Larry Gottheim (born 1936) is an American avant-garde filmmaker.

Gottheim was born December 3, 1936. He attended a high school for music and the arts.^[1]

Gottheim went to Oberlin College for undergraduate studies, where he became interested in poetry and fiction. He earned a Ph.D. in comparative literature at Yale University.^[1][2]

Gottheim became a faculty member at Binghamton University, where he began teaching literature. He purchased a Bolex camera and began learning how to make films.^[1] In 1969 Gottheim brought filmmaker Ken Jacobs to Binghamton, and they established a film department, the first in the SUNY system.^[3] His Elective Affinities series, named after the novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, is a collection of four films: Mouches Volantes, Four Shadows, Tree of Knowledge, and Natural Selection.