Gotham Award Winners: Birdman Bests the Boy

The Gotham Independent Film 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.

Awards are given in six categories along with an Audience Award, which is culled from the 15 nominees for Best Feature, Best Documentary, and Breakthrough Director.

The 24th Gotham Independent Film Awards took place earlier tonight in New York.

Here are the winners:

Special Jury Award for Ensemble Performance (previously announced)
Steve Carell, Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo for Foxcatcher

Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award
Ana Lily Amirpour for A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (Kino Lorber)

Breakthrough Actor
Tessa Thompson in Dear White People (Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions)

Gotham Independent Film Audience Award
Boyhood
Richard Linklater, director; Richard Linklater, Cathleen Sutherland, Jonathan Sehring, John Sloss, producers
(IFC Films)

Best Documentary
CITIZENFOUR
Laura Poitras, director; Laura Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy, Dirk Wilutzky, producers (RADiUS, Participant Media, and HBO Documentary Films)

Best Actor
Michael Keaton for Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance) (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

 Best Actress
Julianne Moore for Still Alice (Sony Pictures Classics)

Best Feature
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (Fox Searchlight)

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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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