‘First Cow’ leads Gotham Award nominations; all Best Feature nominees directed by women

The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP), announced today nominations for their 30^th Gotham Awards, with Kelly Reichardt’s First Cow leading the way with four mentions, including Best Feature.

For the first time in Gotham’s 30-year history, all Best Feature nominees were directed by women. The late Chadwick Boseman received a Best Actor nomination for his final film, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom from Netflix. The French film Cuties, also from Netflix, earned a Best International Feature nomination. Netflix topped the nomination total across all categories with 12. A24 and Amazon Studios were next with five, IFC and Kino Lorber tied with four.

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 is one of the leading honors for independent film and media, providing critical early recognition to groundbreaking independent films and their writers, directors, producers, and actors with ten competitive awards categories.

“The IFP Gotham Awards have continued to be a staple in independent film and television and we look forward to celebrating the 30^th Anniversary and helping to kick off this year’s unconventional awards season,” said IFP Executive Director Jeffrey Sharp.

“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,” Sharp continued, announcing the nominations live from Cipriani’s in New York City on Thursday morning.

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

The IFP Gotham Awards will take place on Monday, January 11, 2021. Here is the full list of nominations.

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)

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)

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

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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.

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