Well, folks, it’s HERE! 2012′s award season has officially kicked off with the announcement of the 2012 Gotham Awards nominees. Sponsored by IFP each year, the Gothams are a funny little duck, often picking completely incomprehensible choices in most categories and then wondering why people run around screaming about what a joke the awards are. Nice to know the tradition is still alive, as the Gothams passed over critically-acclaimed films like Silver Linings Playbook, Beasts Of The Southern Wild and The Perks Of Being A Wallflower in the best picture category (“Perks” was COMPLETELY shut out, which is a travesty in itself), opting instead to choose the likes of the Jack Black comedy Bernie and the still-to-be-released The Loneliest Planet (it hits theaters next weekend…and we’ll have a review of it on this weekend’s Subject:CINEMA, having seen it months ago at the Independent Film Festival of Boston), both of which have their critical supporters, but not nearly in the league of the above three.
Anyway, here we go – this year’s press release:
New York, NY (October 18, 2012) – The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP), the nation’s oldest and largest organization of independent filmmakers announced today the nominees for the Gotham Independent Film Awards™. Signaling the kick-off to the film awards season, IFP’s Gotham Independent Film Awards™ nominations were given to a total of 26 films across six competitive categories for Best Feature, Best Documentary, Breakthrough Director, Breakthrough Actor, Best Ensemble Performance, and Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You.
The Gotham Awards ceremony will be held on Monday, November 26th at Cipriani Wall Street. In addition to the competitive awards, actors Marion Cotillard and Matt Damon, director David O. Russell, and Participant Media founder Jeff Skoll will each be presented with a career tribute.
As the first major awards ceremony of the film season, the Gotham Independent Film Awards™ provide critical early recognition and media attention to worthy independent films. Previous winners for Best Feature and Best Documentary include BEGINNERS (2011), THE TREE OF LIFE (2011), BETTER THIS WORLD (2011), WINTER’S BONE (2010), THE OATH (2010), THE HURT LOCKER (2009), and FOOD, INC. (2009). The awards are also unique for their ability to assist in catapulting award recipients prominently into national awards season attention, including recent winners and ultimate Oscar® contenders: feature winners BEGINNERS (2011), TREE OF LIFE (2011), WINTER’S BONE (2010) and THE HURT LOCKER (2009); Breakthrough Actors Melissa Leo (2008), Ellen Page (2007), Rinko Kikuchi (2006) and Amy Adams (2005).
The nominations for the 2012 Gotham Independent Film Awards are:
Best Feature
Bernie, Richard Linklater, director; Richard Linklater, Ginger Sledge, Celine Rattray, Martin Shafer, Liz Glotzer, Matt Williams, David McFadzean, Judd Payne, Dete Meserve, producers (Millennium Entertainment)
The Loneliest Planet, Julia Loktev, director; Jay Van Hoy, Lars Knudsen, Helge Albers, Marie Therese Guirgis, producers (Sundance Selects)
The Master, Paul Thomas Anderson, director; Joanne Sellar, Daniel Lupi, Paul Thomas Anderson, Megan Ellison, producers (The Weinstein Company)
Middle of Nowhere, Ava DuVernay, director; Howard Barish, Ava DuVernay, Paul Garnes, producers (AFFRM and Participant Media)
Moonrise Kingdom, Wes Anderson, director; Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales, Jeremy Dawson, producers (Focus Features)
Best Documentary
Detropia, Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, directors; Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady, Craig Atkinson, producers (Loki Films)
How to Survive a Plague, David France, director; Howard Gertler, David France, producers (Sundance Selects)
Marina Abramović: The Artist is Present,Matthew Akers, director; Jeff Dupre, Maro Chermayeff, producers (HBO Documentary Films and Music Box Films)
Room 237. Rodney Ascher, director; Tim Kirk, producer (IFC Midnight)
The Waiting Room. Peter Nicks, director; Peter Nicks, Linda Davis, William B. Hirsch, producers (International Film Circuit)
Best Ensemble Performance
Bernie, Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, Matthew McConaughey (Millennium Entertainment)
Moonrise Kingdom, Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward, Jason Schwartzman, Bob Balaban (Focus Features)
Safety Not Guaranteed, Aubrey Plaza, Mark Duplass, Jake Johnson, Karan Soni, Jenica Bergere, Kristen Bell, Jeff Garlin, Mary Lynn Rajskub (Film District)
Silver Linings Playbook, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Jacki Weaver, Chris Tucker, Anupam Kher (The Weinstein Company)
Your Sister’s Sister, Emily Blunt, Rosemarie Dewitt, Mark Duplass (IFC Films)
Breakthrough Director
Zal Batmanglij for Sound of My Voice (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky for Francine (Factory 25 and The Film Sales Company)
Jason Cortlund and Julia Halperin for Now, Forager (Argot Pictures)
Antonio Méndez Esparza for Aquí y Allá (Here and There) (Torch Films)
Benh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Breakthrough Actor
Mike Birbiglia in Sleepwalk with Me (IFC Films)
Emayatzy Corinealdi in Middle of Nowhere (AFFRM and Participant Media)
Thure Lindhardt in Keep the Lights On (Music Box Films)
Melanie Lynskey in Hello, I Must Be Going (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
Quvenzhané Wallis in Beasts of the Southern Wild (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You
Kid-Thing, David Zellner, director; Nathan Zellner, Producer
An Oversimplification of Her Beauty, Terence Nance, director; Terence Nance, Andrew Corkin, James Bartlett, producers
Red Flag, Alex Karpovsky, director; Alex Karpovsky, Michael Bowes, producers
Sun Don’t Shine, Amy Seimetz, director; Kim Sherman, Amy Seimetz, producers
Tiger Tail in Blue, Frank V. Ross, director; Adam Donaghey, Drew Durepos, producers
Calvin Klein Spotlight on Women Filmmakers ‘Live the Dream’ Grant
Leah Meyerhoff, director, I Believe In Unicorns
Stacie Passon, director, Concussion
Visra Vichit Vadakan, Karaoke Girl
The 3rd Annual Gotham Independent Film Audience Award will be voted on again by the independent film community, 230,000 film fans worldwide. To be eligible, a U.S. film must have won an audience award at one of the top 50 U.S. or Canadian film festivals from November 2011 through October 2012. Voting begins today at http://gotham.ifp.org/audience_award for the 31 films on the eligibility list. The nominees will be announced November 5th, and the winner will be revealed at the Gotham Awards ceremony.
