The Gotham Awards were handed out last night, honoring the best in independent film. In the past, the Gothams have been awarded at the starts of awards season but this year, they’re happening right in the middle. It’s a weird awards season but apparently, Nomadland either winning or being a serious contender is the one thing that you can depend upon. Admittedly, it’s debatable how much of influence the Gothams really have on the Oscars. Many films that Oscar-eligible are not considered to be Gotham-eligible. For instance, the big-budgeted, studio-backed blockbusters that are often mentioned as possible Oscar nominees are not Gotham eligible. There’s a kind of nice justice to that, I think.
That said, every victory helps. Nomadland has kind of been an obvious Oscar contender for several months now but it never hurts to notch another victory on the wall.
Here’s are the nominees and the winners, with the winners in bold:
Best Feature
The Assistant
First Cow
Never Rarely Sometimes Always
Nomadland
Relic
Best Documentary
76 Days
City Hall
Our Time Machine
A Thousand Cuts (TIE)
Time (TIE)
Best International Feature
Bacurau
Beanpole
Cuties (Mignonnes)
Identifying Features
Martin Eden
Wolfwalkers
Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award
Radha Blank – The Forty-Year-Old Version
Channing Godfrey Peoples – Miss Juneteenth
Alex Thompson – Saint Frances
Carlo Mirabella-Davis – Swallow
Andrew Patterson – The Vast of Night
Best Screenplay
Bad Education – Mike Makowsky
First Cow – Jon Raymond, Kelly Reichardt
The Forty-Year-Old Version – Radha Blank (TIE)
Fourteen – Dan Sallitt (TIE)
The Vast of Night – James Montague, Craig Sanger
Best Actor
Riz Ahmed – Sound of Metal
Chadwick Boseman – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Jude Law – The Nest
John Magaro – First Cow
Jesse Plemons – I’m Thinking of Ending Things
Best Actress
Nicole Beharie – Miss Juneteenth
Jessie Buckley – I’m Thinking of Ending Things
Yuh-Jung Youn – Minari
Carrie Coon – The Nest
Frances McDormand – Nomadland
Breakthrough Actor
Jasmine Batchelor – The Surrogate
Kingsley Ben-Adir – One Night in Miami…
Sidney Flanigan – Never Rarely Sometimes Always
Orion Lee – First Cow
Kelly O’Sullivan – Saint Frances
Breakthrough Series – Long Format (over 40 minutes)
The Great
Immigration Nation
P-Valley
Unorthodox
Watchmen
Breakthrough Series – Short Format (under 40 minutes)
Betty
Dave
I May Destroy You
Taste the Nation
Work in Progress
Keeping in mind that I haven’t seen all of the nominees yet, I guess my favorite winner is Andrew Patterson as Breakthrough Director for The Vast of Night. The Vast of Night was one of my favorite films last year and I’m very much looking forward to seeing what Patterson does in the future.
Along with these awards, the Gothams also paid special tribute to: Steve McQueen, Ryan Murphy, actors Viola Davis, Chadwick Boseman and the ensemble cast of The Trial Of The Chicago 7. A tip of the hat to Next Best Picture for that information. I did consider watching the Gothams last night but …. well, The Bachelor was on and then after that, I was really tired. To be honest, I would probably have watched if the awards had been presented by people dressed up like Batman. Y’know, Gothams. Gotham City. All of that. Anyway….
Congrats to the winners!
Through the Shattered Lens 