Everything Everywhere All at Once, the ambitious superhero movie starring Michelle Yeoh, has won best feature at the Gotham awards in New York.

Picking up the prize, co-director Daniel Kwan said he hoped the film was helping to heal collective global trauma. Ke Huy Quan also won best supporting performance for his work in the film; the Gothams have had gender neutral acting categories since last year.

Till’s Danielle Deadwyler won the award for best lead performance for her portrayal of the grieving mother of Emmett Till. Director Chinonye Chukwu accepted the award on her behalf.

Meanwhile Tár, Todd Field’s ecstatically received drama starring Cate Blanchett as a conductor, converted its five nominations into one win – for best director, while Aftersun, which went into the race with four nominations, took breakthrough director for Charlotte Wells.

The Inspection and Women Talking, which each had three nominations, came away empty handed.

Meanwhile, Ben Whishaw took outstanding performance in a new TV series for his work in This Is Going to Hurt, while We Need to Talk About Cosby won for breakthrough nonfiction series.

There were also a series of individual tributes, including for Adam Sandler, Michelle Williams, the cast of Fire Island, Gina Prince-Bythewood and Sidney Poitier.

Williams’s prize was presented by her The Fabelmans co-star Paul Dano, who was filling in for the film’s director Steven Spielberg, who has Covid.

In his speech, Dano recalled a recent conversation he had with Williams about their time as young actors in Hollywood. He had thought: “Imagine if that teenage girl knew that at the midpoint of her career she’d be receiving a tribute award at the Gothams from none other than Steven Spielberg, and what would she have thought?”

He added: “And then I thought, ‘Well, what if we had to tell that girl that Steven got Covid?’ She’d be like, ‘What’s Covid?’ and that ‘Paul Dano was going to introduce you?’ She’d be like, ‘Who the fuck is Paul Dano?’”