22 Chorus Story || Jonathan Kalafer |- |rowspan="5" style="text-align:center;"| 2013 | style="background:#B0C4DE" | Jake Shimabukuro: Life on Four Strings Tadashi Nakamura 12 Years a Slave Steve McQueen Best Kept Secret Samantha Buck Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey Ramona Diaz Fruitvale Station Ryan Coogler 2014 Boyhood Richard Linklater Actress Robert Greene Birdman Alejandro G. Iñárritu Citizenfour Laura Poitras Coherence James Ward Byrkit Dear White People Justin Simien A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night Ana Lily Amirpour The Grand Budapest Hotel Wes Anderson It Felt Like Love Eliza Hittman Life Itself Steve James Love Is Strange Ira Sachs Manakamana Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez Nightcrawler Dan Gilroy Point and Shoot Marshall Curry Under the Skin Jonathan Glazer 2015 Tangerine | style="background:#B0C4DE" | Sean Baker|rowspan="14" style="text-align:center;"| |- | Approaching the Elephant || Amanda Wilder |- | Appropriate Behavior || Desiree Akhavan |- | Carol || Todd Haynes |- | Cartel Land || Matthew Heineman |- | The Diary of a Teenage Girl || Marielle Heller |- | Heart of a Dog || Laurie Anderson |- | Heaven Knows What || Ben Safdie and Joshua Safdie |- | Listen to Me Marlon || Stevan Riley |- | The Look of Silence || Joshua Oppenheimer |- | The Mend || John Magary |- | Mediterranea || Jonas Carpignano |- | Spotlight || Tom McCarthy |- | James White || Josh Mond |- |rowspan="15" style="text-align:center;"| 2016 | style="background:#B0C4DE" | Moonlight | style="background:#B0C4DE" | Barry Jenkins|rowspan="15" style="text-align:center;"| |- | Cameraperson || Kirsten Johnson |- | Certain Women || Kelly Reichardt |- | Everybody Wants Some!! || Richard Linklater |- | The Fits || Anna Rose Holmer |- | I Am Not Your Negro || Raoul Peck |- | Krisha|| Trey Edward Shults |- | Manchester by the Sea || Kenneth Lonergan |- | O.J.: Made in America|| Ezra Edelman |- | Paterson || Jim Jarmusch |- | Southside with You|| Richard Tanne |- | Swiss Army Man || Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert |- | Tower || Keith Maitland |- | Weiner || Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg |- | The Witch || Robert Eggers |- |rowspan="14" style="text-align:center;"| 2017 | style="background:#B0C4DE" | Get Out Jordan Peele Call Me by Your Name Luca Guadagnino Columbus Kogonada Ex Libris: The New York Public Library Frederick Wiseman The Florida Project Sean Baker Good Time Ben Safdie and Joshua Safdie I, Tonya Craig Gillespie Lady Bird Greta Gerwig Menashe Joshua Z Weinstein Novitiate Maggie Betts Rat Film Theo Anthony Strong Island Yance Ford Whose Streets? Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis The Work Jairus McLeary and Gethin Aldous2018 Won't You Be My Neighbor? Morgan NevilleBisbee '17 Robert GreeneEighth Grade Bo Burnham The Favourite Yorgos Lanthimos First Reformed Paul SchraderHale County This Morning, This Evening RaMell RossHereditary Ari Aster If Beale Street Could Talk Barry Jenkins Madeline's Madeline Josephine DeckerMinding the Gap Bing Liu The Rider Chloé Zhao Shirkers Sandi TanSkate Kitchen Crystal MoselleSorry to Bother You Boots RileyThe Tale Jennifer Fox2019 Marriage Story Noah BaumbachAmerican Factory Steven Bognar and Julia ReichertApollo 11 Todd Douglas Miller Booksmart Olivia Wilde Burning Cane Phillip Youmans Diane Kent JonesThe Edge of Democracy Petra Costa The Farewell Lulu Wang Hustlers Lorene Scafaria The Last Black Man in San Francisco Joe Talbot Midnight Traveler Hassan Fazili The Mustang Laure de Clermont-TonnerreOne Child Nation Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang Uncut Gems Ben Safdie and Joshua Safdie Waves Trey Edward Shults
2020s YearFilmDirector(s) 2020Nomadland Chloé Zhao 76 Days Hao Wu, Weixi Chen and Anonymous The Assistant Kitty Green Bacurau Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles Beanpole Kantemir Balagov City Hall Frederick Wiseman Cuties Maïmouna Doucouré First Cow Kelly Reichardt The Forty-Year-Old Version Radha Blank Identifying Features Fernanda Valadez Martin Eden Pietro Marcello Miss Juneteenth Channing Godfrey Peoples Never Rarely Sometimes Always Eliza Hittman Our Time Machine Yang Sun and S. Leo Chiang Relic Natalie Erika James Saint Frances Alex Thompson Swallow Carlo Mirabella-Davis A Thousand Cuts Ramona Diaz Time Garrett Bradley The Vast of Night Andrew Patterson Wolfwalkers Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart
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