Franklin Leonard & The Black List To Receive Gotham Anniversary Tribute, Marking 20th Year

EXCLUSIVE: The Gotham Film & Media Institute will honor Franklin Leonard and his company, the Black List, with the Gotham Anniversary Tribute at its annual film awards ceremony in December.

The honor recognizes the 20th year of The Black List, which Leonard founded in 2005 as a platform dedicated to nurturing written storytelling and empowering writers to maximize their professional potential.

The award will be presented at the 34th annual Gotham Awards on December 2 at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City. With its timing just after Thanksgiving, the event typically helps sound the opening bell for the serious phase of Oscar season.

The Anniversary Tribute was created by The Gotham in order to recognize major milestones and influential individuals. Last spring, Mariska Hargitay received the honor at the inaugural Gotham TV awards for her outstanding run on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

“With the Black List, Franklin Leonard has undeniably reshaped Hollywood by elevating talented writers and remarkable projects. His commitment to nurturing emerging screenwriters and lowering barriers to entry for talent is one that resonates deeply with The Gotham and our values,” said Jeffrey Sharp, Executive Director of The Gotham Film & Media Institute. “So many of Hollywood’s most beloved films, such as Juno, Slumdog Millionaire, and The King’s Speech, were all given a singular platform by the annual Black List that helped them get made. We are honored to present Franklin and the Black List with the Anniversary Tribute.”

First established as an annual survey of Hollywood’s most-liked unproduced screenplays, the Black List has since grown into a comprehensive resource for the film, TV, publishing, and theater worlds. It is a conduit for thousands of writers, agents, managers, showrunners, producers, financiers, directors, actors, and theater industry professionals. To date, more than 400 scripts from the Black List’s annual survey have been produced as feature films, resulting in more than $30B in global box office, 300 Academy Award nominations and 50 wins, including four Best Pictures. It has accounted for nearly half of the screenwriting Oscars awarded since 2007.

Among the acclaimed films to be produced after appearing on the annual Black List are Juno, Slumdog Millionaire and The King’s Speech. In September 2024, the Black List announced its expansion into fiction, allowing fiction writers to use blcklst.com to create a free profile to showcase their completed novels.

Along with serving as CEO of the platform, Leonard is also a film and television producer. He worked in feature film development at Universal Pictures and the production companies of Will Smith, Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella, and Leonardo DiCaprio.