Gotham Award 2019 Nominations: big boosts for Waves, Uncut Gems, Clemency and more...
Thursday, October 24, 2019 at 12:00PM
NATHANIEL R in A24, Aldis Hodge, Alfre Woodard, Clemency, Diane, Gotham Awards, Hustlers, Kent Jones, The Farewell, Waves, precursor awards

by Nathaniel R

There’s no true frontrunner at the Gotham Awards this year with Marriage Story, Uncut Gems, and The Farewell each receiving 3 nominations overall within the 6 (narrative film) categories of the Gotham Awards. Let’s take a look at the nominations shall we? It’s a big year for A24 who always has a few wonderful films up their sleeves each year. They’ve dominated the feature and screenplay and breakthrough actor categories with 60% of the nominees in each. No other company was as dominant though there are lots of honors for Netflix, too.

Best Feature

The surprise here is surely Hustlers though we’re not complaining. Still one has to feel a bit sorry for The Last Black Man in San Francisco or Diane which were earlier acclaimed indie releases that had to step down for newer ones...

Best Documentary

Neon has been pushing Apollo 11 hard. Can it also show up at the Oscars? Any of these could actually... though American Factory has a lot of heat right now.

Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award


A nice variety here. Two actresses turned directors (one of them French), one African-American teenager (Phillip Youmans is only 19 years old!!!), and two white men, one older than you’ll usually find in “breakthrough” categories. Kent Jones was mostly known as the director of the New York Film Festival and a film critic. He’d made a few documentaries but he debuted as a feature director with the contemplative soulful Diane.

Still, isn't it strange that Lulu Wang wasn't cited?

Best Screenplay

MidSommar and The Last Black Man in San Francisco were noticeable misses in “Best Feature” but you can’t give all the slots to A24. They showed up here instead.

Best Actor


They make no distinction between supporting and leading roles which is nice since Oscar doesn’t really anymore either (sigh) so why pretend otherwise? This is a great get for Aldis Hodge who has been flying well under the radar in the Best Supporting Actor Oscar race but those that have seen Clemency all seem to bow down to his performance.

Best Actress


More wonderful choices but where is Jennifer Lopez for Hustlers? One has to ask, right? Still these nominations are helpful for all of these women (especially if they can repeat at the Spirit Awards) who are all longshots for more mainstream prizes but could get there with enough niche award support and critical drumbeating. 

Breakthrough Actor


For some reason this category got six nominees this year instead of the usual five. We’ve been saying for a couple of years now that Noah Jupe is the best child actor working (he’s amazing again playing a fictionalized version of young Shia Labeouf in Honey Boy) and we fell hard for both Taylor Russell in Waves and Jonathan Majors in The Black Man… so major cheers for this category. Exciting young actors. Good choices.

Breakthrough Series – Long Format (over 40 minutes)

Breakthrough Series – Short Format (under 40 minutes)


 

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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