Gotham Nominees: Boyhood vs. Birdman vs. Budapest

The Gotham Awards juried nominations have recently surplanted the ancient NBR as the first real awards nomination/wins of the film year. That it happens in October is more than a little crazy, but what'cha gonna do? The New York centric film prizes, think of it as the Spirit Awards's East Coast Cousin albeit with far fewer prizes will be held on December 1st. Since they only have six categories and four separate juries (composed of critics and programmers), multiple nods aren't as easy to come by as they are at other shows but a handful of films managed it: Boyhood, Birdman, Dear White People, Nightcrawler, and Under the Skin.

BEST FEATURE 

• BIRDMAN
• BOYHOOD
• GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL
• LOVE IS STRANGE
• UNDER THE SKIN

Very happy to see the intensely moving Love is Strange, in constant danger of being undervalued, show up. Especially since it didn't show up anywhere else. 199 films were eligible for these honors.

BEST ACTRESS (they don't have lead or supporting designations)

Big year for GUGU with Belle as breakthrough and a nom for Beyond the Lights

• PATRICIA ARQUETTE, Boyhood
• SCARLETT JOHANSSON, Under the Skin
• GUGU MBATHA-RAW, Beyond the Lights
• JULIANNE MOORE, Still Alice
• MIA WASIKOWSKA, Tracks

Given that Still Alice is only getting a qualifying Oscar run and there's no proof that it will even play in NYC by the end of the year (LA is the only required theatrical run) I think it's weird to nominate Julianne Moore at the Gothams, however excellent she is in the picture. I wonder what criteria they use for eligibility?

BEST ACTOR (they don't have lead or supporting designations)

• BILL HADER, The Skeleton Twins
• ETHAN HAWKE, Boyhood
• OSCAR ISAAC, A Most Violent Year
• MICHAEL KEATON, Birdman
• MILES TELLER, Whiplash

Interesting to see Oscar Isaac show up but not Jessica Chastain when the same nominating committee chose for both categories. 

BREAKTHROUGH ACTOR OR ACTRESS

• RIZ AHMED, Nightcrawler
• MACON BLAIR, Blue Ruin
• ELLAR COLTRANE, Boyhood
• JOEY KING, Wish I Was Here
• JENNY SLATE, Obvious Child
• TESSA THOMPSON, Dear White People

Slightly odd choices by the breakthrough committee. I love Boyhood and Nightcrawler but it seems weird to single out Coltrane or Ahmed from either, not only because they aren't the MVPs but because their performances just aren't at the same accomplished level as their co-stars. 

BREAKTHROUGH DIRECTOR

• ANA LILY AMIRPOUR, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
• JAMES WARD BYRKIT, Coherence
• DAN GILROY, Nightcrawler
• ELIZA HITTMAN, It Felt Like Love
• JUSTIN SIMIEN, Dear White People

BEST DOCUMENTARY

• ACTRESS
• CITIZENFOUR
• LIFE ITSELF
• MANAKAMANA
• POINT AND SHOOT 

I haven't yet seen Life Itself (I know I know) but I increasingly suspect, based on everything I've read about it, that hero worship is really getting in the way. It's not that I don't appreciate Ebert's work or that I don't understand the need to honor him for a special life in this very specialized field. But as with Oscars view of documentary, sometimes subject matter trumps execution in terms of awardage. Critics complain when that happens. Except when it happens to a movie about a film critic ;) I reserve the right to change my mind and consider it very worthy if I see it but I just wanted to point out that this is always a real danger in awardage for all groups, not just Oscar, the effect of subject matter trumping execution. 

Inside Llewyn's Gotham Awards

It was a mix of oft rewarded icons (The Coens) and breakthrough leading movie roles from former awesome TV ensemble players (Jordan & Larson) for the Gotham Awards last night in NYC. 12 Years a Slave, which led nominations (not that that means much at the Gothams with so few categories), went home emptyhanded. No, not even for Lupita Nyong'o in Breakthrough! Bad luck or a sign that people respect but don't love the slavery drama? I don't personally understand this since it's a great film and great films are easy to love but though I'm a Gothamite, I'm not a Gotham voter. And full disclosure: I'm also cool on the Coen's chilly musical, apart from the music and the cat both of which are prize-worthy. 

guitar > fiddle at the Gothams

Feature: Inside Llewyn Davis
The 60s folk scene/character study from Joel and Ethan Coen conquered the uneven field of nominees which included  12 Years..., Upstream Color, Before Midnight (read our just published interview with Julie Delpy), and Aint Them Bodies Saints
Documentary: The Act of Killing
Breakthrough Director: Ryan Coogler, Fruitvale Station
Breakthrough Actor: Michael B. Jordan, Fruitvale Station
Will he take all the season's "Breakthrough" prizes or can Lupita rally to conquer?
Film Audience Award: Jake Shimabukuro: Life on Four Strings, Tadashi Nakamura
Spotlight on Women Filmmakers ‘Live the Dream’ Grant: Gita Pullapilly, director, Beneath the Harvest Sky

Brie Larson = Best Actress (Photo via Indiewire)

Actor: Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club
He won the Spirit Award last year for Magic Mike so this is another key indie acting prize for him. Can he convert all this into an Oscar acknowledgement that he's reinvented himself as an actor. That's what everyone was expecting but then the Best Actor race just got tighter and tighter.
Actress: Brie Larson, Short Term 12 (Interviewed)
This is quite a get since the Gothams didn't support Short Term 12 with nominations elsewhere. Larson beat Blanchett, Woodley, Scarjo, and busy indie darling Amy Seimetz

How do these prizes strike you this morning? Good, bad, indifferent?

Greta Gerwig on the "Frances Ha" Gotham Snub

I had the good fortune to speak with Greta Gerwig earlier today. She's had a terrific year co-writing and headlining the comedy Frances Ha, one of the year's true cinematic triumphs. But, due to the timing of our scheduled conversation, I also had the misfortune of being the bearer of bad news. I didn't realize when I clumsily brought up the Gotham snub, that she hadn't yet heard that the first awards show of the season, which previously honored her with a "breakthrough" nomination for Greenberg (2010) had passed this time around. But she was game enough to answer my questions about movie awards, anyway. She likes to watch, she quickly offered but "it's not really party of my orbit" 

But that led me to wondering if the reception of her work is important to her at all, or if she's one of those actors that's solely focused on the process.

I'm incredibly about how it's received but I don't -- but awards seem to be even beyond that. It has, like, its own rules. I want people I respect to like what I've done. I hope it touches people. I'm not making art in a closet because I want to have the experience of people watching it and liking it.

But awards are so kind of arbitrary. I think it's amazing to be recognized and I think good films are certainly recognized but I don't really see any connection between...

Her voice trails off then before she wraps the topic up with a funny bow.

I think if you're in the film business long enough they eventually get around to you somehow. Or at least when you die a picture of you goes up onscreen.

Um, but I don't know. I also think filmmakers who I love -- sometimes the movies they get recognized for aren't as good as some of their other movies.  'Oh, we sat on it when it was fascinating in the 80s,' or something 'so now we're going to do it!' 

That's some truth telling, right there. That's exactly how it works. This fine actress knows more about awards season than she thinks.

Frances Ha is currently available for pre-order from Criterion Collection and arrives on November 12th. The Film Experience's full interview with Greta Gerwig in which we talk musicals, filmmaking, and casting is coming soon.

Gotham Award Nominees: Short Term Sad

The Gotham Awards, which are kind of the East Coast sibling of the Spirit Awards, have been announced. Unfortunately it wasn't great news for my beloved Short Term 12 (sigh). And though I don't feel as proprietary about Frances Ha, it's complete snub is just bizarre (SO I HAD TO TALK TO GRETA GERWIG ABOUT IT). 

Breathe Kaitlyn, breathe. Being in a great movie is its own reward.

The nominating committee preferred mostly films by already established lauded filmmakers like The Coen Bros, Steve McQueen, and Richard Linklater. Short Term 12, the year's most heartfelt indie miracle, managed only one nomination for Best Actress (Brie Larson, interviewed here), which is a new category for the Gothams who have previously only awarded "Breakthrough" acting. Perhaps the Spirit Awards will come through for Short Term 12 if they can tear themselves away from barely independent studio-funded Oscar bait?

THE GOTHAM  NOMINEES

Best Feature

12 Years a Slave (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Ain’t Them Bodies Saints (IFC Films)

Before Midnight (Sony Pictures Classics)

Inside Llewyn Davis (CBS Films)

Upstream Color (erbp)

Their Best Feature rarely has much correlation with Oscars... and that's a good thing since indie film awards ought to be thinking independently. [MORE...]

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Gotham Awards Winners

You inspire him"
-Amy Adams to Joaquin Phoenix in The Master

Did The Gotham Awards inspire more faith in the possibly fadingg Oscar prospects of The Master? They did not. The following films competed for Best Picture in NYC's sort-of answer to The Spirit Awards: 

• Bernie
• The Loneliest Planet
• The Master
• Moonrise Kingdom
• Middle of Nowhere

(Yes, The Beasts of The Southern Wild was already famously snubbed here when the nominations were announced last month though it had other nominations and the team was in town for the ceremony and to beat their Oscar drum.) 

THE WINNERS

Jared, Benh, and Ematatzy

Audience Award ARTIFACT. Jared Leto accepted the documentary about his band and a lawsuit.

Don't hate me because I beat that other film."

Breakthrough Director BENH ZEITLIN for Beasts of the Southern Wild

It's no time to sit around crying like a bunch of pussies. Make more movies."

Breakthrough Actor EMAYATZY CORINEALDI in Middle of Nowhere

(Beasts of the Southern Wild seemed to be having as rough a night as Gotham's Live Feed which sorely disappointed. But things turned around for it. The movie, not the live feed.)

Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You
(Incidentally my favorite idea for an award category ever)
AN OVERSIMPLIFICATION OF HER BEAUTY by Terence Nance 

Bingham Ray Prize
BENH ZEITLIN for Beasts of the Southern Wild 

Best Ensemble
YOUR SISTERS SISTER

Best Documentary
HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE 

Best Film
MOONRISE KINGDOM 

Michael made a For Your Consideration plea for Moonrise Kingdom in Best Picture a short time ago right here at The Film Experience. I've not been confident on its Oscar prospects mostly because the film skews so young in its narrative (Oscar isn't that enamored of childhood tales outside of the Foreign Film category) and because excessively stylized pictures tend to be a tough sell for many voters. But the Gotham win is heartening.

Are you happy with the outcomes this year? Do they inspire you?