Gotham announces first nominations of the year

The Independent Feature Project (IFP), the nation's oldest and largest organization of independent filmmakers, has announced the nominees for the 18th annual Gotham Independent Film Awards (known as the Gotham Awards prior to this year), which celebrate the best achievements in independent film.

A total of 22 films received nominations in six categories: Best Feature, Best Ensemble Performance, Breakthrough Director, Breakthrough Actor, Best Documentary, and Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You. The winners will be announced at a ceremony at the restaurant Cipriani Wall Street in New York City on Tuesday, Dec. 2.

"Ballast," a film about the implications of one man's suicide on three others, which is being self-distributed, appears to be Gotham's favorite of the year, with a field-leading four nominations including Best Feature, Best Ensemble Performance, Breakthrough Director and Breakthrough Actor. Six other films received two nominations: "Afterschool," "Frozen River," "Rachel Getting Married," "Synecdoche, New York," "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," and "The Visitor."

The Gotham Awards, which have been bestowed since 1991, are usually the first major honors announced each awards season. My Envelope colleague Tom O'Neil, who has literally written the book on movie awards, offers more extensive perspective on their history and this year's nominees over at his blog Gold Derby, but I'll give a brief sense of how much (or little) they seem to affect the rest of the race.

Many recent Gotham winners have gone on to receive recognition from the Academy, including: 2004 Breakthrough Actress Catalina Sandino Moreno ("Maria Full of Grace"); 2005 Breakthrough Director Bennett Miller ("Capote"); 2005 Breakthrough Actress Amy Adams ("Junebug"); 2005 Best Documentary "Murderball"; 2006 Breakthrough Actor Rinko Kikuchi ("Babel"); and 2007 Breakthrough Actor Ellen Page ("Juno").

However, just as many recent Gotham honorees subsequently dropped off the awards radar, including: 2000 Breakthrough Actress Michelle Rodriguez ("Girlfight"), 2001 Breakthrough Actress Yolanda Ross ("Stranger Inside"), 2003 Breakthrough Actor Lee Pace ("Soldier's Girl"), 2007 Best Ensemble "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" and 2007 Breakthrough Director Craig Zobel ("Great World of Sound").

Of this year's Gotham nominees, the people with the strongest prospects for a corresponding Academy Award nomination are both Breakthrough Actor nominees: Rosemary DeWitt ("Rachel Getting Married"), a contender for Best Supporting Actress, and Melissa Leo ("Frozen River"), a contender for Best Actress.

Finally, I'll leave it to you to try to answer a question that I cannot: If "The Visitor" and "The Wrestler" are eligible for Best Feature, and if a veteran like Melissa Leo is eligible for Breakthrough Actor, then why aren't Richard Jenkins ("The Visitor") and Mickey Rourke ("The Wrestler") also among the Breakthrough Actor nominees?

Following is the full list of nominees for the 18th annual Gotham Independent Film Awards:

Best Feature

• "Ballast" (Alluvial Film Company)
• "Frozen River" (Sony Pictures Classics)
• "Synecdoche, New York" (Sony Pictures Classics)
• "The Visitor" (Overture Films)
• "The Wrestler" (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Best Ensemble Performance

• "Ballast" (Micheal J. Smith, Sr., JimMyron Ross, Tarra Riggs, Johnny McPhail)
• "Rachel Getting Married" (Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt, Bill Irwin, Tunde Adebimpe, Mather Zickel, Anna Deavere Smith, Anisa George, Debra Winger)
• "Synecdoche, New York" (Philip Seymour Hoffman, Samantha Morton, Michelle Williams, Catherine Keener, Emily Watson, Dianne Wiest, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Hope Davis, Tom Noonan)
• "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" (Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall, Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz)
• "The Visitor" (Richard Jenkins, Hiam Abbas, Haaz Sleiman, Danai Gurira)

Breakthrough Director

• Antonio Campos ("Afterschool")
• Dennis Dortch ("A Good Day to Be Black and Sexy")
• Lance Hammer ("Ballast")
• Barry Jenkins ("Medicine for Melancholy")
• Alex Rivera ("Sleep Dealer")

Breakthrough Actor

• Pedro Castaneda ("August Evening")
• Rosemary DeWitt ("Rachel Getting Married")
• Rebecca Hall ("Vicky Cristina Barcelona")
• Melissa Leo ("Frozen River")
• Alejandro Polanco ("Chop Shop")
• Micheal J. Smith Sr. ("Ballast")

Best Documentary

• "Chris & Don: A Love Story" (Zeitgeist Films)
• "Encounters at the End of the World" (THINKFilm/Image Entertainment)
• "Man on Wire" (Magnolia Pictures)
• "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired" (THINKFilm in association with HBO Documentaries)
• "Trouble the Water" (Zeitgeist Films)

Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You

• "Afterschool"
• "Meadowlark"
• "The New Year Parade"
• "Sita Sings the Blues"
• "Wellness"

---

Photo: JimMyron Ross, left, and Michael J. Smith in "Ballast." Credit: Alluvial Film Company.

Comments

[Maley]

Wait what? What on earth do you mean Michelle Rodriguez was never heard from again? From Girlfight she went on to make a few blockbusters, star on a huge tv show and is now doing movies with the likes of Charlize Theron and James Cameron.

I'm not sure where you've been, but while those other names disappeared, Rodriguez's sure as heck didn't, maybe she's not present at the Oscar awards every year (yet) but she snagged a SAG and Alma award for Lost if and some of her upcoming films look like they could be Oscar contenders, so don't count her out just yet!

NOTE FROM SCOTT: I wrote that the PERFORMANCE disappeared from the awards radar, not that the person disappeared from the industry.