Related Posts
Source: Variety
With so many films competing for the industry’s various awards over the course of a single yearly season, it can be difficult for smaller, more independently produced works of cinema to stand out among the crowd. Because films that receive the backing of major studios are afforded the luxury of greater and more widespread publicity, independent films can often get lost in the crowd and be kept from receiving the attention they may deserve. This is an issue that the Gotham Independent Film Awards, or simply Gotham Awards, has sought to remedy since its inception in 1991. Founded and overseen by New York City’s Gotham Film & Media Institute, a non-profit organization that’s been cited as “the largest membership organization in the United States dedicated to independent film”, the Gotham Awards seek to acknowledge the cinematic creations that are able to represent the best of what the artform has to offer even without the financial support of major studios and/or corporations. That mission has remained the central driving force of the Gotham Awards for over three decades, and it was only just recently that the event’s thirty-third annual ceremony took place. With all the nominees and associated individuals gathering at New York City’s Cipriani Wall Street location during the evening of Monday, November 27th, the 33rd Annual Gotham Awards continued the tradition started by those who helped put together the Gotham Film & Media Institute’s first ceremony over thirty years prior and handed out ten awards over the course of the event, seven of which went specifically to films (while the other three were given to television productions).
Of the select number of accolades awarded regularly by the Gotham Film & Media Institute, the most highly coveted is the Best Feature prize, an equivalent to the Academy Awards’ Best Picture. This year, Celine Song’s romantic drama “Past Lives” was the recipient of this award, with the writer-director enthusiastically accepting the award while being joined on stage by Greta Lee and John Magaro, both of whom had served as two of the film’s most prominent actors. “Thank you, Gotham, for this award,” Song said during her acceptance speech “It’s such an honor. It really means the world to receive it with my debut set in New York City, a city I live in and love deeply.” In addition to this category, “Past Lives” has also been nominated for Outstanding Lead Performance (which went specifically to the aforementioned Lee) and Breakthrough Director (for which Song was recognized); though the film would sadly not secure wins in either of these other categories, its receiving of Best Feature nonetheless speaks volumes of its quality and will hopefully be a sign of things to come as awards season moves along.
More than any other nominated film of the year, Andrew Haigh’s romantic fantasy “All of Us Strangers” had the opportunity to win four separate awards over the course of the ceremony, with receiving nominations for Best Screenplay, Best International Feature, Outstanding Lead Performance (Andrew Scott) and Outstanding Supporting Performance (Claire Foy). Unfortunately, the film ended up going home empty-handed as each of the categories it had been nominated in had their respective prizes go to one of the other nominated films. Interestingly, one of those films was Justine Triet’s courtroom drama-thriller “Anatomy of a Fall”, which had only been nominated in two categories – Best Screenplay and Best International Feature – yet was able to secure wins in both, making it the only feature of the evening to receive more than a single award.
With each of the acting categories – Outstanding Lead Performance and Outstanding Supporting Performance – including ten nominated actors each (a possible effect of both of them no longer being separated into two gendered categories each), it’s safe to say that each of them was fairly competitive at the very least. This of course makes the reveal of the eventual winners all the more noteworthy, and in the case of Outstanding Lead Performance, the winning actor is especially surprising considering that the film she won for is not the one she’s getting the most attention for. As one of the central leads of Martin Scorsese’s epic Western crime drama “Killers of the Flower Moon”, actor Lily Gladstone has certainly made a name for herself over the past few months, and the fact that her win in this category is for a completely different film – specifically Morrisa Maltz’ drama “The Unknown Country” – is a testament to Gladstone’s capabilities as an actor and the degree of success she’s reached throughout the year. It’s difficult to determine whether her performance in “The Unknown Country” will be able to attract all that many eyes throughout the next few months – the more lucrative “Killers of the Flower Moon” will most likely continue to be Gladstone’s more highly publicized film – but either way, one can only hope that the recognition she’s received for both of these films will allow her to further build a successful acting career.
Winning the Outstanding Supporting Performance award was actor Charles Melton for his performance in Todd Haynes’ drama “May December”, one that found itself having to compete with the likes of Juliette Binoche of “The Taste of Things”, Jaime Foxx of “They Cloned Tyrone”, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph of “The Holdovers” among several others. Best Documentary Feature, meanwhile, went to Kaouther Ben Hania’s “Four Daughters”, a Tunisian feature that competed for the Palme d’Or at the most recent Cannes Film Festival and will be Tunisia’s entry for the Best International Feature at the upcoming Academy Awards. Finally, the award for Breakthrough Director was given to A.V. Rockwell for her drama “A Thousand and One”, providing Rockwell and her film with a win after being nominated in three categories altogether (the other two being Best Feature and Outstanding Lead Performance, the latter going to actress Teyana Taylor). The total number of awards handed out over the course of the ceremony may be smaller than most others, but few would argue that those won are more than worthy of these prizes, and it will be very exciting to see how well these films and filmmakers continue to fare as the yearly award season continues onward.
