Nominees Announced For 30TH Annual IFP Gotham Awards

The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP), the nation's premier member organization of independent storytellers, announced today the nominees for the 30th Annual IFP Gotham Awards. Eleven competitive awards will be presented to independent features and series.

The IFP Gotham Awards is one of the leading awards for independent film and signals the kick-off to the film awards season. As the first major awards ceremony of the season, the IFP Gotham Awards provide critical early recognition and media attention to worthy independent films. The awards are also unique for their ability to assist in catapulting award recipients prominently into national awards season attention. 


Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival Wraps 36th Edition Announces Audience and Jury Award Winners

"We congratulate the 2020 IFP Gotham Award nominees. In this unprecedented year we look forward to bringing the industry together and shining a light on some incredible films and television shows. We are proud to be celebrating our 30th anniversary in our resilient city, and continuing the core mission of IFP, independent storytelling." said Jeffrey Sharp, Executive Director of IFP.

Forty-one films and series received nominations this year. Nominees are selected by committees of film critics, journalists, festival programmers, and film curators. Separate juries of writers, directors, actors, producers, editors, and others directly involved in making films will determine the final IFP Gotham Award recipients. 

The IFP Gotham Awards ceremony will be held on Monday, January 11th. The awards show will be presented live from Cipriani Wall Street New York in a hybrid format featuring virtual interactive tables in order to follow health and safety protocols brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.


The 2020 Naples International Film Festival Announces Filmmaker Award Winners

The annual Gotham Actor Tributes, Director Tribute, and Industry Tribute will be announced at a later date.

The 2020 IFP Gotham Award nominations are:

Best Feature 

The Assistant

Kitty Green, director; Kitty Green, Scott Macaulay, James Schamus, P. Jennifer Dana, Ross Jacobson, producers (Bleecker Street)

First Cow

Kelly Reichardt, director; Neil Kopp, Vincent Savino, Anish Savjani, producers (A24)

Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Eliza Hittman, director; Adele Romanski, Sara Murphy, producers (Focus Features)


AFI FEST Presented by Audi Wraps with Awards Announcements

Nomadland

Chloé Zhao, director; Frances McDormand, Peter Spears, Mollye Asher, Dan Janvey, Chloé Zhao, producers (Searchlight Pictures)

Relic

Natalie Erika James, director; Anna Mcleish, Sarah Shaw, Jake Gyllenhaal, Riva Marker, producers (IFC Midnight)

Best Documentary

76 Days

Hao Wu, Weixi Chen, Anonymous, directors; Hao Wu, Jean Tsien, producers (MTV Documentary Films) 

City Hall

Frederick Wiseman, director; Frederick Wiseman, Karen Konicek, producers (Zipporah Films)

Our Time Machine

Yang Sun, S. Leo Chiang directors; S. Leo Chiang, Yang Sun, producers (Passion River Films) 

A Thousand Cuts

Ramona S. Diaz, director; Ramona S. Diaz, Leah Marino, Julie Goldman, Christopher Clements, Carolyn Hepburn, producers (PBS Distribution | FRONTLINE )

Time

Garrett Bradley, director; Lauren Domino, Kellen Quinn, Garrett Bradley, producers (Amazon Studios) 

Best International Feature

Bacurau

Kleber Mendonça Filho, Juliano Dornelles, directors; Emilie Lesclaux, Saïd Ben Saïd, Michel Merkt, producers (Kino Lorber)

Beanpole

Kantemir Balagov, director; Alexander Rodnyansky, Sergey Melkumov, producers (Kino Lorber)

Cuties (Mignonnes)

Maïmouna Doucouré, director; Zangro, producer (Netflix)

Identifying Features

Fernanda Valadez, director; Astrid Rondero, producer (Kino Lorber)

Martin Eden

Pietro Marcello, director; Pietro Marcello, Beppe Caschetto, Thomas Ordonneau, Michael Weber, Viola Fügen, producers (Kino Lorber)

Wolfwalkers

Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart, directors; Paul Young, Nora Twomey, Tomm Moore, Stéphan Roelants, producers (Apple)


Montclair Film Festival Announces 2020 Award Winners

Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award

Radha Blank for The Forty-Year-Old Version (Netflix)

Channing Godfrey Peoples for Miss Juneteenth (Vertical Entertainment)

Alex Thompson for Saint Frances (Oscilloscope Laboratories) 

Carlo Mirabella-Davis for Swallow (IFC Films)

Andrew Patterson for The Vast of Night (Amazon Studios)

Best Screenplay

Bad Education, Mike Makowsky (HBO)

First Cow, Jon Raymond, Kelly Reichardt (A24)

The Forty-Year-Old Version, Radha Blank (Netflix)

Fourteen, Dan Sallitt (Grasshopper Film)

The Vast of Night, James Montague, Craig Sanger (Amazon Studios)

Best Actor

Riz Ahmed in Sound of Metal (Amazon Studios)

Chadwick Boseman in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (Netflix)

Jude Law in The Nest (IFC Films)

John Magaro in First Cow (A24)

Jesse Plemons in I'm Thinking of Ending Things (Netflix)

Best Actress

Nicole Beharie in Miss Juneteenth (Vertical Entertainment)

Jessie Buckley in I'm Thinking of Ending Things (Netflix)

Yuh-Jung Youn in Minari (A24)

Carrie Coon in The Nest (IFC Films) 

Frances McDormand in Nomadland (Searchlight Pictures)

Breakthrough Actor

Jasmine Batchelor in The Surrogate (Monument Releasing)

Kingsley Ben-Adir in One Night in Miami… (Amazon Studios)

Sidney Flanigan in Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Focus Features)

Orion Lee in First Cow (A24)

Kelly O'Sullivan in Saint Frances (Oscilloscope Laboratories)

Breakthrough Series – Long Format (over 40 minutes)

The Great, Tony McNamara, creator; Tony McNamara, Marian Macgowan, Mark Winemaker, Elle Fanning, Brittany Kahan Ward, Doug Mankoff, Andrew Spaulding, Josh Kesselman, Ron West, Matt Shakman, executive producers (Hulu)

Immigration Nation, Christina Clusiau, Shaul Schwarz, Dan Cogan, Jenny Raskin, Brandon Hill, Christian Thompson, executive producers (Netflix)

P-Valley, Katori Hall, creator; Katori Hall, Dante Di Loreto, Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping, Liz W. Garcia, executive producers (STARZ)

Unorthodox, Anna Winger, Alexa Karolinski , creators; Anna Winger, Henning Kamm, executive producers (Netflix)

Watchmen, Damon Lindelof, Creator for Television;  Tom Spezialy , Nicole Kassell , Stephen Williams, Joseph E. Iberti, executive producers (HBO)

Breakthrough Series – Short Format (under 40 minutes)

Betty, Crystal Moselle, Lesley Arfin, Igor Srubshchik, Jason Weinberg, executive producers (HBO)

Dave, Dave Burd, Jeff Schaffer, creators; Dave Burd, Jeff Schaffer, Saladin K. Patterson, Greg Mottola, Kevin Hart, Marty Bowen, Scooter Braun, Mike Hertz, Scott Manson, James Shin, executive producers (FX Networks)

 I May Destroy You, Michaela Coel , creator; Michaela Coel, Phil Clarke, Roberto Troni, executive producers (HBO)

Taste the Nation, Padma Lakshmi, David Shadrack Smith, Sarina Roma, executive producers (Hulu)

Work in Progress, Abby McEnany, Tim Mason, creators, Abby McEnany, Tim Mason, Lilly Wachowski, Lawrence Mattis, Josh Adler, Ashley Berns, Julia Sweeney, Tony Hernandez, executive producers (SHOWTIME)

 Gotham Audience Award

IFP members will determine the Gotham Audience Award with nominees comprised of the 20 nominated films in the Best Feature, Best Documentary, Best International Feature, and Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award categories. All IFP current, active members are eligible to vote. Voting will take place online in December. 

Thirty-five writers, critics and programmers participated in the nomination process. The Nominating Committees for the 2020 IFP Gotham Awards were:

Nominating Committee for Best Feature and Best Screenplay:

Justin Chang, Film Critic, Los Angeles Times, NPR's "Fresh Air"

K. Austin Collins. Film Critic, Rolling Stone

Eric Kohn, Executive Editor & Chief Critic, IndieWire

Alison Willmore, Film Critic, Vulture

Stephanie Zacharek, Film Critic, TIME

Nominating Committee for Best Documentary:

Ben Fowlie, Executive Director, Points North Institute; Founder, Camden International Film Festival 

Cynthia Fuchs, Director Film & Media Studies, George Mason University; Contributing Editor, PopMatters

Sky Sitney, Co-Creator & Co-Director, Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival

Abby Sun, Curator, the DocYard, and Researcher, MIT Open Doc Lab

Alissa Wilkinson, Film Critic, Vox 

Nominating Committee for Best International Feature:

Florence Almozini, Senior Programmer at Large, Film at Lincoln Center

Bilge Ebiri, Film Critic and Writer, New York Magazine/Vulture

David Fear, Senior Editor & Film/TV Critic, Rolling Stone

Tomris Laffly, Film Critic, RogerEbert.com, Variety 

David Rooney, Chief Film Critic, The Hollywood Reporter

Nominating Committee for Breakthrough Director

Monica Castillo, Arts and Culture Reporter, Colorado Public Radio

Peter Debruge, Chief Film Critic, Variety 

David Ehrlich, Senior Film Critic, Indiewire

Devika Girish, Film Critic & Editor

Soraya Nadia McDonald, Culture Critic, The Undefeated

Nominating Committee for Best Actor and Best Actress:

Robert Daniels, Contributor, RogerEbert.com and The Playlist

Tim Grierson, Senior U.S. Critic, Screen International; Contributing Editor, MEL

Mark Harris, Writer, New York Magazine 

Jessica Kiang, Film Critic, Variety, The Playlist, Sight & Sound

Christy Lemire, Film Critic, RogerEbert.com; Co-host Breakfast All Day podcast

Nominating Committee for Breakthrough Actor:

Kate Erbland, Deputy Editor, Film, IndieWire

Jon Frosch, Reviews Editor, The Hollywood Reporter

Beatrice Loayza, Writer & Film Critic

David Sims, Staff Writer, Culture, The Atlantic

Brian Tallerico, Editor, RogerEbert.com


Nominating Committee for Breakthrough Series 

Judy Berman, TV Critic, TIME

Jen Chaney, TV Critic, Vulture

Daniel Fienberg, Chief Television Critic, The Hollywood Reporter 

Caroline Framke, TV Critic, Variety

Matthew Gilbert, TV Critic, The Boston Globe


Sponsors
The Premier Sponsor of the 2020 Gotham Awards is The New York Times. The Official Auto Partner is Cadillac, the Official Water Partner is FIJI Water, the Official Airline Partner is JetBlue, and the Official Wine Partner is Robert Hall Winery.

About IFP 

The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) champions the future of storytelling by connecting artists with essential resources at all stages of development and distribution. The organization, under the leadership of Executive Director and award-winning producer Jeffrey Sharp, fosters a vibrant and sustainable independent storytelling community through its year-round programs, which include IFP Week, Filmmaker Magazine, and the IFP Gotham Awards.

 

About the IFP Gotham Awards

The IFP Gotham Awards, selected by distinguished juries and presented in New York City, the home of independent film, are the first honors of the film awards season. This public showcase honors the filmmaking community, expands the audience for independent films, and supports the work that IFP does behind the scenes throughout the year to bring such films to fruition. 

 

For information on attending: http://gotham.ifp.org

Haute Tease

  • The Science Behind the Texas Hill Country Flash Floods

    Nestled in the heart of central Texas, the Texas Hill Country is famous for its rugged limestone hills, scenic rivers, and vibrant blue bonnet blooms each spring. But beneath its picturesque exterior lies a dramatic vulnerability.

     
  • 2015 Portland Film Festival Announces Film Line-Up

    The 2015 PORTLAND FILM FESTIVAL is Oregon's largest film event of the year, will take place September 1 - 7th, 2015, in Portland, Oregon, at seven venues throughout the city, including historic area theatres and community venues.  

  • 11 Tons of Cocaine Seized; Undercover NYC Sting Nabs FOX Producer; HuffPo Blogger; Chipotle CMO

    A three nation joint task force comprised of American, Italian and Colombian law enforcement have seized 11 tons of cocaine and arrested 33 people in a mafia-linked drug ring in the jungles of Colombia, South America.

     
  • President of Doctors for Disaster Preparedness Explains FDA Injunction To Remove Block on Vaccine

    Dr. Jane Orient, the President of Doctors for Disaster Preparedness, explains the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is withholding the vital anti-viral drug, Hydroxychloroquine, in the fight against the spread of the coronavirus by blocking the distribution.

     
  • Announces First Look at SELMA

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, LOS ANGELES, CA, October 31, 2014 – AFI FEST 2014 presented by Audi, a program of the American Film Institute, announced today that it will offer a first look at director Ava DuVernay's highly anticipated film SELMA on Tuesday, November 11. The presentation will feature 30 minutes of exclusive footage from the film followed by a conversation with producers Oprah Winfrey, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner, DuVernay and actor David Oyelowo at the Egyptian Theatre.

     
  • Russian Critics Name the Best Series of 2022

    As we approach the end of 2022, Kino-Teatr.Ru traditionally asks leading Russian film and television critics to name the top three Russian TV series and justify their choices, this year the top three were "1703," "Patient Zero," and "Nadvoe."

Arts / Culture