The heavy awards onslaught is gearing up and it is a good year to be Fox Searchlight. The 21st Gotham Independent Film Award Nominations have been announced and two of the studio’s films happen to lead the pack. Alexander Payne‘s The Descendants picked up nominations for Best Feature, Best Ensemble Performance and Best Breakthrough Actor. Their Sundance hit (and one of my personal favorites of the year) Martha Marcy May Marlene picked up Ensemble, Breakthrough Actor and Breakthrough Director for Sean Durkin.
That latter award is a great pack including Mike Cahill for Another Earth, Vera Farmiga for Higher Ground, Evan Glodell for Bellflower and Dee Rees for Pariah. It is also great to see my frontrunner for #1 film of 2011, Terrence Malick‘s The Tree of Life get a Best Feature nomination. Check out the noms below via indieWIRE.
New York, NY (October 20, 2011) – The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP), the nation’s oldest and largest organization of independent filmmakers announced today the nominees for the Gotham Independent Film Awards™. Signaling the kick-off to the film awards season, IFP’s Gotham Independent Film Awards™ nominations were given to a total of 24 films across six competitive categories for Best Feature, Best Documentary, Breakthrough Director, Breakthrough Actor, Best Ensemble Performance, and Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You.
The Gotham Awards’ ceremony will be held on Monday, November 28th at Cipriani Wall Street. In addition to the competitive awards, Charlize Theron, Gary Oldman, David Cronenberg and Tom Rothman will each be presented with a career tribute.
As the first major awards ceremony of the film season, the Gotham Independent Film Awards™ provide critical early recognition and media attention to worthy independent films. Previous winners for Best Feature and Best Documentary include WINTER’S BONE (2010), THE OATH (2010), THE HURT LOCKER (2009), FOOD, INC (2009), FROZEN RIVER (2008) and TROUBLE THE WATER (2008). The awards are also unique for their ability to assist in catapulting award recipients prominently into national awards season attention, including recent winners and ultimate Oscar® contenders: feature winners WINTER’S BONE (2010) and THE HURT LOCKER (2009); Breakthrough Actors Melissa Leo (2008), Ellen Page (2007), Rinko Kikuchi (2006) and Amy Adams (2005).
Primary criteria for nomination consideration includes American (US-based or US-born directors and producers), feature-length films made with a point of view. Additional criteria include independently distributed films made with an economy of means. For a complete list of criteria, see http://gotham.ifp.org.
Selecting this year’s nominees were 21 film critics, journalists, and curators (see list below). Separate juries of writers, directors, actors, producers, editors and others directly involved in making films will determine final award recipients.
“The high caliber of this year’s Gotham Awards nominees’ work is truly remarkable,” said Joana Vicente, Executive Director of IFP. “This extraordinary group of filmmakers and talent, both established and new, are breaking barriers and finding fresh, innovative ways to engage audiences through unique storytelling. We’re passionate about shedding light on well deserved independent cinema and excited to begin what is sure to be a momentous awards season.”
The nominees for the 21st Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards are:
Best Feature
Beginners
Mike Mills, director; Leslie Urdang, Dean Vanech, Miranda de Pencier, Jay Van Hoy, Lars Knudsen, producers (Focus Features)
The Descendants
Alexander Payne, director; Jim Burke, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor, producers (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Meek’s Cutoff
Kelly Reichardt, director; Neil Kopp, Anish Savjani, Elizabeth Cuthrell, David Urrutia, producers (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
Take Shelter
Jeff Nichols, director; Tyler Davidson, Sophia Lin, producers (Sony Pictures Classics)
The Tree of Life
Terrence Malick, director; Sarah Green, Bill Pohlad, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Grant Hill, producers (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Best Documentary
Better This World
Katie Galloway and Kelly Duane de la Vega, directors; Katie Galloway, Kelly Duane de la Vega, Mike Nicholson, producers (Loteria Films, Picturebox, Motto Pictures and Passion Pictures; ITVS in association with American Documentary | POV)
Bill Cunningham New York
Richard Press, director; Philip Gefter, producer (Zeitgeist Films)
Hell and Back Again
Danfung Dennis, director; Mike Lerner, Martin Herring, producers (Docurama Films)
The Interrupters
Steve James, director; Alex Kotlowitz, Steve James, producers (The Cinema Guild)
The Woodmans
C. Scott Willis, director; Neil Barrett, Jeff Werner, C. Scott Willis, producers (Lorber Films; Kino Lorber, Inc.)
Best Ensemble Performance
Beginners
Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Mélanie Laurent, Goran Visnjic, Kai Lennox, Mary Page Keller, Keegan Boos (Focus Features)
The Descendants
George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Beau Bridges, Robert Forster, Judy Greer, Matthew Lillard, Nick Krause, Amara Miller, Mary Birdsong, Rob Huebel (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Margin Call
Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Penn Badgley, Simon Baker, Mary McDonnell, Demi Moore, Stanley Tucci, Aasif Mandvi (Roadside Attractions)
Martha Marcy May Marlene
Elizabeth Olsen, Christopher Abbott, Brady Corbet, Hugh Dancy, Maria Dizzia, Julia Garner, John Hawkes, Louisa Krause, Sarah Paulson (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Take Shelter
Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain, Tova Stewart, Shea Whigham, Katy Mixon, Kathy Baker, Ray McKinnon, Lisagay Hamilton, Robert Longstreet (Sony Pictures Classics)
Breakthrough Director
Mike Cahill for Another Earth (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Sean Durkin for Martha Marcy May Marlene (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Vera Farmiga for Higher Ground (Sony Pictures Classics)
Evan Glodell for Bellflower (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
Dee Rees for Pariah (Focus Features)
Breakthrough Actor
Felicity Jones in Like Crazy (Paramount Vantage)
Elizabeth Olsen in Martha Marcy May Marlene (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Harmony Santana in Gun Hill Road (Motion Film Group)
Shailene Woodley in The Descendants (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Jacob Wysocki in Terri (ATO Pictures)
Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You
Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same
Madeleine Olnek, director; Laura Terruso, Madeleine Olnek, producers
Green
Sophia Takal, director; Lawrence Michael Levine, producer
The Redemption of General Butt Naked
Eric Strauss, Daniele Anastasion, directors and producers
Scenes of a Crime
Blue Hadaegh & Grover Babcock, directors and producers
Without
Mark Jackson, director; Mark Jackson, Jessica Dimmock, Michael Requa, Jaime Keeling, producers
New this year, IFP is proud present the inaugural euphoria Calvin Klein Spotlight on Women Filmmakers ‘Live the Dream’ grant, a $25,000 cash award for an alumnus of IFP’s Independent Filmmaker Labs. This grant aims to further the careers of emerging women directors by supporting the completion, distribution and audience engagement strategies of their first feature film.
The nominees are:
Jenny Deller, director, FUTURE WEATHER
Lucy Mulloy, director, UNA NOCHE
Rola Nashef, director, DETROIT UNLEADED
The 2nd Annual Gotham Independent Film Audience Award will be voted on again by the independent film community, 230,000 film fans worldwide. To be eligible, a U.S. film must have won an audience award at one of the top 50 U.S. or Canadian film festivals from November 2010 through October 2011. Voting begins today at http://gotham.ifp.org/audience_award. The nominees will be announced November 7th and the winner will be revealed at the Gotham Awards ceremony.
The recipient of the Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You award is determined by the editors of Filmmaker Magazine, a publication of IFP, and a curator from The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). All of these nominees will also be screened for the public at MoMA from November 18 – 21.
The Premier Sponsors of the Gotham Independent Film Awards™ are Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and The New York Times, Presenting Sponsor euphoria Calvin Klein and Calvin Klein Collection, Official Sponsors: Heineken USA; Russian Standard Vodka; charitybuzz; Mionetto USA; MoMA and Andaz Wall Street. Additionally, the awards will be promoted nationally in an eight-page special advertising section in The New York Times on November 18th, 2011.
The Nominating Committees for the Gotham Independent Film Awards™ announced above are as follows:
Nominating Committee for Best Feature and Breakthrough Director:
Scott Foundas, Associate Program Director, Film Society of Lincoln Center; Contributing Editor, Film Comment
Ann Hornaday, Film Critic, The Washington Post
Andrew O’Hehir, Film Critic, Salon.com
Joshua Rothkopf, Senior Film Writer, DVD Editor, Time Out New York
Lisa Schwarzbaum, Film Critic, Entertainment Weekly
Nominating Committee for Best Ensemble Performance and Breakthrough Actor:
Peter Debruge, Senior Film Critic/Associate Features Editor, Variety
Karen Durbin, Film Critic, Elle Magazine
Dave Karger, Senior Writer, Entertainment Weekly
Eric Kohn, Lead Film Critic, IndieWIRE
Rajendra Roy, The Celeste Bartos Chief Curator of Film, Museum of Modern Art
Nominating Committee for Best Documentary:
Cynthia Fuchs, Film-TV Editor, PopMatters
Sean Farnel, Documentary Consultant
Tom Hall, Director of Programming, Sarasota Film Festival; Programmer, newportFILM
Mike Maggiore, Programmer and Publicist, Film Forum
Rachel Rosen, Artistic Director, San Francisco Film Society
Nominating Committee for Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You:
Joshua Siegel, Associate Curator, Department of Film, Museum of Modern Art;
and members of the editorial staff of Filmmaker Magazine: Scott Macaulay (Editor-in-Chief), Jason Guerrasio, Brandon Harris, Ray Pride, Alicia Van Couvering
What do you think about the nominations this year?