The Gotham Independent Film Awards kicked off this year’s Oscar season. As the name would suggest, only independent movies were in contention, so this year’s bigger movies like “Black Panther” or even “A Star is Born” weren’t eligible.
Why does it matter? Well, last year’s Gotham Award winners ended up being pretty big contenders throughout the season. “Call Me by Your Name” “Get Out” “Lady Bird” and “Mudbound” all won Gothams and, while they didn’t end up with the Best Picture Oscar, the first three were nominated for it and all four were featured heavily throughout the awards season. While not always a surefire, the winners are almost staples of the upcoming awards shows.
Of this year’s big winners, the only one I hadn’t heard of, “The Rider” took home best feature film, the Gotham Awards equivalent to Best Picture. I’m not sure how it is that I haven’t heard of it — maybe it’s just that indie. Either way, here’s the trailer:
Personally, it doesn’t look like my kind of movie, but if it does keep showing up throughout awards season, I guess I’ll have to watch it and see what all the hype is about.
Ethan Hawke took home Best Actor for his role in “First Reformed.” Photo courtesy of variety.com
When I saw “First Reformed” this summer, I was worried it would be forgotten by the time awards season got here. At least for now, I was wrong because it won Best Screenplay and Best Actor for Ethan Hawke. It’s a slow, quiet film about a priest (Hawke) who’s struggling with his faith against
You definitely don’t have to be religious to enjoy this movie. It’s written and directed by Paul Schrader, the screenwriter of “Taxi Driver” but it doesn’t have much in common with the 1976 Scorsese movie. “First Reformed” is about losing hope, whether it be religious faith or faith in the future.
It’s available to stream for free if you have Amazon Prime, so why not give it a try?
Toni Collette stars as the grief-stricken Annie in “Hereditary.” Photo courtesy of ign.com
“Hereditary” is a ridiculously ambitious movie that got Toni Collette a much deserved Best Actress award. It’s a horror movie but it can also be seen as a melodrama about grief. Toni Collette plays a completely devastated woman, and her grief rings so painfully true, that it’s impossible to walk out of “Hereditary” not singing her praises. You can think it didn’t have a great ending or that it wasn’t what you expected, but you can’t say Collette didn’t do an amazing job.
If you haven’t seen “Hereditary” I strongly urge you to watch it sooner, rather than later, because it has some twists that the trailers definitely hadn’t prepared me for. It’s also insanely well directed, a feature debut for Ari Asher, who was also nominated for Breakthrough Director and the Audience Award.
Elsie Fisher won Best Breakthrough Actor for her work in “Eighth Grade.” Photo courtesy of A24
I’ve talked about how awkwardly accurate “Eighth Grade” feels, and the Gotham Awards seemed to agree, giving it both Breakthrough Director and Breakthrough Actress. I still think it’s too small to get anything other than a Best Screenplay nomination at the Oscars, but I could be wrong.
Largos Lanthimos’s “The Favourite” received Best Ensemble Cast for Rachel Weisz, Emma Stone and Olivia Colman while “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” won the Audience Award. I loved the Mr. Rogers documentary, but the fact that it couldn’t win Best Documentary here doesn’t speak well for its overall chances against Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s documentary “RBG.”
The Golden Globes nominations will be announced on December 6, with the actual show taking place one month later, on January 6.
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