US actor Colman Domingo has won the top acting prize at the 2024 Gotham Awards, as the Oscars race continues to heat up.

The star won best actor for his performance in Sing Sing, a powerful film about an educational performing arts programme in a New York prison.

There was a surprise but welcome winner in the top category, best feature, which went to A Different Man, a thought-provoking movie about a man who has a disfiguring facial condition and drastically changes his appearance.

The Gothams are one of the few film awards ceremonies to have merged their gendered acting categories, and all of this year's winners were men.

The Gotham Awards, held in New York, celebrate independent films. The event is not as big or influential as some others in awards season, but they can indicate early support for certain films in the race.

The next big milestone in the awards calendar will be the announcement of the Golden Globe nominations on Monday (9 December). A string of US critics groups and film organisations will also announce their winners in the coming days.

The Oscars race is considered to be wide open this year, with several strong contenders but no clear frontrunner to win best picture as things stand.

Sing Sing tells the real-life story of a man, known as Divine G, who has been imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit, and finds purpose by acting in a theatre group.

The film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2023, but its release was delayed until this summer to give it some distance from Rustin, another film starring Domingo which was in contention for awards last year.

Accepting his Gotham prize, Domingo said: "I'm just very grateful for this, to be seen in this way, to do the work that my heart desires, and my soul desires, making work that I truly believe can make a difference in this world."

He thanked the films director, writer and producer "for inviting me to bring my whole self, to help tell the story of these men that I care so deeply about".

"They found art to be the parachute that can save them, and they poured themselves into it, and it poured back into them."

Domingo's previous acting credits include One Night in Miami, If Beale Street Could Talk, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and The Color Purple.

His co-star Clarence Maclin, a former real-life inmate of Sing Sing prison who portrays a version of himself in the film, was named best supporting actor.

The top prize was won by A Different Man, a superb and original film about an aspiring actor who has neurofibromatosis, a disfiguring facial condition.

He undergoes a radical medical procedure to drastically transform his appearance, but then begins to grapple with a loss of identity, and is perturbed after meeting a man with a similar condition who is happy and fulfilled within his own body.

A Different Man held off competition from films including Anora and Babygirl, both of which could feature prominently in the Oscars race.

Director Aaron Schimberg said he was shocked to collect the award "considering the other nominees".

Other attendees at the Gothams included Hollywood stars Demi Moore, Nicole Kidman, Jessica Chastain, Adrian Brody, Pamela Anderson, Zoe Kravitz and Saoirse Ronan.

Elsewhere, filmmaker RaMell Ross won the best director gong for the accomplished Nickel Boys, while the star of the film Brandon Wilson received the prize for best breakthrough performer.

Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Colson Whitehead, Nickel Boys follows the powerful friendship between two men navigating a brutal reform school together in Florida.

Nickel Boys has attracted attention for its unusual shooting style. Ross opted to tell the story entirely from the characters' own point of view, which means viewers experience events through the eyes of the protagonists.

It has struggled to stay in the awards conversation in recent weeks despite its innovative style, but its Gotham win could give it a welcome boost of momentum.

There was also recognition for the terrific His Three Daughters, about three women who gather to care for their dying father, which won best screenplay.

Best feature

• Anora
• Babygirl
• Challengers
• WINNER: A Different Man
• Nickel Boys

Outstanding lead performance

• Pamela Anderson, The Last Showgirl
• Adrien Brody, The Brutalist
• WINNER: Colman Domingo, Sing Sing
• 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
• WINNER: Clarence Maclin, Sing Sing
• Katy O’Brian, Love Lies Bleeding
• Guy Pearce, The Brutalist
• Adam Pearson, A Different Man
• Brian Tyree Henry, The Fire Inside

Best director

• Payal Kapadia, All We Imagine as Light
• Sean Baker, Anora
• Guan Hu, Black Dog
• Jane Schoenbrun, I Saw the TV Glow
• WINNER: RaMell Ross, Nickel Boys

Best international feature

• WINNER: All We Imagine as Light
• Green Border
• Hard Truths
• Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
• Vermiglio

Best documentary feature

• Dahomey
• Intercepted
• WINNER: No Other Land
• Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
• Sugarcane
• Union

Best screenplay

• Between the Temples
• Evil Does Not Exist
• Femme
• WINNER: His Three Daughters
• Janet Planet

Breakthrough director

• Shuchi Talati, Girls Will Be Girls
• India Donaldson, Good One
• Alessandra Lacorazza, In the Summers
• WINNER: Vera Drew, The People’s Joker
• Mahdi Fleifel, To a Land Unknown

Breakthrough performer

• Lily Collias, Good One
• Ryan Destiny, The Fire Inside
• Maisy Stella, My Old Ass
• Izaac Wang, Dìdi
• WINNER: Brandon Wilson, Nickel Boys

The ceremony also saw tributes made to stars including director Denis Villeneuve and actors Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya and Angelina Jolie.

British actor Josh O'Connor presented the spotlight award to Zendaya, after the pair starred in Challengers together.

O'Connor likened Zendaya to stars including the late Dame Maggie Smith, using "authenticity as a superpower", having "seamlessly" navigated her way from being a child star.

Zendaya described the award as "quite the honour", before praising her film crew: "My character is only an amalgamation of the beautiful ideas of the amazing creative people around me," she said.

"I have to say, I love what I do, so much," she added, "so incredibly grateful I get to this for a living."

The Dune star later presented the director tribute award to filmmaker Villeneuve, who said he is most proud that over 12 years in the industry he has been able to "protect my flame" and not compromise his independent freedom and creativity.

Meanwhile, Dune star Oscar Isaac presented Chalamet and director James Mangold with the visionary award for their Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown.

Chalamet, sporting a moustache, said: "Getting to study and immerse myself in the world of Bob Dylan has been the greatest education a young artist can receive."

Jolie, who most recently played late opera star Maria Callas in her final days in 1970s Paris, also received the performer tribute during the ceremony.

"I grew up with a mother who kept books inside the oven because there were more books in our house than shelves in the apartment we had," Jolie said on stage.

The US actress said early influences "nurture and shape us as artists", noting the importance of art "taught in our schools, and so concerning that many of those programmes are being reduced".