"The Kids Are All Right" and "Tiny Furniture" each receive two noms
The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) has announced the nominees for the 20th Anniversary Gotham Independent Film Awards™. A total of 26 films were nominated 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.
Topping the field of noms with three was Winter’s Bone directed by Debra Granik. The film earned nominations for Best Feature, Best Breakthrough Actor, and Best Ensemble Performance. Scoring a pair of noms each were The Kids Are All Right helmed by Lisa Cholodenko, and Tiny Furniture directed by Lena Dunham.
The Gotham Awards’ 20th Anniversary ceremony will be held on Monday, November 29, at Cipriani Wall Street. In addition to the competitive awards, actors Robert Duvall and Hilary Swank, director Darren Aronofsky, and Focus Features CEO James Schamus will each be presented with a career tribute.
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 The Hurt Locker (2009), Food, Inc (2009), Frozen River (2008), Trouble The Water (2008), Into The Wild (2007), Sicko (2007), Half Nelson (2006) and Capote (2005). 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 winner, The Hurt Locker; Breakthrough Actors, Melissa Leo (2008), Ellen Page (2007), Rinko Kikuchi (2006) and Amy Adams (2005).
Selecting this year’s nominees were 20 film critics, journalists, and curators. Separate juries of writers, directors, actors, producers, editors and others directly involved in making films will determine final award recipients.
“The Gotham Awards celebrate the collective breath of independent cinema,” said Joana Vicente, executive director of IFP. “Ranging from the small gems produced on micro-budgets to extraordinary films from specialty distributors, the nominees all share the type of creative vision and risk-taking that are a hallmark of independent film. It’s also my pleasure to report that there are more female directors nominated this year than any year before.”
Additionally this year, the IFP has created a new award, The Festival Genius Audience Award. To be eligible, a U.S. film must have won an audience award at a U.S. or Canadian film festival from November 2009 through October 2010. The Festival Genius community, 200,000 film fans worldwide, will vote online for the winner. The nominees will be announced in early November and the winner will be revealed at the Gotham Awards ceremony.
The nominees for the 20th Anniversary Gotham Independent Film Awards are:
Best Feature
Black Swan
Darren Aronofsky, director; Mike Medavoy, Arnold W. Messer, Brian Oliver, Scott Franklin, producers (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Blue Valentine
Derek Cianfrance, director; Jamie Patricof, Lynette Howell, Alex Orlovsky, producers (The Weinstein Company)
The Kids Are All Right
Lisa Cholodenko, director; Gary Gilbert, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte, Celine Rattray, Jordan Horowitz, Daniela Taplin Lundberg, Philippe Hellmann, producers (Focus Features)
Let Me In
Matt Reeves, director; Simon Oakes, Alex Brunner, Guy East, Tobin Armbrust, Donna Gigliotti, John Nording, Carl Molinder, producers (Overture Films)
Winter’s Bone
Debra Granik, director; Anne Rosellini, Alix Madigan-Yorkin, producers (Roadside Attractions)
Best Documentary
12th & Delaware
Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, directors/producers (HBO Documentary Films)
Inside Job
Charles Ferguson, director; Charles Ferguson, Audrey Marrs, producers (Sony Pictures Classics)
The Oath
Laura Poitras, director/producer (Zeitgeist Films and American Documentary/POV)
Public Speaking
Martin Scorsese, director; Martin Scorsese, Graydon Carter, Margaret Bodde, Fran Lebowitz, producers (HBO Documentary Films)
Sweetgrass
Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Ilisa Barbash, directors; Ilisa Barbash, producer (Cinema Guild)
Best Ensemble Performance
The Kids Are All Right
Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Mia Wasikowska, Josh Hutcherson (Focus Features)
Life During Wartime
Shirley Henderson, Ciarán Hinds, Allison Janney, Michael Lerner, Chris Marquette, Rich Pecci, Charlotte Rampling, Paul Reubens, Ally Sheedy, Dylan Riley Snyder, Renée Taylor, Michael Kenneth Williams (IFC Films)
Please Give
Catherine Keener, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Rebecca Hall, Ann Guilbert, Lois Smith, Sarah Steele, Thomas Ian Nicholas (Sony Pictures Classics)
Tiny Furniture
Lena Dunham, Laurie Simmons, Grace Dunham, Rachel Howe, Merritt Wever, Amy Seimetz, Alex Karpovsky, David Call, Jemima Kirke, Sarah Sophie Flicker, Garland Hunter, Isen Hunter (IFC Films)
Winter’s Bone
Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, Dale Dickey, Lauren Sweetser, Garret Dillahunt, Kevin Breznahan (Roadside Attractions)
Breakthrough Director
John Wells for The Company Men (The Weinstein Company)
Kevin Asch for Holy Rollers (First Independent Pictures)
Glenn Ficarra and John Requa for I Love You Phillip Morris (Roadside Attractions)
Tanya Hamilton for Night Catches Us (Magnolia Pictures)
Lena Dunham for Tiny Furniture (IFC Films)
Breakthrough Actor
Prince Adu in Prince of Broadway (Elephant Eye Films)
Ronald Bronstein in Daddy Longlegs (IFC Films)
Greta Gerwig in Greenberg (Focus Features)
Jennifer Lawrence in Winter’s Bone (Roadside Attractions)
John Ortiz in Jack Goes Boating (Overture Films)
Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You
Kati with an i
Robert Greene, director; Douglas Tirola, Susan Bedusa, producers
Littlerock
Mike Ott, director; Frederick Thornton, Laura Ragsdale, Sierra Leoni, producers
On Coal River
Francine Cavanaugh and Adams Wood, directors; Jillian Elizabeth, Adams Wood, Francine Cavanaugh, producers
Summer Pasture
Lynn True and Nelson Walker, directors/producers; Tsering Perlo, co-director/co-producer
The Wolf Knife
Laurel Nakadate, director/producer
“Overnight Success” Has Been More Than A Decade In The Making For Meghann Fahy and Eve Hewson
Meghann Fahy and Eve Hewson, two of the stars of Netflix's whodunit "The Perfect Couple," have news for you if you want to call them breakouts: They've been working in this business for more than a decade.
Fahy made her TV debut in 2009 in an episode of "Gossip Girl." Hewson's first big film role was in 2011's "This Must Be the Place." They do concede, however, that it's recent TV roles — "The White Lotus" for Fahy and "Bad Sisters" for Hewson — that have led to new frontiers of opportunity.
Susanne Bier, who directed "The Perfect Couple," says both Fahy and Hewson are "going to be big stars."
"They certainly have proper, profound star quality, Both of them in very different ways," Bier says. "Both are incredibly creative, incredibly smart, and also have a impressive insight as to who they are. You can be a great actor or actress and not necessarily really know who you are yourself. And they do."
Hewson, 33, whose dad is U2 front man Bono, may have grown up in a famous family but she's now in demand in her own right. She will next be seen in a second season of "Bad Sisters, " out in November. She's in Noah Baumbach's next film, alongside Adam Sandler, George Clooney and Riley Keough. She's also been cast in Steven Spielberg's next production and is set to star opposite Murray Bartlett in a racing series for Hulu.
Fahy, 34, is in production on a limited series with Julianne Moore and Milly Alcock called "Sirens," written by Molly Smith Metzler ("Maid") for Netflix. She also has two films in the can with Josh O'Connor ("The Crown," "Challengers") and Brandon Sklenar ("It Ends With Us").
The two actors spoke candidly about this phase of their careers. This interview has been condensed for clarity and... Read More