"Passing" and "The Lost Daughter" lead Gotham Awards nominations

by Nathaniel R

It was a good year for forthcoming Netflix content helmed by actresses turned directors with the juries of the Gotham Awards. Rebecca Hall's artful black and white drama Passing and Maggie Gyllenhaal's artful thorny adaptation of the novel The Lost Daughter led the nominations. They'll hit Netflix on November 10th and December 31st respectively. With both the Gotham Awards and the often slighlty more mainstream Spirit Awards it can be hard to know exactly what is eligible. Usually budgets make all the difference in film (for example Power of the Dog was ineligible) which creates a fuzzymath accounting line between mainstream and 'indie. But how do they decide with television? Did they not like Mare of Easttown (which scored zero nominations) or was it just not eligible though its chief Emmy rival The Queens Gambit obviously was since Anya Taylor Joy was nominated. 

Nominations and commentary are after the jump...

BEST FEATURE 

• The Green Knight (A24)
• The Lost Daughter (Netflix)
• Passing (Netflix)
• Pig (NEON)
• Test Pattern (Kino Lorber)

One of the fun things about the Gothams is their randomness. The Nicolas Cage arthouse hit Pig manages the top nomination with no other citations. The Green Knight scored only two nominations but the Gothams dont have craft categories so pictures that are special for reasons outside of acting rarely fell fully appreciated at the Gothams.

OUTSTANDING LEAD PERFORMANCE

• Olivia Colman, The Lost Daughter
• Frankie Faison, Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain
• Michael Greyeyes, Wild Indian
• Brittany S Hall, Test Pattern
• Oscar Isaac, The Card Counter
• Taylour Paige, Zola
• Joaquin Phoenix, C'Mon C'Mon
• Simon Rex, Red Rocket
• Lili Taylor, Paper Spiders
• Tessa Thompson, Passing

Wlld Indians and Passing Spiders were films we actually had to look up. It's always a shock when that happens given that we pay attention to movies all year of all shapes and sizes. Wild Indian is a thriller from Vertical Entertainment that came out a month ago. Paper Spiders is a TV movie (at least according to IMDB) from Entertainment Squad that earned $2,992 at the box office according to Box Office Mojo. 

Still it's nice when juries dig deep and watch a lot of stuff without buzz. And it's nice to see Michael Greyeyes getting a career upswing of late after years of relatively sparse filmography (despite high profile critical successes like Smoke Signals and The New World). Lately he's been in a lot of high profile television miniseries and has had a couple movies earn minor awards attention like the horror picture Blood Quantum which was a big winner at the Canadian Screen Awards and now this little film at the Gothams. 

Since they can cite up to 10 performances, it's a pity they didnt include Riley Keough who is amazing in Zola, since both of her obscenely talented co-stars were nominated. 

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE

• Reed Birney, Mass
• Jessie Buckley, The Lost Daughter
• Colman Domingo, Zola
• Gaby Hoffman, C'mon C'mon
• Troy Kotsur, CODA
• Marlee Matlin, CODA
• Ruth Negga, Passing

Lots of delicious work here so we have zero complaints about these six excellent performances but we do have several thoughts on the category nonetheless. This is a new category and they were supposed to vote like so:

"an outstanding single supporting performance in an eligible feature film. The award is to honor a performer making an indelible impact with limited screen time and who cannot be considered a lead or co-lead in the film. Billing and screen time will be taken into consideration when determining eligibility and nominations. Up to 10 performances will be nominated."

While we appreciate that their direction to jurors takes Category Fraud into account it's still a bit odd. No one on the jury believed that Reed Birney was a co-lead even though his whole film is comprised of four brilliant actors sitting in a room together acting their asses off? Does that mean they bought the argument that the film has no leads and they thought he was the best of the quartet. It's definitely been interesting to talk to people about Mass because everyone seems to have a different "best in show" (i've heard all four names cited) so how did they get a jury to agree on one name? Wish we could have been a fly on the wall for that discussion. 

It's a pity they didn't name 10 performers (since there are more supporting actors than lead actors in the world) since there were definitely three other great supporting players this season. Even if you restrict it to JUST the movies they nominated in other categories (which is not that many movies) there are GORGEOUS performances they snubbed. I'm talking about the hilarious Polly Draper in Shiva Baby, the amazing find of Bree Elrod in Red Rocket, the tetchy dangerous Dagmara Dominczyk in Lost Daughter, and anyone else in Mass (if you buy that they're all supporting which the jury seemed to). I'm sure if the Gothams published their eligibility lists we'd see other worthy choices that were not cited. It feels so stingy knowing they could have honored 10 character actors and chose not to.

But "up to ten" is agonizing. We hate uneven awards numbers here at the Film Experience. Just pick a number and stick with it. It's all subjective so consistency and parameters are what rein awards in and make them digestable and discussable and comparable from year to year. 

Nevertheless it's fun and admirable to see choices that don't feel like Oscar predictions and more awards bodies should try it! 

BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMER 

• Emilia Jones, CODA
• Natalie Morales, Language Lessons
• Rachel Sennott, Shiva Baby
• Suzanna Son, Red Rocket
• Amalia Ulman, El Planeta

Curious choices here. Why not Bree Elrod who is best in show in Red Rocket (give or take Simon Rex) managing a delicate character arc with such a jaded dead eyed exterior? Why not one of the most gifted child actors you'll ever see in Woody Norman from C'mon C'mon. 

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE 

• Ascension (MTV)
• Faya Dayi (Janus Films)
• Flee (NEON)
• President (Greenwich Entertainment)
• Summer of Soul (Hulu)

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

• Azor (MUBI) Switzerland/Argentina
• Drive My Car (Sideshow / Janus Films) Japan
• The Souvenir Part II (A24) UK
• Titane (NEON) France
• What Do We See When We Look At the Sky (MUBI) Georgia
• Worst Person in the World (NEON) Norway

Cool lineup.

BREAKTHROUGH DIRECTOR 

• Shatara Michelle Ford, Test Pattern
• Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Lost Daughter
• Rebecca Hall, Passing
• Edson Oda, Nine Days
• Emma Seligman, Shiva Baby

BEST SCREENPLAY 

• The Card Counter, Paul Schrader
• El Planeta, Amalia Ulman
• The Green Knight, David Lowery
• The Lost Daughter, Maggie Gyllenhaal
• Passing, Rebecca Hall
• Red Rocket, Sean Baker & Chris Bergoch  

BREAKTHROUGH SERIES (40 minutes +)

• The Good Lord Bird (Showtime)
• It's a Sin (HBOMax)
• Small Axe (Amazon)
• Squid Game (Netflix)
• The White Lotus (HBOMax)

BREAKTHROUGH SERIES (under 40 minutes)

• Blindspotting (Starz)
• Hacks (HBO Max)
• Reservation Dogs (FX)
• Run the World (Starz)
• We Are Lady Parts (Peacock)

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE IN A NEW SERIES 

• Jennifer Coolidge, The White Lotus
• Michael Greyeyes, Rutherford Falls
• Ethan Hawke, Good Lord Bird
• Devery Jacobs, Reservation Dogs
• Lee Jung-Jae, Squid Games
• Thuso Mbedu, Underground Railroad
• Jean Smart, Hacks
• Omar Sy, Lupin
• Anya Taylor Joy, Queens Gambit
• Anjana Vasan, We Are Lady Parts

Another nomination for Michael Greyeyes!

BREAKTHROUGH NON-FICTION SERIES 

• City So Real (National Geographic)
• Exterminate All the Brutes (HBOMax)
• How to Win with John Wilson (HBOMax)
• Philly DA (Topic, PBS)
• Pride (FX)

Glenn raved about Exterminate all the Brutes early this year.

WHAT'S YOUR TAKE ON THIS YEAR'S GOTHAM NOMINATIONS? 

Comments

[Finbar McBride]

I believe the Gotham Ensemble Award is being given to the Netflix Western, The Harder They Fall.

[Michael R]

Finbar: you are correct.

[Peggy Sue]

Dear God,

Thank you for the McDormand win.

Why do you punish me now with a Matlin renaissance?

Sincerely,

Peg.

[Fadhil]

I hate these gender “neutral” awards. They will just find ways to make male actors win all over again and no doubt, some people will be throwing tantrums about that too. And if there is a balance in the nominated roster between male and female, why not just relegate them to their own categories?

[StephenM]

I think Joaquin Phoenix is a Lead nominee for C'mon C'mon.

[jules]

Test Pattern is really nothing special; there are dozens of indies of similar quality every year that get no attention. I blanched at the large number of nominations for it. It really feels like a "diversity" pick and that's it.

I am glad to see Troy Kotsur nominated, though. He was my MVP of CODA, but I feared that since he isn't as well-known as Marlee Matlin, he would be ignored.

[Pam]

Reservation Dogs! We Are Lady Parts! That's all.

[NATHANIEL R]

stephen M -- thanks. not sure how i missed that. fixed.

[Glenn Dunks]

I don't really understand "breakthrough" for some of those series nominees. Not like there's going to be more series of them--or that they're made by first time directors. And what's the budget cut-off for series? I can't imagine they were cheap...

[Abe Friedtanzer]

Wild Indian screened at Sundance. I had heard great things so made sure to watch it but wasn't as impressed as others seemed to be.

It is pretty jarring to see Pig nominated without Nicolas Cage.

And I just saw The Lost Daughter - totally agree with your enthusiasm for Dagmara Dominczyk.