Gotham Awards Nominations: Get Out Leads with 4; Columbus, Lady Bird, Florida Project, Call Me By Your Name with 3

Awards season is officially here.

The 27th IFP Gotham Awards nominations came out this morning and the micro-budgeted blockbuster hit Get Out landed a field-best four nominations: Best Feature, Breakthrough Director (Jordan Peele), Best Screenplay (Peele again) and Best Actor for Daniel Kaluuya. The Gotham Awards have recently become quite a strong precursor for the Oscars; both Moonlight and Spotlight started their runs here and both overcame formidable competition as the season went on but still managed to grab Best Picture at the end.

Rounding out the Best Feature category were Call Me By Your Name, The Florida Project, Good Time and I, Tonya. Lady Bird missed out on Best Feature but still managed three top nominations: Breakthrough Director and Screenplay (Greta Gerwig) and Best Actress for Saoirse Ronan.

Film festivals play a huge factor in the Gotham Awards, probably more than any other awards group. Call Me By Your Name, Mudbound, Columbus and Get Out all debuted way back in January at Sundance. The Florida Project hit Director’s Fortnight at Cannes this summer and most all then came in at Telluride or Toronto. A24 was the distributor with the highest number of nominations – 11.

Best Actor was a wild selection this year with Kaluuya joined by Adam Sandler for The Meyerowitz Stories, James Franco for The Disaster Artist, Willem Dafoe for The Florida Project (there is no supporting category here), Robert Pattinson for Good Time and the late Harry Dean Stanton for Lucky. Interestingly, Call Me By Your Name‘s Timothée Chalamet did not show up here but did show in Breakthrough Actor, a non-gendered category where he was nominated alongside Mary J. Blige for Mudbound, Harris Dickinson for Beach Rats, Kelvin Harrison, Jr. for It Comes At Night and 7-year old Brooklynn Prince for The Florida Project.

Best Actress is a pretty great mix of actresses both fresh and seasoned, known and unknown. Newcomer Haley Lu Richardson (Columbus, which also received Director and Screenplay nominations) sits right next to veteran Lois Smith (Marjorie Prime), both with their first individual Gotham nominations (Smith won the Ensemble award as part of the cast of 2010’s Please Give). Margot Robbie (I, Tonya) earned her first nomination here as well and begins her possible trip to the Academy Awards. Melanie Lynskey (i don’t feel at home in this world anymore) and the previously mentioned Ronan round out the category.

Last year, Moonlight won Best Feature and Best Screenplay, a feat it would repeat at the Oscars. Mudbound was awarded the Special Jury Prize for Ensemble Performance, the same award Moonlight was given last year.

Ex Libris and Whose Streets? landed Documentary nominations and in the TV section, Atlanta, Dear White People and Fleabag were among the Breakthrough Series nominees.

Nominees are selected by committees of film critics, journalists, festival programmers, and film curators. This year’s nomination jury included Eric Kohn, David Ehrlich, Liz Shannon Miller, and Jude Dry.  Separate juries of writers, directors, actors, producers, editors and others directly involved in making films will determine the final Gotham Award winners.

The 27th IFP Gotham Awards will take place Monday, November 27, 2017 and will be hosted by John Cameron Mitchell.

Best Feature

“Call Me by Your Name”
“The Florida Project”
“Get Out”
“Good Time”
“I, Tonya”

Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award

Maggie Betts for “Novitiate”
Greta Gerwig for “Lady Bird”
Kogonada for “Columbus”
Jordan Peele for “Get Out”
Joshua Z Weinstein for “Menashe”

Best Screenplay

“The Big Sick,” Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani
“Brad’s Status,” Mike White
“Call Me by Your Name,”James Ivory
“Columbus,” Kogonada
“Get Out,” Jordan Peele
“Lady Bird,” Greta Gerwig

Best Actor

James Franco, “The Disaster Artist”
Willem Dafoe, “The Florida Project”
Daniel Kaluuya, “Get Out”
Robert Pattinson, “Good Time”
Harry Dean Stanton, “Lucky”
Adam Sandler, “The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)”

Best Actress

Haley Lu Richardson, “Columbus”
Melanie Lynskey, “i don’t feel at home in this world anymore.”
Margot Robbie, “I, Tonya”
Saorise Ronan, “Lady Bird”
Lois Smith, “Marjorie Prime”

Special Jury Award For Ensemble Performance

“Mudbound,” presented to Carey Mulligan, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Clarke, Jason Mitchell, Mary J. Blige, Rob Morgan, and Jonathan Banks.

Breakthrough Actor

Mary J. Blige, “Mudbound”
Timothée Chalamet, “Call Me by Your Name”
Harris Dickinson, “Beach Rats”
Kelvin Harrison, Jr., “It Comes at Night”
Brooklynn Prince, “The Florida Project”

Best Documentary

“Ex Libris – The New York Public Library”
“Rat Film”
“Strong Island”
“Whose Streets?”
“The Work”

Breakthrough Series – Long Form

“Atlanta”
“Better Things”
“Dear White People”
“Fleabag”
“Search Party”

Breakthrough Series – Short Form

“555”
“Inconceivable”
“Junior”
“Let Me Die a Nun”
“The Strange Eyes of Dr. Myes”