"The Lost Daughter" reigns at the Gotham Awards

by Nathaniel R

Peter Sarsgaard, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Dakota Johnson at the Gotham Awards

Last night, while many film journalists were at one of the several West Side Story premieres, the Gotham Awards were held celebrating much less expensive but also captivating cinema.  Maggie Gyllenhaal's feature directorial debut, The Lost Daughter  reigned winning four of its five categories. This was bad news for Passing, another Netflix film (which we like even more though they're both fine films) which received 5 nominations but lost in all of its categories. Other multiple nominees who took home no prizes included A24 films like Red Rocket, The Green Knight, and C'mon C'mon, 

Outside of  The Lost Daughter the biggest awards season boost was definitely for CODA. The family drama about a child of deaf adults who wants to be a professional singer won prizes for both its leading lady Emilia Jones and her onscreen father Troy Kotsur. Kotsur really should be more competitive in Best Supporting Actor discussions so perhaps this will help!

THE WINNERS and more commentary are after the jump...

BEST FEATURE 

• The Green Knight (A24)
• ★ The Lost Daughter (Netflix)
• Passing (Netflix)
• Pig (NEON)
• Test Pattern (Kino Lorber)

OUTSTANDING LEAD PERFORMANCE

• ★ Olivia Colman, The Lost Daughter
• ★ Frankie Faison, Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain
• Michael Greyeyes, Wild Indian
• Brittany S Hall, Test Pattern
• Oscar Isaac, The Card Counter
• Taylour Paige, Zola
• Joaquin Phoenix, C'mon C'mon
• Simon Rex, Red Rocket
• Lili Taylor, Paper Spiders
• Tessa Thompson, Passing

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE

• Reed Birney, Mass
• Jessie Buckley, The Lost Daughter
• Colman Domingo, Zola
• Gaby Hoffman, C'mon C'mon
• ★ Troy Kotsur, CODA
• Marlee Matlin, CODA
• Ruth Negga, Passing

BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMER 

• ★ Emilia Jones, CODA
• Natalie Morales, Language Lessons
• Rachel Sennott, Shiva Baby
• Suzanna Son, Red Rocket
• Amalia Ulman, El Planeta

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE 

• Ascension (MTV)
• Faya Dayi (Janus Films)
• ★ Flee (NEON)
• President (Greenwich Entertainment)
• Summer of Soul (Hulu)

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

• Azor (MUBI) Switzerland/Argentina
• ★ Drive My Car (Sideshow / Janus Films) Japan
• The Souvenir Part II (A24) UK
• Titane (NEON) France
• What Do We See When We Look At the Sky (MUBI) Georgia
• Worst Person in the World (NEON) Norway

BREAKTHROUGH DIRECTOR 

• Shatara Michelle Ford, Test Pattern
• ★ Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Lost Daughter
• Rebecca Hall, Passing
• Edson Oda, Nine Days
• Emma Seligman, Shiva Baby

BEST SCREENPLAY 

• The Card Counter, Paul Schrader
• El Planeta, Amalia Ulman
• The Green Knight, David Lowery
• ★ The Lost Daughter, Maggie Gyllenhaal
• Passing, Rebecca Hall
• Red Rocket, Sean Baker & Chris Bergoch  

BREAKTHROUGH SERIES (40 minutes +)

• The Good Lord Bird (Showtime)
• It's a Sin (HBOMax)
• Small Axe (Amazon)
• ★ Squid Game (Netflix)
• The White Lotus (HBOMax)

Since both Squid Game and White Lotus are getting second life after their astounding success will the Emmys deem them regular ol' drama series for competition next year? Or will they compete in miniseries or anthology or... 

BREAKTHROUGH SERIES (under 40 minutes)

• Blindspotting (Starz)
• Hacks (HBO Max)
• ★ Reservation Dogs (FX)
• Run the World (Starz)
• We Are Lady Parts (Peacock)

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE IN A NEW SERIES 

• Jennifer Coolidge, The White Lotus
• Michael Greyeyes, Rutherford Falls
• ★ Ethan Hawke, Good Lord Bird
• Devery Jacobs, Reservation Dogs
• Lee Jung-Jae, Squid Games
• ★ Thuso Mbedu, Underground Railroad
• Jean Smart, Hacks
• Omar Sy, Lupin
• Anya Taylor Joy, Queens Gambit
• Anjana Vasan, We Are Lady Parts

Both lead acting categories resulted in a tie between a man and a woman... which doesn't do a lot to sell dropping the separate gender competitions.

It's also worth noting in this particular category that their wins feel a lot like purposeful Emmy shaming since both Mbedu and Hawke were denied Emmy nominations that many feel were more than well-earned. Some of the others here were either Emmy nominated or are not eligible until next year's Emmys. Also: Ethan Hawke is  beloved at the Gothams, having received nominations or prizes in 6 difference ceremonies.

BREAKTHROUGH NON-FICTION SERIES 

• City So Real (National Geographic)
• Exterminate All the Brutes (HBOMax)
• How to Win with John Wilson (HBOMax)
• ★ Philly DA (Topic, PBS)
• Pride (FX)

NON COMPETITIVE PRIZES
The Gothams also give out extra prizes. In some cases the films involved weren't eligible so the cynic will say "a way for the Gothams to still be an Oscar precursor whether or not their jurors complied!" whilst the generous viewer will say "a way for them to honor other great films and filmmakers!"

DIRECTORS TRIBUTE Jane Campion
ENSEMBLE TRIBUTE The Harder They Fall
ICON TRIBUTE Kathleen Collins (posthumous)
IMPACT SALUTE Actors Fund of America
INDUSTRY TRIBUTE Eammon Bowles
PERFORMER TRIBUTE Kristen Stewart and Peter Dinklage

"still alice" co-stars reunited at the Gothams last night.

OSCAR CORRELATION
It always feels gross to do this since awards should not be measured by how well they predict Oscars but nevertheless it's fun to think about from a statistics and trivia perspective. The Gothams are very different from the Oscars in all sorts of ways --  juried nominations, smaller eligibility pool, budget restrictions, tiny amount of categories -- which accounts for some of the differences but generally speaking Gotham winners do go on to at least a couple of Oscar nominations.

The Gotham Awards have more categories than they used to but the performance of The Lost Daughter is still unusual in terms of both number of nominations and number of awards.  Here is a list of the past 10 years of Gotham's top winner and how the films fared at the Oscars. If it's in red the film was not nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars.

2020 - Nomadland (2 nominations, 1 win + Audience Award) / 6 Oscar nominations, 3 wins
2019 - Marriage Story (3 nominations, 2 wins) / 6 Oscar nomination, 1 win.
2018 - The Rider (1 nomination, 1 win) / No Oscar nominations
2017 - Call Me By Your Name (3 nominations, 2 wins) / 4 Oscar nominations, 1 win
2016 - Moonlight (2 nominations, 2 wins + Audience Award and Ensemble Prize). 8 Oscar nominations, 3 wins
2015 - Spotlight (2 nominations, 2 wins + Ensemble Prize). 6 Oscar nominations, 2 wins.
2014 - Birdman (2 nominations, 2 wins). 9 nominations, 4 wins
2013 - Inside Llewyn Davis (2 nominations, 1 win). 2 Oscar nominations
2012 - Moonrise Kingdom (2 nominations, 1 win). 1 Oscar nomination
2011 - TIE Beginners (2 nominations, 2 wins) and Tree of Life (1 nomination, 1 win) / Beginners: 1 oscar nomination, 1 win; Tree of Life: 3 Oscar nominations 

In short The Lost Daughter is a bigger threat than we thought for a Best Picture nomination but that's still hardly a done deal, Netflix having a full plate and all, even without this particular film. Still these wins, especially the combination of them, are good for the film and make Oscar nominations in three categories (Adapted Screenplay, Actress, Director) look at least slightly more competitive than they did before. 

Comments

[Mr Ripley79]

Colman has always seemed like a shoe in even above GaGa and Cruz,she's in the Oscar sweet spot and there is usually a repeat nominee from the year before and this year it's Olivia.

West Side Story looks to shake up the acting categories apart from Lead Actor.

Troy may get a lot of passion votes,he's my number 2 at the moment.

[Tyler]

I feel about 'The Lost Daughter' the same way you feel about 'Spencer', Nathaniel...

When I read Elena Ferrante's novella in preparation for the movie, I thought that its internal nature and the vague motivations of its characters wouldn't lend themsevles very readily to film... And I was right. I wanted to love this so much more than I actually did, but I found it to be overly long and quite tedious in its repetitions - I understand that this could be intentional on Gyllenhaal's part, as a way of conveying the tedium of motherhood, but honestly my main issue with the film is her screenplay. Her direction is quite strong - she has a knack for visual dazzle and the paranoia of Colman's character is totally palpable, but the screenplay definitely needed some polishing. It's just full of such implausible dialogue that simply wasn't present in Ferrante's original text... I mean, for example, Colman screams at a group of rowdy teenaged cinemagoers that she will "slice off their tiny dicks and feed them to them like peanuts."

I may be the lone dissenter here for this one.

[Michael R]

Mr Ripley79 : could not agree with you more. The response to WSS has been rapturous. Scott Feinberg published his new predictions this morning and has it winning Picture, Actress, Supporting Actress (Moreno!), and Director. This of course can and will change drastically but I think it is safe to say we have a new Best Picture frontrunner.

[NATHANIEL R]

MIchael R -- i dont think that's safe to say at all. I liked it but you have to try really hard to mess up west side story. I feel like each new movie opening is getitng positive responses and people are like "the new frontrunner!" (see also last week with DON'T LOOK UP which i heard a least two people saying 'best picture/director shoo-ins'... and it just can't be like that each time.

the interesting thing about the WEST SIDE STORY reacitons is seeing if any of the actors can get nominated. I think it's plausible in three of the categories but not necessarily a done deal as people seem to have different favourites.

[Frank Zappa]

That top photo is begging for a CAPTION THIS.

My take: "C'mon C'mon..."

[thevoid99]

Maggie>>>>>>>>Jake.

[jules]

I approve of these awards. I'm glad Ethan won something for his passion project, The Good Lord Bird.

If Troy Kotsur were a "name", I think he'd be a frontrunner at this point. I understand how people felt about Paul Raci now.

[Lynn Lee]

Woot for Troy Kotsur and Ethan Hawke.

Is there any info out about the theatrical release for THE LOST DAUGHTER? It's supposedly opening in limited theaters in a couple of weeks, but none of my local theaters are listing it in their "coming soon" sections (which they usually do, even for Netflix films). Is it going to play outside NY and LA?

[Peggy Sue]

LOL they don't even pretend that they're totally rearranging their awards to look good on Twitter.

Happy for Maggie anyway.