Festival season is almost over and that means one thing folks! We are back to awards season! Let’s get it! Ahem. So, the Gotham Awards have just released their nominees for their 2021 ceremony and there is quite a lot to talk about here.
One bit of information that I did not know was the budget eligibility for the Gotham Awards, that all films must have cost below $35 million, this excluded some films that you will possibly see all over awards season like Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods” and David Fincher’s “Mank”. But shockingly (to me anyway) a film that cost over $35 million was… “The Prom”… WHAT!? In what world does that film need to cost so much? Anyway, let’s get to the nominees!
Best Feature
“The Assistant”
“First Cow”
“Never Rarely Sometimes Always”
“Nomadland”
This is a solid list that is hard to fight against, though I haven’t seen First Cow, I would have possibly had One Night In Miami in there instead. The Assistant is minimalist filmmaking at it’s best. I have been bigging up Never Rarely Sometimes Always all year, so it is really great to see a film released quite awhile ago get this love. Nomandland was always going to get nominated and Relic truly deserves it’s spot here as it was a horror that utilised multiple genres so well. A great list.
Of course a lot needs to be said about how many female directors are nominated and rightly so in my opinion, this has been a banner year for female directors and do not be surprised to see a lot of award nominations to go this way in the best feature and best director categories. We thought this would be the case a while ago. Great to see.
Best Documentary
“76 Days”
“City Hall”
“Our Time Machine”
“A Thousand Cuts”
“Time”
Having only seen two of the nominees here (“76 days” and “Time”) I do not have much say in this one, though from reading about them, they appear on paper to be excellent choices. I can’t fault the two I have seen though and I imagine no matter what this will be quite the tight race.
Best International Feature
“Bacurau”
“Beanpole”
“Cuties (Mignonnes)”
“Identifying Features”
“Martin Eden”
Nothing fills my heart up more than seeing “Wolfwalkers” get this level of love. It is a truly tremendous film that needs to be seen by everyone to show that true animation is very much alive. Love it. “Cuties” is sure as hell going to raise some eyebrows and I am all for seeing that level of madness is going to come from it. I have not seen “Martin Eden” and “Identifying Creatures” so can’t fairly comment on those, but this is a strong list with a multitude of these films certainly being in the same list come the Academy Awards, so not too many surprises.
Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award
Carlo Mirabella-Davis, “Swallow”
Rhada Blank, “The Forty Year Old Version”
Andrew Patterson, “Vast of Night”
Channing Godfrey Peoples, “Miss Juneteenth”
Alex Thompson, “Saint Frances”
Another great list and these directors have shined brightly in their breakgthrough films. Good luck to whoever decides from that list, let me tell you…
Best Screenplay
“Bad Education,” Mike Makowsky
“First Cow,” Jon Raymond and Kelly Reichardt
“The Forty-Year-Old Version,” Radha Blank
“Fourteen,” Dan Sallitt
“The Vast of Night,” James Montague and Craig Sanger
Radha Blank gets a second nomination and it is very much deserved for “The Forty-Year-Old Version”. A few surprises in here, but I think it will be hard to look past Blank and Jon Raymond and Kelly Reichardt. “First Cow” getting so many awards will spark a surge in it’s mentioned for Academy Awards, but some films that have been boosted early like this have suffered lag. Still a great day for the team behind “First Cow”.
Best Actor
Riz Ahmed, “Sound of Metal”
Chadwick Boseman, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”
Jude Law, “The Nest”
John Magaro, “First Cow”
Jesse Plemons, “I’m Thinking of Ending Things”
We all knew Chadwick Boseman was getting that nomination and the many more that will come with it now he has been boosted up to Lead for other awards. This is a strong old list if we are being honest with the buzz over “Sound of Metal” growing by the day.
Best Actress
Nicole Beharie, “Miss Juneteenth”
Jessie Buckley, “I’m Thinking of Ending Things”
Yuh-Jung Youn, “Minari”
Carrie Coon, “The Nest”
Frances McDormand, “Nomadland”
The surprise here is no nomination for Viola Davis with Carrie Coon possibly the one jumping her into the nomination lists. Another hell of a list, with all deserving. Though if I were to bet on it, it would be hard not to go with McDormand here.
Breakthrough Actor
Sidney Flanigan, “Never Rarely Sometimes Always”
Jasmine Batchelor, “The Surrogate”
Kelly O’Sullivan, “Saint Frances”
Orion Lee, “First Cow”
Kingsley Ben-Adir, “One Night in Miami”
Sidney Flanigan is tremendous in “Never Rarely Sometimes Always”, yet equally Kingsley Ben-Adir drives “One Night in Miami” to the success that it has garnered. Then we have Kelly O’Sullivan who brings everything to her role as Bridget. Such a great category and one that could very well be a toss up.
That is our short and sweet breakdown of the movie categories. What do you think? Anyone missing that should be there. I would have loved Vitalina Varela up there, but I know that is a bit of a lost cause nowadays. Some great nominees and all of whom are deserving of it. Isn’t it nice to see films that deserve to be nominated, get nominated?
Until next time.
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