"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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European Film Award nominations for 2021

by Nathaniel R

There's no true leader at the European Film Awards this year with three films (Titane, The Father, and Compartment No 6) tied for the most nominations but there is a leader if you look at individual nominations: Italian master Paolo Sorrentino is up for three prizes himself for Italy's Oscar submission The Hand of God (Film, Director, and Screenplay) so consider that a force going into the Oscar finalist selections. The European Film Awards also have juries that decide on craft awards like Cinematography, Production Design, and the like but they don't have traditional nominations so we won't know the winners for a while yet. 

The nomination list and commentary after the jump...

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BIFA Nominations: Is "Belfast" a David or a Goliath?

by Nathaniel R

In extremely good news for presumed Oscar frontrunner Belfast, they're still running as a "David" rather than a "Goliath" in the Oscar race. That's by way of a leading the British Independent Film Award nominations without truly hogging the spotlight since Kenneth Branagh's charming memoir film missed in the big categories like Film and Director. It still leads the nominations by way of across the board love in the craft categories. It's funny because we initially thought it might have the opposite problem at the Oscar. Yes, it's a period drama but it's not particularly flashy about its craft elements (beyond the black & white cinematography and the Van Morrison songscape). Tying it for most nominations, 9, is a continuous shot movie called Boiling Point by Philip Barantini.

Five other films also scored six or more nominations suggesting the juries had a small pool to choose from or only loved seven films. The Souvenir Part II, Censor, Ali & Ava, The Nest, and After Love were all obviously well regarded, too. A complete list of nominations and more after the jump...

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Dorian TV Award Nominations

by Nathaniel R

Pose leads the nominations

The Society for LGBTQ+ Entertainment Journalists, previously known as GALECA, has announced their annual TV nominations ahead of Emmy balloting. A handful of us here at TFE are part of that organization so we had a chance to vote on this. The third season of FX's Pose and Disney+ & Marvel Studio's limited series WandaVision lead the nominations though curiously the latter is not up for the main award in its category. I May Destroy You, It's a Sin, and Mare of Easttown also secured plentiful nominations.

Without further ado the nominees...

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My Spirit Award Ballot

Please welcome guest contributor Chels Eichholz for this preview of the Spirit Awards...

by Chels Eichholz

Anybody with $100 can be a member of Film Independent. Some people join solely for the screeners and the privilege of voting for the Independent Spirit Awards. Others, like myself, are filmmakers that use the other membership perks to help network and get our projects created, and voting is just a fun little cherry on top. The nominees are decided by small juries and winners are decided by all members. The awards will be held tomorrow Thursday, April 22 at 10:00 pm, exclusively on IFC and AMC+.

If you’re looking for a lineup that balances both an independent spirit and Oscar love, look no further. I do prefer when award shows have their own identity and don't try to predict the Academy Awards. The Oscar race itself isn’t a meritocracy, and Film Independent is great at highlighting  unsung gems of the year (along with a few more celebrated Oscar hopefuls). I’ve been a member for a few years now and always make it a point to watch every nominee before voting and this year gave us a great selection.  The categories and my own votes after the jump...

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