Gotham Awards winners: ‘Nomadland’ is Best Feature, Nicole Beharie is Best Actress

The 30th Gotham Awards were handed out on Monday night and Nomadland continued its winning streak by taking Best Feature here.

Miss Juneteenth‘s Nicole Beharie won Best Actress in a surprise and Riz Ahmed won Best Actor for Sound of Metal.

The awards presentation was beset with some technical issues, with winners not knowing they had won or when to speak.

The Best Documentary prize was a tie, with two films that took years or decades to complete and both utilized filming and camerawork from their subjects. Garrett Bradley’s Time and Ramona S. Diaz’s A Thousand Cuts shared the award with their producing teams.

Another tie came in the Best Screenplay category where Mike Sallitt’s Fourteen and Radha Blank’s The Forty-Year Old Version both won. The award was presented by Kenneth Lonergan.

Cristin Milioti presented the IFP Audience Award to Nomadland. Any film nominated for Best Feature, Breakthrough Director, Best Documentary or Best International Feature were eligible for the audience-voted award.

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom director George C. Wolfe presented Emmy, Tony and Oscar winner Viola Davis with the Actor’s Tribute. André Holland presented the late Chadwick Boseman with the Gotham’s other Actor Tribute. Holland and Boseman co-starred together in the Jackie Robinson biopic 42, which also starred Nicole Beharie, a Gotham winner tonight.

Nicole Kidman presented director/producer Ryan Murphy (TV’s Glee, Pose and American Horror Story and films like Eat, Pray, Love and The Prom) with the Industry Tribute for his tireless work in giving more inclusive representation in film and television in front of and behind the camera to “people of all sexualities, genders and colors.” Writer/director Aaron Sorkin presented the inaugural Gotham Ensemble Tribute award to the cast of his film The Trial of the Chicago 7. Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave) presented the Director’s Tribute to her 12YAS director Steve McQueen. McQueen released five feature films in 2020 (Mangrove, Lovers Rock, Education, Alex Wheatle and Red, White and Blue) as a part of the Small Axe anthology telling the experience of West Indian residents in London from the 1960s to the 2000s on Amazon Prime Video.

The Made in New York Award went to Jeffrey Wright, the Tony, Emmy, AFI and Golden Globe-winning actor, philanthropist, and proud resident of Brooklyn, New York, whose organization, Brooklyn For Life! supports local businesses and serves meals to first responders, hospital workers and residents of public housing affected by the pandemic.

The inaugural Joel Schumacher Mentorship Award was announced by Jeffrey Sharp, Executive Director of IFP. MTV Entertainment Group collaborates with IFP for a $150,000 endowment with a focus on young, queer and/or people of color filmmakers.

Here is the full list of winners of the 30th IFP Gotham Awards.

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) – WINNER
• Relic: Natalie Erika James, director; Anna Mcleish, Sarah Shaw, Jake Gyllenhaal, Riva Marker, producers (IFC Midnight)

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) – WINNER

Best Screenplay

• Bad Education, Mike Makowsky (HBO)
• First Cow, Jon Raymond, Kelly Reichardt (A24)
• The Forty-Year-Old Version, Radha Blank (Netflix) – WINNER (tie)
• Fourteen, Dan Sallitt (Grasshopper Film) – WINNER (tie)
• The Vast of Night, James Montague, Craig Sanger (Amazon Studios)

Best Actor

• Riz Ahmed in Sound of Metal (Amazon Studios) – WINNER
• 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) – WINNER
• 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) – WINNER
• Sidney Flanigan in Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Focus Features)
• Orion Lee in First Cow (A24)
• Kelly O’Sullivan in Saint Frances (Oscilloscope Laboratories)

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) – WINNER
• 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)

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 – WINNER (tie): Ramona S. Diaz, director; Ramona S. Diaz, Leah Marino, Julie Goldman, Christopher Clements, Carolyn Hepburn, producers (PBS Distribution | FRONTLINE )
• Time – WINNER (tie): Garrett Bradley, director; Lauren Domino, Kellen Quinn, Garrett Bradley, producers (Amazon Studios)

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) – WINNER

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) – WINNER
• 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.