2023 Gotham Awards: ‘Past Lives’ Wins Best Feature; Charles Melton, Lily Gladstone, ‘Anatomy of a Fall,’ ‘Beef’ Also Triumph

Lily Gladstone, Charles Melton win film acting prizes, Robert De Niro goes off book with fiery speech

Celine Song’s Past Lives has won The Gotham Awards honor for Best Feature. The film was nominated for three awards both found its trophy only in the show’s final award of the evening at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City.

The yearly kickoff to awards season, the Best Feature winner here has earned a Best Picture Oscar nomination seven out of the last 10 years. Three of those times – 2014’s Birdman, 2016’s Moonlight and 2020’s Nomadland – the Gotham winner won the Academy Award.

Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers led the field with four nominations but went home empty-handed, as did triple nominee The Zone of Interest. A Thousand and One‘s A.V. Rockwell was a surprise winner for the Gotham Breakthrough Director Award, a category that consisted of all female-identifying nominees for the first time in Gotham history.

Anatomy of a Fall, the Cannes Palme d’Or winner this year, was a double winner here taking Best Screenplay and Best International Feature over All of Us Strangers, Poor Things and The Zone of Interest, among others.

May December break out Charles Melton won Outstanding Supporting Performance for the film. The last two winners here, Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All At Once) and Troy Kotsur (CODA) went on to win the Supporting Actor Oscar.

Speeches were largely traditional and down the line until Robert De Niro’s intro for Killers of the Flower Moon, which received the Gotham Historical Icon & Creator Tribute Honor. While it seemed at first he was having trouble with his speech, he inferred that Apple and/or Gotham had altered it to remove a section that was anti-Trump and anti-news. “How dare they,” he said, and pulled out his speech from his phone and read after the teleprompter version.

“Lying has become just another tool in the charlatan’s arsenal. The former President lied to us more than 30,000 times during his four years in office. And he’s keeping up the pace in his current campaign of retribution. But in all his lies, he can’t hide his soul. He attacks the weak, destroys the gifts of nature and shows disrespect by, for example, using Pocahontas as a slur,” said the two-time Oscar winner.

Lily Gladstone, part of the group who accepted the award for Killers, spoke on behalf of the actors saying, “I ask the people in this room, when you have a budget like this, invest it in the people, your film will be better for it.” Shortly after, Gladstone won the Gotham for Outstanding Lead Performance for The Unknown Country.

The trio of television winners were National Geographic’s A Small Light for Breakthrough Series over 40 Minutes, Beef for Breakthrough Series Under 40 Minutes with its star Ali Wong winning Outstanding Performance in a New Series.

Several Gotham Icon & Creator Tribute Awards will be handed out a Cipriani Hall on the 27th, including Bradley Cooper’s Maestro presented by Brian Williams, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie presented by Laura Dern, George C. Wolfe’s Rustin, Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon presented by Robert De Niro, Michael Mann’s Ferrari presented by Adam Driver and Ben Affleck’s Air. The Gothams Awards normally recognize lower budgeted independent films, but this year the Gotham Film and Media Institute removed its $35 million budget cap requirement this year for nominees, allowing films like them to receive nominations and special recognition alongside the usual eligible films.

The Gotham’s Sidney Poitier Initiative, which supports The Gotham’s equity programs, also received funding from Moviepass. The Sidney Poitier Initiative fuels the careers of and expands opportunities for trailblazing film and media creators from historically excluded backgrounds.

The Gotham also announced ViacomCBS’ MTV Entertainment Group will continue to underwrite the Gotham EDU Schumacher Cranshaw Scholarship as part of The Gotham EDU Career Development Program. The scholarship is in honor of the legacy of filmmaker Joel Scumacher and MTV Creative Director Sophia Cranshaw, for undergraduate students who identify as Black, Indigenous, People of Color and LGBTQ+. The Gotham EDU Career Development program offers support in the form of classes and mentorship.

Here is the full list of winners.

Best Feature 

• Passages – Ira Sachs, director; Saïd Ben Saïd, Michel Merkt, producers (MUBI)
• Past Lives – Celine Song, director; David Hinojosa, Pamela Koffler, Christine Vachon, producers (A24) – WINNER
• Reality – Tina Satter, director; Brad Becker-Parton, Riva Marker, Greg Nobile, Noah Stahl, producers (HBO Films)
• Showing Up – Kelly Reichardt, director; Neil Kopp, Vincent Savino, Anish Savjani, producers (A24)
• A Thousand and One – A.V. Rockwell, director; Julia Lebedev, Rishi Rajani, Eddie Vaisman, Lena Waithe, Bred Weston, producers (Focus Features)

The Best Feature jury included: Nina Yang Bongiovi, Danielle Deadwyler, Beau Flynn, Edward Shults Trey & Olivia Wilde  

Best International Feature

• All of Us Strangers – Andrew Haigh, director; Graham Broadbent, Peter Czemin, Sarah Harvey, producers (Searchlight Pictures)
• Anatomy of a Fall – Justine Triet, director; Marie-Ange Luciani, David Thion, producers (NEON) – WINNER
• Poor Things – Yorgos Lanthimos, director; Ed Guiney, Yorgos Lanthimos,  Andrew Lowe, Emma Stone, producers (Searchlight Pictures)
• Tótem – Lila Avilés, director; Lila Avilés, Tatiana Graullera, Louise Riousse, producers (Sideshow/Janus Films)
• The Zone of Interest – Jonathan Glazer, director; Ewa Puszczynska, James Wilson, producers (A24)

The Best International Feature jury included: Gracija Filipovic, Asher Goldstein, André Holland, Danilea Taplin Lundberg & Giancarlo Nasi 

Best Documentary Feature 

• 20 Days in Mariupol – Mstyslav Chernov, director; Raney Aronson-Rath, Mstyslav Chernov, Derl McCrudden, Michelle Mizner, producers (PBS Distribution)
• Against the Tide – Sarvnik Kaur, director; Koval Bhatia, Sarvnik Kaur, producers (Snooker Club Films, A Little Anarky Films)
• Apolonia, Apolonia – Lea Glob, director; Sidsel Lønvig Siersted, producer (Danish Documentary Production)
• Four Daughters – Kaouther Ben Hania, director; Nadim Cheikhrouha, producer (Kino Lorber) – WINNER
• Our Body – Claire Simon, director; Kristina Larsen, producer (Cinema Guild)

The Best Documentary jury included: Yoni Golijov, Teddy Leifer, Andrew Rossi, Nanfu Wang & Jamila Wignot

Breakthrough Director Award, Presented by Cadillac

• Raven Jackson, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (A24)
• Georgia Oakley, Blue Jean (Magnolia Pictures)
• Michelle Garza Cervera, Huesera (XYZ Films)
• Celine Song, Past Lives (A24)
• A.V. Rockwell, A Thousand and One (Focus Features) – WINNER

The Breakthrough Director Award Presented by Cadillac jury included: Anna Boden, Chinonye Chukwu, Ricky D’Ambrose, Richard Gladstein & Anne Rosellini 

Best Screenplay

• All of Us Strangers, Andrew Haigh (Searchlight Pictures)
• Anatomy of a Fall, Justine Triet, Arthur Harari (NEON) – WINNER
• May December, Samy Burch (Netflix)
• R.M.N., Cristian Mungiu (IFC Films)
• The Zone of Interest, Jonathan Glazer (A24)

The Best Screenplay jury included: Lee Daniels, Lena Dunham, Sian Heder, Scott Lambert & Diego Luna 

Outstanding Lead Performance 

• Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Origin (NEON)
• Lily Gladstone, The Unknown Country (Music Box Films) – WINNER
• Greta Lee, Past Lives (A24)
• Franz Rogowski, Passages (MUBI)
• Babetida Sadjo, Our Father, The Devil (Cineverse)
• Andrew Scott, All of Us Strangers (Searchlight Pictures)
• Cailee Spaeny, Priscilla (A24)
• Teyana Taylor, A Thousand and One (Focus Features)
• Michelle Williams, Showing Up (A24)
• Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction (Orion Pictures / Amazon MGM Studios)

The Outstanding Lead Performance jury included: Thomas Benski, Liz Cardenas, Ethan Hawke, David Lowery & Alfre Woodard

Outstanding Supporting Performance

• Juliette Binoche, The Taste of Things (IFC Films)
• Penélope Cruz, Ferrari (NEON)
• Jamie Foxx, They Cloned Tyrone (Netflix)
• Claire Foy, All of Us Strangers (Searchlight Films)
• Ryan Gosling, Barbie (Warner Bros. Pictures)
• Glenn Howerton, BlackBerry (IFC Films)
• Sandra Hüller, The Zone of Interest (A24)
• Rachel McAdams, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (Lionsgate)
• Charles Melton, May December (Netflix) – WINNER
• Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers (Focus Features)

The Outstanding Supporting Performance jury included: Juan Pablo Gonzalez, Alma Har’el, Stephan James, Anya Taylor-Joy & Julie Yorn

Breakthrough Series – Under 40 minutes

• Beef, Lee Sung Jin, creator; Ravi Nandan, Alli Reich, Jake Schreier, Ali Wong, Steven Yeun, executive producers (Netflix) – WINNER
• High School, Clea DuVall, Sara Quin, Tegan Quin, creators; Clea Duvall, Dede Gardner, Laura Kittrell, Jeremy Kleiner, Sara Quin, Tegan Quin, Carina Sposato, executive producers (Amazon Freevee)
• I’m A Virgo, Boots Riley, creator; Tze Chun, Michael Ellenberg, Marcus Gardley, Carver Karaszewski, Jharrel Jerome, Boots Riley, Rebecca Rivo, Lindsey Springer, executive producers (Prime Video)
• Rain Dogs, Cash Carraway, creator; Cash Carraway, Sally Woodward Gentle, Lee Morris, executive producers (HBO | Max)
• Swarm, Donald Glover, Janine Nabers, creators; Ibra Ake, Donald Glover, Stephen Glover, Janine Nabers Jamal Olor, Steven Prinz, Michael Schaefer, Fam Udeorji, executive producers (Amazon Studios)

The Breakthrough Series (Under 40 Minutes) jury included: Adam Arkin, Sterlin Harjo, Jordana Mollick, Taylour Paige & Susanna Styron 

Breakthrough Series – Over 40 minutes

• Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire – Rolin Jones, creator; Mark Johnson, Rolin Jones, Anne Rice, Christopher Rice, Alan Taylor, executive producers (AMC)
• Dead Ringers – Alice Birch, creator; Alice Birch, Anne Carey, Sean Durkin, Megan Ellison, Erica Kay, Ali Krug, Sue Naegle, Stacy O’Neil, David Robinson, James G. Robinson, Polly Stokes, Barbara Wall, Rachel Weisz, executive directors (Prime Video)
• The English – Hugo Blick, creator; Hugo Blick, Emily Blunt, Greg Brenman, executive producers (Prime Video)
• The Last of Us – Craig Mazin, Neil Druckmann, creators; Neil Druckmann, Craig Mazin, Rose Lam, Asad Qizilbash, Carolyn Strauss, Carter Swan, Evan Wells, executive producers; (HBO | Max)
• A Small Light – Tony Phelan, Joan Rater, creator; Susanna Fogel, William Harper, Avi Nir, Tony Phelan, Joan Rater, Lisa Roos, Alon Shtruzman, Peter Traugott, executive producers (National Geographic) – WINNER
• Telemarketers – Adam Bhala Lough, Sam Lipman-Stern, directors; Nancy Abraham, Dani Bernfeld, David Gordon Green, Lisa Heller, Jody Hill, Brandon James, Sam Lipman-Stern, Adam Bhala Lough, Danny McBride, Tina Nguyen,  Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie, Greg Stewart, executive producers (HBO | Max)

The Breakthrough Series (Over 40 Minutes) jury included: DeMane Davis, Frankie Faison, Sanaa Hamri, Haley Lu Richardson & Paul Thureen

Outstanding Performance in a New Series

• Jacob Anderson, Anne Rice’s Interview with The Vampire (AMC)
• Dominique Fishback, Swarm (Amazon Studios)
• Jharrel Jerome, I’m A Virgo (Prime Video)
• Natasha Lyonne, Poker Face (Peacock)
• Bel Powley, A Small Light (National Geographic)
• Bella Ramsey, The Last of Us (HBO | Max)
• Chaske Spencer, The English (Prime Video)
• Rachel Weisz, Dead Ringers ((Prime Video)
• Ali Wong, Beef (Netflix) – WINNER
• Steven Yeun, Beef (Netflix)

The Outstanding Performance in a New Series jury included: Danielle Brooks, Kim Coleman, Aaron Cooley & Soo Hugh

Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Gotham Film & Media Institute