25th IFP Gotham Awards Winners

Last night was the awards ceremony and wanted to watch it but unfortunately have an unpleasant cold that put me to sleep early, sigh. Nevertheless had to check who won and so I did last night but when saw the winner went back to sleep, lol. Know Gotham Awards only represent the taste of a few people in few committees but honestly, wanted a different result as we know that "everything" influences voters in other awards.

Spotlight by Tom McCarthy became the big winner of the night as not only had already win the Ensemble Award but now also has the Best Feature and Best Screenplay. So, as someone said, Spotlight probably will become the "darling" of the press and IF happens then we will see groups of film critics honoring the film. Hope doesn't happen, but well, soon enough will start to learn film critics winners.

Winners are in *BLUE.

Best Feature
Carol, Tod Haynes
The Diary of a Teenage Girl, Marielle Heller
Heaven Knows What, Josh and Benny Safdie
*Spotlight, Tod McCarthy
Tangerine, Sean Baker

Best Documentary
Approaching the Elephant, Amanda Rose Wilder
Cartel Land, Matthew Heineman
Heart of a Dog, Laurie Anderson
Listen to Me Marlon, Stevan Riley
*The Look of Silence, Joshua Oppenheimer

Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award
Desiree Akhavan for Appropriate Behavior
*Jonas Carpigano for Mediterranea
Marielle Heller for The Diary of a Teenage Girl
John Magary for The Mend
Josh Mond for James White

Best Actress
Cate Blanchett in Carol
Blythe Danner in I'll See You in My Dreams
Brie Larson in Room
*Bel Powley in The Diary of a Teenage Girl
Lily Tomlin in Grandma
Kristen Wiig in Welcome to Me

Best Actor
Christopher Abbott in James White
Kevin Corrigan in Results
*Paul Dano in Love & Mercy
Peter Sarsgaard in Experimenter
Michael Shannon in 99 Homes

Breakthrough Actor
Rory Caulkin in Gabriel
Arielle Holmes in Heaven Knows What
Lola Kirke in Mistress American
Kitana Kiki Rodriguez in Tangerine
*Mya Taylor in Tangerine

Best Screenplay
Phillyis Nagy for Carol
Marielle Heller for The Diary of a Teenage Girl
Oren Moverman and Michael Alan Lerner for Love & Mercy
*Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer for Spotlight
Noah Baumbach for While We're Young

Best Ensemble award goes to the ensemble cast of Spotlight: Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, Stanley Tucci and Brian D’Arcy James. Also there will be Gotham Tributes for Steve Golin, Todd Haynes, Helen Mirren and Robert Redford.

Spotlight on Women Directors "Live the Dream" Grant
Claire Carré for Embers
Deb Shoval for AWOL
*Chanelle Aponte Pearson for 195 Lewis

Audience Award (voted only by IFP members): Tangerine, Sean Baker

Gotham Appreciation Award: Ellen Cotter

Breakthrough TV Series - Long Form
Jane the Virgin
*Mr. Robot
Transparent
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
UnREAL

Breakthrough TV Series Short Form
Bee and PuppyCat
The Impossibilities
Qraftish
*Shugs and Fats
You're So Talented

Industry magazines have their reporters writing articles about how Gotham means not much for Oscars and this time I hope they're right; if you wish to find lots for reasons read the Variety and THR articles.  Will try to watch some of the awards ceremony as Helen Mirren did what she does best, a great worth-watching speech; if find the video will add to post.

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10/23/15
Yesterday the first set of nominations that recognize American cinema were released by the Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) whom announced the nominees for their annual Gotham awards. So we are clear let me remind you that this New York based award nominations represents the tastes of four five-person committees comprised of writers, critics and programmers; so suggest you take these nominations with a grain of salt and try not to do implications to what could happen in the 2015-2016 American awards season.

Was waiting for official site to publish nominations but they haven't yet, maybe due to the fact that they have a new website that you can check here.  But know that eventually all info will be at that link.

Quite surprising for me, The Diary of a Teenage Girl leads the pack with four nods followed closely by my particular favorite Carol and Tangerine with three nominations each.  The reason why this year will do individual posts for each of the three independent cinema awards is because of the films that could be competing; most important of all, Carol, but also others like The Danish Girl, Clouds of Sils Maria and more.

My fast first spontaneous reaction was negative as these nominations somehow confirm that Rooney Mara is out of the Best Actress race, which obviously upsets me as shows the power behind TWC. Assume that Mara could have possibilities in the Supporting Actress Oscar category but gee, who are they trying to fool? Mara won the Cannes Palme d'Or for Best Actress, not best supporting actress. Of course I'm glad Cate Blanchett has a nod and hope for a win, but Mara deserved also a nomination as Best Actress. I see no change in the future for Mara, but hope that critics and other awards minimize TWC influence and dare to name Rooney Mara for the Best Actress category. Sigh.

I'm not sure about which films were or were not eligible for the Gothams; but if eligible, perhaps the biggest omissions are The Danish Girl, Beasts of No Nation, and in the documentary category, The Wolfpack. To read the criteria for all competitive feature awards go here. Truth is that criteria seems incredibly vague as to be eligible film must be American (hence no Brooklyn, Ex Machina, Clouds of Sils Maria, etc), so the film must be directed and/or produced by a US-born or based filmmaker.  Also "films made with an economy means" which means that "budget level and sources of financing are taken in consideration" during criteria review.  When we check movies that have been nominated in the past we notice that there are many with big budgets as well as some with micro-budgets, so who knows what "made with an economy means" really means, sigh.

Will wait to see what BIFA and Spirit nominees are to have the whole independent cinema picture and while we wait, these are the nominations for the NY based Gotham Awards 2015 edition.

Had skipped The Diary of a Teenage Girl but seems that now maybe will watch it to find why all the Gotham nods. Another I skipped was Tangerine, even when film was done entirely with an iphone, not sure will give movie a try as imagine is not easy-to-watch. Have seen some films that I liked but among those that have seen there are several that I did not enjoyed at all, sigh.

Presented every year by the New York-based Independent Film Project (IFP), the Gotham Awards ceremony is set this year for Nov. 30 at Cipriani Wall Street in downtown Manhattan.