26th Annual IFP Gotham Awards Winners

Last night the awards ceremony was entertaining enough to keep me awake most of the time with a few exceptions that included speeches that put me to sleep!  But none I regret more missing than Cate Blanchett Tribute presentation! (Winona Ryder put me to sleep, sigh)  So today will check the ceremony video as soon as organizers upload it to their youtube channel.

As expected Moonlight won most awards but the biggest surprise came from who won the Best Actress award as the favorite was Natalie Portman and none other than Isabelle Huppert won what she called -as she claim was told- a very-American award.  Even do I was very pleasantly surprised have to recognize that there is a strong marketing effort behind her with the ultimate goal to get an Oscar nomination/award; still up-to-this-moment efforts seem to be rewarded in a very positive way.  No, I do not believe Elle is one of Huppert's best performances nor one of the best French movies of the year; but perhaps has the right ingredients to be recognized and honored by the American industry and audiences.

Just for fun here is an incredible photo with outstanding Isabelle Huppert and Cate Blanchett plus Amy Adams.  Enjoy!



Another unexpected win -at least for me- was the Breakthrough Actor as movie clip game the chills and made me recall the style of Michael Haneke, so obviously, got interested even when I dislike the horror genre.  Will give movie a try.

As announced by Damian Lewis, the Audience Award went to Moonlight.

To check winners at Filmmaker Magazine go here and as soon as video becomes available will post it here.

Winners are in (*)BLUE.

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10/71/16
The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP), the nation’s premier member organization of independent storytellers, announced today the nominees for the 26th Annual IFP Gotham Independent Film Awards.

For 2016, ten competitive awards will be presented to independent features and series. In addition to the competitive awards, Gotham Award Tributes will be given to actors Amy Adams and Ethan Hawke, director Oliver Stone, and Industry Tribute recipient, producer Arnon Milchan.

The Gotham Awards is one of the leading awards for independent film and signals the kick-off to the film awards season. As the first major awards ceremony of the film season, the IFP Gotham Independent Film Awards provide critical early recognition and media attention to worthy independent films. The awards are also unique for their ability to assist in catapulting award recipients prominently into national awards season attention.

“We wish to offer our hearty congratulations to the 2016 Gotham Awards nominees, all of whose unique and exciting artistic achievements represent the very best in independent storytelling,” said Joana Vicente, Executive Director of IFP and the Made in NY Media Center.

Thirty-two films and series received nominations this year. In addition, the nominating committees for the Best Actor and Best Actress categories and the Breakthrough Actor category jointly voted to award a Special Jury Award to the ensemble cast of Moonlight “in which actors at all levels of experience give outstanding performances that speak eloquently to one another both within and across each chapter of the story.” The awards will go to actors Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris, Alex Hibbert, André Holland, Jharrel Jerome, Janelle Monáe, Jaden Piner, Trevante Rhodes, and Ashton Sanders.

Will not deny that I'm pleased with the nominations even when I'm surprised La La Land got snubbed. The category I like the most is the one that lists five actresses in what everyone have been saying are great performances; perhaps the most surprising for me is Kate Beckinsale nod probably because skipped the film but now seems will give it a try. As expected Isabelle Huppert got a nomination so now the question is if west coast industry awards will honor her too.

Manchester by the Sea leads with four (4) nominations followed by Moonlight and Paterson with three (3) each. Then there are six films with two (2) nominations each including Loving and I-Know-Is-Not-For-All-Audiences outstanding Certain Women.

Feature Films

Best Feature
Certain Women, Kelly Reichardt
Everybody Wants Some!!, Richard Linklater
Manchester by the Sea, Kenneth Lonergan
(*) Moonlight, Barry Jenkins
Paterson, Jim Jarmusch

Best Documentary
Cameraperson, Kirsten Johnson
I Am Not Your Negro, Raoul Peck
(*) O.J.: Made in America, Ezra Edelman
Tower, Keith Maitland
Weiner, Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg,

Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award
Robert Eggers for The Witch
Anna Rose Holmer for The Fits
Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert for Swiss Army Man
(*) Trey Edward Shults for Krisha
Richard Tanne for Southside with You

Best Screenplay
Taylor Sheridan for Hell or High Water, David Mackenzie
Whit Stillman for Love & Friendship, Whit Stillman
Kenneth Lonergan for Manchester by the Sea, Kenneth Lonergan
(*) Tarell Alvin McCraney and Barry Jenkins for Moonlight, Barry Jenkins
Jim Jarmusch for Paterson, Jim Jarmusch

Best Actress
Kate Beckinsale in Love & Friendship, Whit Stillman
Annette Bening in 20th Century Women, Mike MIlls
(*) Isabelle Huppert in Elle, Paul Verhoeven
Ruth Negga in Loving, Jeff Nichols
Natalie Portman in Jackie, Pablo Larraín

Best Actor
(*) Casey Affleck in Manchester by the Sea, Kenneth Lonergan
Jeff Bridges in Hell or High Water, David Mackenzie
Adam Driver in Paterson, Jim Jarmusch
Joel Edgerton in Loving, Jeff Nichols
Craig Robinson in Morris from America, Chad Hartigan

Breakthrough Actor
Lily Gladstone in Certain Women, Kelly Reichardt
Lucas Hedges in Manchester by the Sea, Kenneth Lonergan
Royalty Hightower in The Fits, Anna Rose Holmer
Sasha Lane in American Honey, Andrea Arnold
(*) Anya Taylor-Joy in The Witch, Robert Eggers

Special Gotham Jury Award for Ensemble Performance to Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris, Alex Hibbert, André Holland, Jharrel Jerome, Janelle Monáe, Jaden Piner, Trevante Rhodes, and Ashton Sanders in Moonlight

Series (TV and Online)

Breakthrough Series – Long Form
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
(*) The Girlfriend Experience
Horace and Pete
Marvel’s Jessica Jones
Master of None

Breakthrough Series – Short Form
The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo
(*) Her Story
The Movement
Sitting in Bathrooms with Trans People
Surviving

The Gotham Awards ceremony will be held on Monday, November 28th at Cipriani Wall Street.

The Gotham Audience Award nominees are comprised of the 15 films nominated for Best Feature, Best Documentary, and the Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award. The winner will be selected by online voting of IFP members. Voting for that award begins November 16th at 12:01 AM EST.

Nominees are selected by committees of film critics, journalists, festival programmers, and film curators. Separate juries of writers, directors, actors, producers, editors and others directly involved in making films will determine the final Gotham Award recipients. Twenty-nine writers, critics and programmers participated in the nomination process. The Nominating Committees for the 2016 IFP Gotham Independent Film Awards were:

Nominating Committee for Best Feature, Best Screenplay, and Breakthrough Director
Justin Chang, Film Critic, Los Angeles Times
Ann Hornaday, Chief Film Critic, The Washington Post
Eric Kohn, Deputy Editor & Chief Film Critic, Indiewire
Dana Stevens, Movie Critic, Slate
Stephanie Zacharek, Film Critic, TIME

Nominating Committee for Best Documentary:
Joanne Feinberg, Producer, Consultant, and Curator, FeinFilm
Ben Fowlie, Executive Director of the Points North Institute; Founder of the Camden International Film Festival
Cynthia Fuchs, Film-TV Editor, PopMatters; Director of Film & Media Studies, George Mason University
Tom Hall, Executive Director, The Montclair Film Festival
Sky Sitney, Professor, Film and Media Studies, Georgetown University; Co-Director, Double Exposure Festival

Nominating Committee for Best Actor and Best Actress:
A.A. Dowd, Film Editor, The A.V. Club
Mark Harris, Columnist, Vulture
Jessica Kiang, Features Editor & Festival Critic, The Playlist; Film Critic, Variety
David Rooney, Chief Theater Critic, The Hollywood Reporter
Alison Willmore, Critic, BuzzFeed

Nominating Committee for Breakthrough Actor:
Bilge Ebiri, Film Critic, Village Voice
David Ehrlich, Senior Film Critic, Indiewire
Tim Grierson, Senior U.S. Critic, Screen International; Chief Film Critic, Paste
Sheila O’Malley, Writer/Film Critic, RogerEbert.com, The Sheila Variations
Katie Walsh, Film Critic, Tribune Content Agency, Los Angeles Times

Nominating Committee for Breakthrough Series – Long Form:
Matthew Gilbert, TV Critic, The Boston Globe
Liz Shannon Miller, TV Editor, Indiewire
Sonia Saraiya, TV Critic, Variety
David Sims, Senior Associate Editor, The Atlantic
Tim Goodman, Chief Television Critic, The Hollywood Reporter

Nominating Committee for Breakthrough Series – Short Form:
Rich Goldstein, Producer, The Daily Beast
Randi Kleiner, Founder & CEO, SeriesFest
Paula Mejia, Reporter & Culture Writer, Newsweek
Aymar Jean Christian, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies, Northwestern University

deep euphoria Calvin Klein Spotlight on Women Filmmakers ‘Live the Dream’ Grant

For the sixth consecutive year, euphoria Calvin Klein is proud to present the Spotlight on Women Filmmakers ‘Live the Dream’ grant, a $25,000 cash award for an alumna of IFP’s Independent Filmmaker Labs or IFP’s Screen Forward Lab. 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 or episodic series. The nominees are:

Shaz Bennett, director, Alaska is a Drag
Katie Orr, director, Poor Jane
(*) Roxy Toporowych, director, Julia Blue

Gotham Independent Film Audience Award

IFP members will determine the Gotham Independent Film Audience Award with nominees comprised of the 15 nominated films in the Best Feature, Best Documentary, and Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award categories. All IFP current, active members at the Individual Level and above will be eligible to vote.

Voting will take place online from November 16th at 12:01 AM EST and conclude on November 23rd at 5:00 PM EST. In addition, IFP will be scheduling screenings of the nominated films for IFP members in the theater at the Made in NY Media Center by IFP in Brooklyn. These screenings will take place from November 9-15. The winner of the Audience Award will be announced at the Gotham Awards Ceremony on November 28, 2016.

Appendix
2016 IFP Gotham Awards – Alphabetical List of Nominated Films & Series

4 Nominations
Manchester by the Sea
Best Feature
Best Screenplay
Best Actor
Breakthrough Actor

3 Nominations

Moonlight
Best Feature
Best Screenplay
Special Jury Award – Ensemble Performance

Paterson
Best Feature
Best Screenplay
Best Actor

2 Nominations

Certain Women
Best Feature
Breakthrough Actor

The Fits
Breakthrough Director
Breakthrough Actor

Hell or High Water
Best Screenplay
Best Actor

Love & Friendship
Best Screenplay
Best Actress

Loving
Best Actor
Best Actress

The Witch
Breakthrough Director
Breakthrough Actor

1 Nomination

20th Century Women -Best Actress
American Honey - Breakthrough Actor
Cameraperson - Best Documentary
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend - Breakthrough Series – Long Form
Elle - Best Actress
Everybody Wants Some!! - Best Feature
The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo - Breakthrough Series – Short Form
The Girlfriend Experience - Breakthrough Series – Long Form
Her Story - Breakthrough Series – Short Form
Horace and Pete - Breakthrough Series – Long Form
I Am Not Your Negro - Best Documentary
Jackie - Best Actress
Krisha - Breakthrough Director
Marvel’s Jessica Jones - Breakthrough Series – Long Form
Master of None - Breakthrough Series – Long Form
Morris from America - Best Actor
The Movement - Breakthrough Series – Short Form
O.J.: Made in America - Best Documentary
Sitting in Bathrooms with Trans People - Breakthrough Series – Short Form
Southside with You - Breakthrough Director
Surviving - Breakthrough Series – Short Form
Swiss Army Man - Breakthrough Director
Tower - Best Documentary
Weiner - Best Documentary