The movie premiered in North America at the Toronto International Film Festival on 11 September 2008. It was nominated for the Palme d'Or and won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008. It won the ARRI-Zeiss Award at the Munich Film Festival. The film was selected by the "Associazione Nazionale Industrie Cinematografiche Audiovisive e Multimediali" to represent Italy in contention for Best Foreign Language Film at the 81st Academy Awards. Despite the earlier success at Cannes, and defying expectations, it failed to be short-listed. On 11 December "Gomorrah" received a Golden Globe Awards nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. "Gomorrah" won five awards at the 2008 European Film Awards, including Best European Film in Copenhagen on 6 December 2008.