"Gummo" premiered at the 24th Telluride Film Festival on August 29, 1997. During the screening, numerous people got up and left during the initial cat drowning sequence. Several festival appearances followed including International Film Festival Rotterdam where it won the KNF Award for "best feature film in the official section that does not yet have distribution within the Netherlands," and Venice Film Festival where it received a special mention from the FIPRESCI jury. It was picked up for distribution by Fine Line Features, and saw a limited release with an R rating (edited from the original NC-17 version) in the United States on October 17, 1997 for pervasive depiction of anti-social behavior of juveniles, including violence, substance abuse, sexuality and language.