The Gotham Film & Media Institute celebrates and nurtures independent film and media creators, providing career-building resources, access to industry influencers, and pathways to wider recognition.

Founded over 40 years ago in 1979 as the Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP), The Gotham is the largest and longest-running non-profit organization for independent film and storytelling in the United States. To date, The Gotham has supported over 10,000 projects and offered resources to more than 30,000 filmmakers, including the likes of renowned creators Barry Jenkins, Dee Rees, Laura Poitras, Richard Linklater, and Ava DuVernay.

Today, The Gotham continues to champion the future of storytelling by connecting artists across various media disciplines with essential resources at all stages of their career and projects’ development. In addition, The Gotham fosters a vibrant and sustainable, independent creative community that encompasses a growing network of storytellers around the world.

Across all initiatives and programming, both member- and public-facing, opportunities with The Gotham are inclusive of new and established voices from a diverse range of racial, ethnic, religious, ideological, and sexual perspectives.

The Gotham’s Commitment to Inclusion Statement

The Gotham serves a global creative community of storytellers. We strive to curate an open and inclusive environment for all voices with policies and associated practices that are equitable.

Our programs ensure that ethics, accountability, and intentionality are at the forefront when it comes to authorship and treatment of a project’s subject matter. Gotham program participants are required in the program application to detail how their project and process is accountable to the people and communities they are portraying. We ask our reviewers, partners, and vendors to acknowledge our dedication to accountability and inclusivity.

The Gotham believes and is committed to the above for our entire community, which includes but is not limited to filmmakers, industry and organizational partners, students, educators, journalists, audio creators, entrepreneurs, digital artists, and those that touch the creative industry.