A24 dominates Gotham Awards Winners; ‘The Rider’ takes Best Feature

The 2018 Gotham Awards are happening tonight, live from Cipriani Wall Street in New York City. 

Chloé Zhao’s The Rider was the surprise winner of Best Feature at the IFP Gotham Awards tonight, beating out heavy hitters like First Reformed, The Favourite and If Beale Street Could Talk. The Rider, which was released in the US last Spring, was a festival hit in 2017, earning Film Independent nominations last year. 

A24 led the nominations and also led the awards with five wins; Best Actor (Ethan Hawke) and Best Screenplay (First Reformed), Debut Director (Bo Burnham) and Breakthrough Actor (Elsie Fisher) for Eighth Grade. Toni Collette upset Glenn Close in Best Actress, winning for Hereditary.

Morgan Neville’s Won’t You Be My Neighbor? won the IFP Gotham Audience Award. All films nominated for Best Feature and Best Documentary are eligible and the winner is decided on by voters online. 

The 2018 Best Actress nominating committee also voted to award a special Gotham Jury Award to Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, and Rachel Weisz for their ensemble performance in The Favourite.

As previously announced, tributes are set for Rachel Weisz, Willem Dafoe, Paul Greengrass and Jon Kamen. 

We’ll be updating the winners as they are announced. 

BEST FEATURE

The Favourite 
Yorgos Lanthimos, director; Ceci Dempsey, Ed Guiney, Lee Magiday, Yorgos Lanthimos, producers (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

First Reformed
Paul Schrader, director; Jack Binder, Greg Clark, Victoria Hill, Gary Hamilton, Deepak Sikka, Christine Vachon, David Hinojosa, Frank Murray, producers (A24)

If Beale Street Could Talk
Barry Jenkins, director; Adele Romanski, Sara Murphy, Barry Jenkins, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Megan Ellison, producers (Annapurna Pictures)

Madeline’s Madeline
Josephine Decker, director; Krista Parris, Elizabeth Rao, producers (Oscilloscope Laboratories)

The Rider – WINNER
Chloé Zhao, director; Bert Hamelinck, Sacha Ben Harroche, Mollye Asher, Chloé Zhao, producers (Sony Pictures Classics)

BEST DOCUMENTARY

Bisbee ‘17
Robert Greene, producer; Douglas Tirola, Susan Bedusa, Bennett Elliott, producers (4th Row Films)

Hale County This Morning, This Evening – WINNER
RaMell Ross, director; RaMell Ross, Joslyn Barnes, Su Kim, producers (The Cinema Guild)

Minding the Gap
Bing Liu, director; Diane Quon, Bing Liu, producers (Hulu & Magnolia Pictures)

Shirkers
Sandi Tan, director; Sandi Tan, Jessica Levin, Maya Rudolph, producers (Netflix)

Won’t You Be My Neighbor? 
Morgan Neville, director; Morgan Neville, Caryn Capotosto, Nicholas Ma, producers (Focus Features)

BINGHAM RAY BREAKTHROUGH DIRECTOR AWARD

Ari Aster for Hereditary (A24)
Bo Burnham for Eighth Grade (A24) – WINNER
Jennifer Fox for The Tale (HBO)
Crystal Moselle for Skate Kitchen (Magnolia Pictures)
Boots Riley for Sorry to Bother You (Annapurna Pictures)

BEST SCREENPLAY

The Favourite, Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara (Fox Searchlight Pictures) 
First Reformed, Paul Schrader (A24) – WINNER
Private Life, Tamara Jenkins (Netflix)
Support the Girls, Andrew Bujalski (Magnolia Pictures)
Thoroughbreds, Cory Finley (Focus Features)

BEST ACTOR

Adam Driver in BlacKkKlansman (Focus Features)
Ben Foster in Leave No Trace (Bleecker Street)
Richard E. Grant in Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Ethan Hawke in First Reformed (A24) – WINNER
Lakeith Stanfield in Sorry to Bother You (Annapurna Pictures)

BEST ACTRESS

Glenn Close in The Wife (Sony Pictures Classics) 
Toni Collette in Hereditary (A24) – WINNER
Kathryn Hahn in Private Life (Netflix)
Regina Hall in Support the Girls (Magnolia Pictures)
Michelle Pfeiffer in Where is Kyra? (Paladin and Great Point Media)

BREAKTHROUGH ACTOR

Yalitza Aparicio in ROMA (Netflix) 
Elsie Fisher in Eighth Grade (A24) – WINNER
Helena Howard in Madeline’s Madeline (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
KiKi Layne in If Beale Street Could Talk (Annapurna Pictures)
Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie in Leave No Trace (Bleecker Street)

BREAKTHROUGH SERIES – LONG FORM

Alias Grace, Sarah Polley, Mary Harron, Noreen Halpern, executive producers (Netflix)

Big Mouth, Nick Kroll, Andrew Goldberg, Jennifer Flackett, Mark Levin, creators; Nick Kroll, Andrew Goldberg, Mark Levin & Jennifer Flackett, executive producers (Netflix)

The End of the F***ing World, Andy Baker, Murray Ferguson, Petra Fried, Ed MacDonald, Dominic Buchanan, Jonathan Entwistle, executive producers (Netflix)

Killing Eve, Sally Woodward Gentle, Lee Morris, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, executive producers (BBC America) – WINNER

Pose, Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, Steven Canals, creators; Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, Nina Jacobson, Brad Simpson, Alexis Martin Woodall, Sherry Marsh, executive producers (FX Networks)

Sharp Objects, Marti Noxon, creator; Marti Noxon, Jason Blum, Gillian Flynn, Amy Adams, Jean-Marc Vallée, Nathan Ross, Gregg Fienberg, Charles Layton, Marci Wiseman, Jessica Rhoades, executive producers (HBO)

BREAKTHROUGH SERIES – SHORT FORM

195 Lewis, Chanelle Aponte Pearson and Rae Leone Allen, creators – WINNER
Cleaner Daze, Tess Sweet and Daniel Gambelin, creators
Distance, Alex Dobrenko, creator
The F Word, Nicole Opper, creator 
She’s the Ticket, Nadia Hallgren, creator

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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