"Passing" and "The Lost Daughter" lead Gotham Awards nominations
Thursday, October 21, 2021 at 11:00PM
NATHANIEL R in Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, C'Mon C'Mon, Gotham Awards, Mass, Michael Greyeyes, Netflix, Passing, Red Rocket, TV, The Lost Daughter, streaming

by Nathaniel R

It was a good year for forthcoming Netflix content helmed by actresses turned directors with the juries of the Gotham Awards. Rebecca Hall's artful black and white drama Passing and Maggie Gyllenhaal's artful thorny adaptation of the novel The Lost Daughter led the nominations. They'll hit Netflix on November 10th and December 31st respectively. With both the Gotham Awards and the often slighlty more mainstream Spirit Awards it can be hard to know exactly what is eligible. Usually budgets make all the difference in film (for example Power of the Dog was ineligible) which creates a fuzzymath accounting line between mainstream and 'indie. But how do they decide with television? Did they not like Mare of Easttown (which scored zero nominations) or was it just not eligible though its chief Emmy rival The Queens Gambit obviously was since Anya Taylor Joy was nominated. 

Nominations and commentary are after the jump...

BEST FEATURE 

One of the fun things about the Gothams is their randomness. The Nicolas Cage arthouse hit Pig manages the top nomination with no other citations. The Green Knight scored only two nominations but the Gothams dont have craft categories so pictures that are special for reasons outside of acting rarely fell fully appreciated at the Gothams.

OUTSTANDING LEAD PERFORMANCE

Wlld Indians and Passing Spiders were films we actually had to look up. It's always a shock when that happens given that we pay attention to movies all year of all shapes and sizes. Wild Indian is a thriller from Vertical Entertainment that came out a month ago. Paper Spiders is a TV movie (at least according to IMDB) from Entertainment Squad that earned $2,992 at the box office according to Box Office Mojo. 

Still it's nice when juries dig deep and watch a lot of stuff without buzz. And it's nice to see Michael Greyeyes getting a career upswing of late after years of relatively sparse filmography (despite high profile critical successes like Smoke Signals and The New World). Lately he's been in a lot of high profile television miniseries and has had a couple movies earn minor awards attention like the horror picture Blood Quantum which was a big winner at the Canadian Screen Awards and now this little film at the Gothams. 

Since they can cite up to 10 performances, it's a pity they didnt include Riley Keough who is amazing in Zola, since both of her obscenely talented co-stars were nominated. 

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE

Lots of delicious work here so we have zero complaints about these six excellent performances but we do have several thoughts on the category nonetheless. This is a new category and they were supposed to vote like so:

"an outstanding single supporting performance in an eligible feature film. The award is to honor a performer making an indelible impact with limited screen time and who cannot be considered a lead or co-lead in the film. Billing and screen time will be taken into consideration when determining eligibility and nominations. Up to 10 performances will be nominated."

While we appreciate that their direction to jurors takes Category Fraud into account it's still a bit odd. No one on the jury believed that Reed Birney was a co-lead even though his whole film is comprised of four brilliant actors sitting in a room together acting their asses off? Does that mean they bought the argument that the film has no leads and they thought he was the best of the quartet. It's definitely been interesting to talk to people about Mass because everyone seems to have a different "best in show" (i've heard all four names cited) so how did they get a jury to agree on one name? Wish we could have been a fly on the wall for that discussion. 

It's a pity they didn't name 10 performers (since there are more supporting actors than lead actors in the world) since there were definitely three other great supporting players this season. Even if you restrict it to JUST the movies they nominated in other categories (which is not that many movies) there are GORGEOUS performances they snubbed. I'm talking about the hilarious Polly Draper in Shiva Baby, the amazing find of Bree Elrod in Red Rocket, the tetchy dangerous Dagmara Dominczyk in Lost Daughter, and anyone else in Mass (if you buy that they're all supporting which the jury seemed to). I'm sure if the Gothams published their eligibility lists we'd see other worthy choices that were not cited. It feels so stingy knowing they could have honored 10 character actors and chose not to.

But "up to ten" is agonizing. We hate uneven awards numbers here at the Film Experience. Just pick a number and stick with it. It's all subjective so consistency and parameters are what rein awards in and make them digestable and discussable and comparable from year to year. 

Nevertheless it's fun and admirable to see choices that don't feel like Oscar predictions and more awards bodies should try it! 

 

BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMER 

Curious choices here. Why not Bree Elrod who is best in show in Red Rocket (give or take Simon Rex) managing a delicate character arc with such a jaded dead eyed exterior? Why not one of the most gifted child actors you'll ever see in Woody Norman from C'mon C'mon. 

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE 

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

Cool lineup.

BREAKTHROUGH DIRECTOR 

BEST SCREENPLAY 

BREAKTHROUGH SERIES (40 minutes +)

BREAKTHROUGH SERIES (under 40 minutes)

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE IN A NEW SERIES 

Another nomination for Michael Greyeyes!

BREAKTHROUGH NON-FICTION SERIES 

Glenn raved about Exterminate all the Brutes early this year.

WHAT'S YOUR TAKE ON THIS YEAR'S GOTHAM NOMINATIONS? 

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