The first major awards nominations of the season landed on Tuesday, and they came from the independent side of the room. The Gotham Film Awards nominees are out, and the list is a good reminder that the awards race doesn't start with the big studio titles.
Who's leading
The Gotham Film & Media Institute announced the 36th Gotham Awards nominees on October 27. All of a Sudden, Clarissa, La Gradiva and The Invite each picked up four nominations, and Variety's headline adds Tender Loving Care to that group. (TheWrap lists Possible Love as the fifth film instead, so treat the exact tie as unsettled.) The ceremony is November 30 in New York.
Best Feature has 11 nominees, including Clarissa, The Invite, Club Kid, Josephine, Primetime and Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma. The Best Director field is Ryusuke Hamaguchi (All of a Sudden), Sandra Wollner (Everytime), Andrey Zvyagintsev (Minotaur), Jane Schoenbrun (Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma) and Mike Leigh (Tender Loving Care).
Why the Gothams matter
The Gothams are voted on by nominating committees of critics and festival programmers, with separate juries picking winners. They're the awards that champion low-budget, director-driven filmmaking, which makes them an early read on what the critics' groups will talk about for the next two months. TheWrap notes that 33 Gotham Best Feature nominees have gone on to Best Picture nominations at the Oscars since the category began in 2004.
What stands out
Two films we've covered here are on the list. You Can See Everything, A24's Elizabeth Holmes documentary, is nominated for Best Documentary Feature and is one of eight films in the Audience Award field. NAZA, which we wrote about out of Venice, is a Best Documentary Feature nominee too. The Audience Award, which returns after a six-year hiatus, also includes the big-studio titles Michael and Project Hail Mary, which is a fun mix for an indie awards show.
The performance lists are also loaded: Ian McKellen, Julianne Moore, Gillian Anderson, Mahershala Ali, Penélope Cruz, Sandra Hüller and Adam Driver all show up.
Stock photo: Jake Hills / Unsplash
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One more detail: TheWrap reports that Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey wasn't submitted. That's not a snub. It's a $1.78 billion-plus blockbuster, and this isn't the kind of room it was built for.