Gotham Winners: Color us "Tangerine"
Monday, November 30, 2015 at 10:12PM The most exciting wild card at both the East Coast Gotham Awards and the West Coast Spirit Awards is Sean Baker's raucous and hugely entertaining comedy Tangerine (my favorite film from Sundance this year) about two trans hookers sharing a wild 24 hours in Los Angeles at Christmas time. Though most of the big movie awards prefer studio filmmaking or "prestige" indies, we can all cross our fingers that Tangerine, which is truly independent in spirit and filmmaking, has one mainstream nomination in its future: Best Picture, Comedy or Musical at the Golden Globes. It would be richly deserved.
But if that doesn't come to pass at least it was well loved at the Gothams (two awards, bested only by Spotlight) and with Spirit Nominations. Though Carol was shut out, Gotham Awards don't have that many categories to begin with and Todd Haynes was honored so we'll forgive them.
Feature Spotlight
Audience Award Tangerine
Actress Bel Powley in Diary of a Teenage Girl
Actor Paul Dano in Love and Mercy
Documentary The Look of Silence
Screenplay Spotlight written by Tom McCarthy & Josh Singer
Breakthrough Awards
Breakthrough Actor Mya Taylor in Tangerine
Breakthrough Director Jonas Carpigano for Mediterranea
Breakthrough Series - Long Form Mr Robot
Breakthrough Series - Short Form Shugs & Fats
Special Prizes
The First Gotham Appreciation Award Ellen Cotter - Angelika Film Center Theaters
Special Jury Award – Ensemble Spotlight's Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, John Slattery, Stanley Tucci, Brian d’Arcy James, Liev Schreiber, and Billy Crudup
Tributes to: Helen Mirren, Todd Haynes, Robert Redford
Reader Comments (11)
Very excited by the acting awards, though I'm really surprised about Spotlight winning for feature. Does anyone else feels like it's overrated? I found the whole enterprise a little safe and dull, given the incendiary subject matter.
I am torn with Paul Dano this season. On one hand, he's deserving of recognition and I really hope this is not the only awards citation he gets for his work in Love & Mercy. Quite a sensitive and honest performance, very heartfelt. On the other hand, the studio is supposedly trying to category fraud him into the Supporting Actor category (he's co-lead) and that's a no-no (especially with a Best Actor field so unusually weak).
MYA TAYLOR! TANGERINE! YESSSS!
Also, their TV (long-form) award AND nominees are all amazing.
I think Dano, Keaton, Ruffalo and Rylance are looking good for supporting actor nods. The 5th spot will likely be between Hardy, Stallone, Del Toro or Tremblay if Room really takes off.
Golden Globe comedy is kinda weak this year, They surprised me by nominated Pride last year (though it was European) so perhaps we can hold out hope for a Tangerine nod. I feel like the HFPA are trying to raise their credibility these last few years especially with last year's best director category. The comedy nods haven't been too terrible the last couple years either except that many are category frauding dramas.
Nathaniel, with the Best Actor race so up in the air at this point, do you think Dano actually has a better chance in lead than in supporting? I mean, people clearly remember him.
I'm sad that Arielle Holmes didn't win best Breakthrough Actor nor did 'Heaven Knows What' Win best feature
The Globes sometimes do like to surprise us like, as Joseph mentioned, PRIDE last year. Sometimes the HFPA do actually like to be at the front of things (see their TV awards). If we will it enough, maybe it will happen.
Listening to Nathaniel and Nick discuss SPOTLIGHT on the podcast last week and it was so good to hear my thoughts echoed. It's a very good movie, solid across the board (although I don't care for Ruffalo and the music sounds almost identical to ERIN BROCKOVICH), but... where's the big stuff? I admire they didn't insert stuff that did not happen in real life, but as Nat and Nick mentioned, there is a curious lack of stakes. They do their job, they publish the story, and that's about it. When I saw it about six weeks back I commented on Twitter about how odd it was as a frontrunner and especially as a winner. Everyone will no doubt nod in polite recognition, but maybe I'm just not feeling the way so many others are? I'm not sure.
Solid choices, must say. I thought 'Spotlight' was an excellent film as far as procedurals go. The best film of its kind since 'All the President's Men.' But it lacks the emotional depth of McCarthy's other films, in particular 'The Station Agent' and 'Win Win.' I'm not sure that I like the idea of the film winning best picture when it's up against truly unique works of art like 'Carol' or even 'Mad Max' (I know it won't win). But then again, a good movie is a good movie.
See, I really like SPOTLIGHT, but then I compare it to ERIN BROCKOVICH and it's just, like, well damn.
BBBBBBELLLL POWWWWLLLLLEEYYY!!!!!!!
And yay Tangerine
I was all set to love Spotlight... well, it was a good movie and I enjoyed it... but Best of the year?????