"Anora" leads the Gotham Nominations
Tuesday, October 29, 2024 at 3:00PM
Cláudio Alves in All We Imagine as Light, Anora, Gotham Awards, Hard Truths, I Saw the TV Glow, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Nickel Boys, Oscars (24), Punditry, The People's Joker, Vermiglio, documentaries

by Cláudio Alves

ANORA seems poised to dominate the awards season.

Another year, another awards season. And, like it happens every fall, the Gotham Awards have the privilege of kicking the race into high gear. Unsurprisingly, Anora leads with four nominations, followed by Nickel Boys and I Saw the TV Glow with three nods a piece, though the latter failed to get a spot in the Best Feature category. Then again, it's worth remembering that the Gothams' nine categories are divided into five distinct committees with no overlap between them. The same people (critics, curators, editors, and programmers) who decide the Director and Screenplay nominees have no say in who makes it into the acting races, for example.

So, expect idiosyncrasies and don't put much stock in how some films appear in a couple of major categories but not others. More than a precursor for Oscar gold, these prizes often feel like an opportunity to highlight the richness of the cinematic year before the viable contenders get reduced to a limited lot. So, let's take a look at their selection…

 

Best Feature 

Just as I suspected, A Different Man is more beloved than many pundits realize, having built up its buzz since the Berlinale earlier in the year. What most surprises from this bunch is Challengers, which got no love from any of the other Gotham committees. Babygirl is proving it's more than just a Nicole Kidman showcase – indeed, it's my pick for the year's best American film – and Nickel Boys keeps cementing its reputation with critics. As for Anora, there's no stopping Sean Baker's crowd-pleasing Palme d'Or champion.

 

Best Director

Three cheers for Payal Kapadia, whose All We Imagine as Light deserves to be recognized as one of 2024's great cinematic achievements, far beyond the Best International Oscar race to which it has no access after being passed on by France, India, and Luxembourg. Like Kapadia, RaMell Ross is making his big narrative feature debut after much success in non-fiction film, while Guan Chu and Sean Baker have turned their Cannes laurels into actual buzz. I wonder if I Saw the TV Glow will climb up A24's priority list if critics groups keep honoring it and Schoebrun's queer horror vision.

 

Breakthrough Director

This category has a committee for itself, making the lack of overlap with the other lineups a sensible outcome of the process. Moreover, I wonder if the Gothams have systems in place to prevent someone like RaMell Ross from scoring here after already securing a spot in the primary Directing race. Vera Drew's nomination makes me happiest out of these, while Mahdi Fleifel's presence only makes me feel sadder that I missed To a Land Unknown at TIFF. A screener, a screener, my kingdom for a screener!

 

Best Screenplay

I don't care for Femme, but all the other nominees feel like inspired choices on the committee's part. Baker and Hamaguchi are especially notable for defying a traditional relationship between a film's players and its text, experimenting with distance and fragmentation in uncommon ways. Speaking of Janet Planet, it's interesting how much the Gothams were into A24 this year and yet, they ignored two of their late-year releases – Queer and On Becoming a Guinea Fowl. At this point, one must ask if the distributor is putting much effort into those titles' campaigns and promotion. Shed a tear for Problemista, which would have been a brilliant nominee.

 

Outstanding Lead Performance

As I write this post, I received an invite for a special Hard Truths screening by Angela Bassett and Sam Rockwell, with Marianne Jean-Baptiste in attendance. In other words, despite their relative inexperience in the campaign trail, Bleecker Street is pulling the big guns and not wasting any time with Mike Leigh's latest. Good for them, as the picture deserves the world. Moving on, most of these nominations are unsurprising, with two exceptions. The first and most delightful is Kupferer, for one of the year's best-acted features. And then there's Justice Smith, whose performance I'd single out as one of I Saw the TV Glow's weak spots but the acting committee clearly thinks otherwise. Some notable absences include Daniel Craig for Queer and Sebastian Stan for A Different Man.

 

Outstanding Supporting Performance 

Category Fraud is in style this season, with plenty of cases worth discussing. Prepare yourself for one of our LEAD or SUPPORTING polls in the next few days. Still, congratulations to the nominees, including Clarence Maclin and Adam Pearson, whose life stories could catapult them to the front of the race if they're given the chance to charm voters. Also, congratulations to the Gotham voters for ignoring the Mark Eydelshteyn buzz and actually nominating one of Anora's awards-worthy supporting actors. Lastly, I'd like to use this opportunity to signal how, for once, an acting category without gender separation was necessary to adequately honor one of the nominees. I still remember how, some months ago, non-binary actor Brigette Lundy-Paine failed to get a Gold Diggers nomination because their votes were split between gendered categories.

 

Breakthrough Performer

Joan Chen didn't get into the Best Supporting Performance lineup, but at least Dìdi got something. One wonders if any of these young thespians will be able to be honored beyond these specialty categories for up-and-comers at the start of their screen acting career. From this quintet, who seems more likely? My hunch is Ryan Destiny.

 

Best International Feature 

If you want more insight into the Best International Oscar race, look elsewhere. Out of these films, only Vermiglio is eligible for that specific Academy Award, representing Italy. In any case, this is a magnificent lineup that brings together old masters with those still at the start of their careers in film. Kapadya's Mumbai city symphony would get my vote but any title would be a just victor. In other news, maybe I'm Still Here isn't as popular as I'd have hoped.

 

Best Documentary Feature

It's shameful that two of the year's most acclaimed docs – No Other Land and Union – remain without distribution for evident political reasons. At least the production companies involved are securing qualifying releases, pushing the titles into awards consideration, and, hopefully, the eyes of some brave distributor. Dahomey, Sugarcane, and Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat find success here after some Critics Choice Awards mentions, solidifying their profile in the season. As for Intercepted, this is the first I've heard of it since the Berlinale, where it won a Special Mention from the Ecumenical Jury.

 

What's your favorite Gotham nomination? What absence hurt most?

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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