"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...

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Gotham Nominees: "Faya Dayi"

by Nick Taylor

First thing’s first: Faya Dayi easily ranks as one of the most beautiful 2021 films I have seen. I don’t mean to equate its beauty with an automatic FYC for best cinematography, nor a backhanded comment on style over substance. In cahoots with the editing and sound design, the heavy, monochromatic images cloak Ethiopia in a hazy, dreamlike aura that’s foundational to the film’s tone and point of view, and unspeakably gorgeous to boot. I could've pulled a gallery's worth of screengrabs from the first five minutes alone. Producer/director Jessica Beshir also acts as her own cinematographer, and her ability to endow her images with such clarity and attention to movement, texture, and composition is a stunning achievement.

But is it fashion? Does the gorgeousness of the imagery actually serve the film, or is it too loaded down to carry its own weight? How much movie truly lies underneath all this black and silver? Well...

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Gotham Nominees: Natalie Morales in "Language Lessons"

by Nick Taylor

Every year or two at the Gotham Awards, there’s a nominee in the Breakthrough Performance category whose storied career in film or television generates a few raised eyebrows. Yes, the category is clearly meant to honor film breakthroughs, and this shouldn’t automatically be any more suspect or praiseworthy than a familiar face being recognized for reaching a new apex in their careers. Nevertheless, it’s always a bit odd when a performer who’s already highly prolific in a different medium gets slotted here. Kathryn Hahn, Michael B. Jordan, Mary J. Blige - it makes sense, but there’s also a wildly celebrated career being 'broken through' for the sake of movie stardom.

Natalie Morales, a regular supporting player on film and television for the past decade, has gotten those notices this year. Morales has been recognized for her starring role in Language Lessons, which she also directed and co-wrote with her producer/co-star Mark Duplass...

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Gotham Nominees: Lili Taylor in "Paper Spiders"

by Nick Taylor

With the 2021 Gotham Awards just a week away, we thought it’d be fun to highlight a handful of nominated films that could use some attention. It’s always worthwhile to sort through that exclusive group of widely available, barely distributed, minimally buzzed films hiding between the noteworthy early releases and the awards players that won’t legally exist to the moviegoing public for a few more weeks. Inon Stampanier’s Paper Spiders, which earned an Outstanding Lead Performance nomination for Lili Taylor, falls safely into this lucky group. So, to start with a good film that deserves a moment in the spotlight, and as tribute to all the Lili Taylor gays out there (ie, gays I know who can’t stop watching The Conjuring), we begin our little tour here!

Paper Spiders - a title that won’t make any sense until the last few minutes - centers itself on the relationship between college-bound high school senior Melanie (Stefania Owen) and her mother Dawn (Lili Taylor)...

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"Passing" and "The Lost Daughter" lead Gotham Awards nominations

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...

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