Giving Oscar season a pre-holidays kick off, The 25th annual Gotham Independent Film Awards happened tonight, with the ensemble drama Spotlight and the made-on-a-literal dime indie Tangerine taking home the most awards.
Spotlight, chronicling the Boston Globe’s groundbreaking investigation that uncovered systemic sexual abuse within the Catholic Church, won three. Tom McCarthy & Josh Singer won best screenplay, and the film also grabbed Best feature. A special jury prize for ensemble cast was also presented to Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, John Slattery, Stanley Tucci, Brian d’Arcy James, Liev Schreiber, and Billy Crudup, with Keaton and Ruffalo speaking for the assembled cast, both paying tribute to the journalists depicted in the film.
Tangerine, which follows trans people and sex workers on the fringes of society, and was filmed using iPhones, won twice. Trans actress Mya Taylor took home the Breakthrough Actor award, and the film itself won the Audience Award.
No other nominee won more than once, not unexpected in a year full of strong contenders. The Look of Silence, Joshua Oppenheimer’s follow up to his 2012 docu The Act Of Killing, which examines the lingering cultural trauma from the notorious Indonesian killings of 1965–66. won for Best Documentary. Bel Powley surprised obervers, beating out heavy favorites Lily Tomlin and Cate Blanchett to take home Best Actress for her turn as Minnie Goetze in Diary of a Teenage Girl. Paul Dano won Best Actor for portraying Brian Wilson in Love & Mercy. Meanwhile, Jonas Carpigano won Breakthrough Director for Mediterranea.
The Gotham Awards unveiled several new honors tonight as well. Breakthrough Series – Short Form, honoring online programming, went to the British comedic short series Shugs & Fats. The Gothams also honored longform television, giving Breakthrough Series – Long Form to USA Networks critically acclaimed Mr. Robot the price. Meanwhile, Ellen Cotter of Angelika Film Center Theaters took home the first Gotham Appreciation Award for her theater chains work promoting independent film.
Four tribute awards were also handed out, with Spotlight and Mr. Robot producer Steve Golin of Anonymous content, Carol director Todd Haynes, as well as Helen Mirren and Robert Redford on hand to accept their honors. Mirren, introduced with a charming, somewhat profane speech by Robert Di Niro accepted with profanity of her own, riffing off of Di Niro’s introduction and drawing big laughs, then becoming more serious when she decried what she called “chickensh*t political censorship,” and used her time to call attention to the light of condemned Saudi Poet Ashraf Fayadh. Redford, meanwhile, deeply humbled, recounted his long career and the time he was reminded he isn’t as special as he thinks.
Broadcast live on the web from Cipriani Wall Street in downtown Manhattan. Broad City duo Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer hosted, and while their set at times felt a bit like it had been put together the night before, they were as charming as ever, and fit well with the loose, f-bomb heavy atmosphere that benefitted from being online where TV censors can’t panic over language. The show felt a little overlong at nearly 3 hours long, including an intermission for dinner, but was overall a lively, salty bit of entertainment. More like this, please.
Last year’s ceremony proved a decent prognosticator of Oscar glory in several categories, with Birdman winning for Best Feature, the Snowden documentary Citizenfour taking home the Best Documentary award, and Julianne Moore winning Best Actress for her role in Still Alice. In addition, Boyhood won the audience award. We’ll see if the same holds true in 2016 for Spotlight.
We’re about to start here at Deadline HQ and in NYC With Jeremy Gerard. Hi everyone.
I’m here at Cipriani Wall Street in the madhouse of this yuge — as Donald Trump would say — gathering. Dominating my view of the podium is the Spotlight team: John Slattery, Brian d’Arcy James, etc,
We’re still several minutes away from start.
The Broad City duo saying “there’s some dark sh*t nominated this evening.”
They are my spirit animals.
“You guys made Spotlight look like Avatar” – Ilana and Abby on Tangerine.
The whiteness of the nominated actors is taking it on the chin and elsewhere tonight. Privilege rules…
The indie spirit seeps through in the number of mufuhs pronounced from the podium.
I love this riff on the extremely marketable premise behind Carol. Reminds me of that old Kevin bacon film The Big Picture where a studio exec tries to turn his pitch about a married couple into a lesbian story.
The Broad City duo are awesome as usual but fittingly for the loose nature of the Gothams, it feels like they might have put their routine together last night.
The combined ages of honorees Robert Redford and Helen Mirren? You don’t want to think about it, because that means you’ve seen all their movies.
Including, in my case, Robert Redford as Uncle Death on The Twilight Zone.
Also, Jeremy is correct. This thing has enough F-bombs so far to send my vocabulary back into the stone age. What I’m saying is that I swear a lot.
I like to think about Robert Redford and Helen Mirren actually combining to form an ancient, brilliant acting Robot.
Clip job here on 25 years. How can you not choke up a bit? Robert Altman!
Not me. I’m just cutting onions. My eyes are a little sweaty is all.
And here’s the part where IFP pats itself on its backs. OK,37 years is a darned good stretch say I. But no history lessons!
He who forgets the past is doomed to give awards for 15 year old movies twice. NEVER FORGET THIS LESSON JEREMY.
Michael Shannon and Sarah Paulson give the breakout actor award. Heavy on transgender characters especially, apparently prostitutes among them. ?
Here are the presenters of the Breakthrough Actor award.
Tangerine clearly is a crowd fave here.
Transgender actress Mya Taylor wins Breakthrough Actor for Tangerine. She couldn’t make it due to plane delay, but on her behalf, those who accepted the award said about her and others in the cast of the film that “They’ve proven that there is trans talent out there… we just have to look”
Iñarittu on The Revenant: The bear was biting our ass for five years.
Many critics say the film feels like it. #sickburn. Disclosure: I haven’t seen it yet.
I’d like to convey HOW LOUD IT IS IN THIS HERE cavernous space. It will be a three-ibuprofen night.
Standing O for Steve and Anonymous Content.
Right now the first of the night’s tribute awards has been given, to Steve Golin.
Best screenplay coming up. Matt Dillon presenting.
Best Screenplay award given by Matt Dillon, a great actor I haven’t seen in awhile.
Seconded.
Man, lots of deliciously uncensored profanities during this ceremony.
Spotlight!
Well that’s a good one.
Tom gives a high five to the real reporters from the Boston Globe.
Now presenting Breakthrough Series – short form.
Shugs & Fats — Hilarious, We ran away from our families so we could be here tonight. And they want to beat Donald Trump and vote for Hillary Clinton. And now we break for dinner.
HAH, they’re taking a fifteen minute break while dinner is served, and so will we! Jeremy, hope the meal is tasty.
Indies apparently eat very fast.
Steve Golin from earlier tonight. https://pmcdeadline2.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/firsttributeawardgotham.jpg?w=768
They’re playing very bombastic swing music during this break, and I have to say that would sound like a fun juxtaposition with the profanity of the eve, but I spent part of today listening to very dirty songs from the 30s.
We’re back with Ilana and Abby.
“Eat up Tangerine, this is also your wrap party” – Ilana regarding the super quick dinner.
Lake Bell giving $25K grant to young women filmmakers, do I have that right? The Euphoria Calvin Klein Spotlight on — to many names in this award —
They’re not big on graphics here at the Gothams. No names appear on screens. Help us out, guys….
It’s Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director time.
These seem like actual indie movies. Curse words. Hairy guys. Hairy girls,. Cynthia Nixon. With all due respect to Carol and Spotlight, these are not them.
Meditarraneo wins
But you wouldn’t know it fro what’s up on the screens.
It’s a Star Wars tie in, Jeremy. They want you to divine information via the will of the Force.
A special jury award for Ensemble performance has been awarded.
Here’s the ensemble award for the brilliant Spotlight company. Special shoutout to Brian d’Arcy James, also appearing on Broadway in Something Rotten!
Michael Keaton has had some wine tonight I think.
Mchael Keaton thanks Robert Redford and Tom Brokaw, a Babe Ruth in journalism.
That’s absurd. Edward R. Murrow is clearly the Babe Ruth of journalism. I mean in terms of impact on the field moving forward.
And now the first Gotham Appreciation Award, presented by Amy Ryan.
Mark Ruffalo on the group suppression of egos that went into Spotlight. Nice. And that no man is an island, to coin a phrase.
Angelika Film Centers get the nod. Also nice. Ground zero for the movies celebrated here.
“all of us thank the great filmmakers whose work graces our screens…”
Rosie Perez ends every sentence with Especially when Donald Trump is running for President…
“I just threw that in there.”
Here’s Rosie Perez presenting the audience award, and making it clear she’s definitely not down with a Donald Trump presidency. https://pmcdeadline2.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/perez.jpg?w=768
Audience award goes to Tangerine. Toldja.
Big cheers, much ballyhoo.
Nice Flashback there Jeremy. :)
Blotter acid from my yout’.
De Niro is in the room. I didn’t grow up wanting to have sex with the Queen of England, says he.
No one did, Bob. No one did.
Oooof. Dad jokes abound tonight in Di Niro’s set.
Basically, he says he would hook it up with Helen Mirren, but not with QEII. Only with some dad jokes.
Hey, like me De Niro is a little confused about what makes an independent film these days. But he’s got ants in his pants for Helen Mirren
Wow. This clip job on Helen is impressive. I’m restored in my awe of her.
Apparently Helen Mirren and Nicol Williamson deeply disliked one another, which prompted Boorman to cast them as Morgana and Merlin in Excalibur in order to play off that preexisting tension. (They just showed a clip from Excalibur.)
I loved that shot of Nicol and Helen.
Soigne defined.
And a big ol’ standing O for her Heleness. I want to tell you a tory about f*cking the Queen, she begins….
Oh Robert. “Now when you hear somebody say ‘F*ck the queen’… they may just be expressing their appreciation of the artistry of Helen Mirren”
She alludes to her husband’s ongoing sexual prowess…
Mirren follows with “I have to tell you a story about ‘f*cking the queen'”, proving that even the F-word sounds sophisticated with a received pronunciation accent.
Oh she’s pouring it on about the writers Turgenev to Christopher Hampton whose words I have learned and interpreted and spoken.
There appears to be about a 15 second delay on the livestream ladies and germs.
I was really hoping to get through an awards ceremony without the word storytelling popping up.
But she does wax eloquent on behalf of a Saudi poet sentenced to death and supported by PEN International
Her Royal Heleness decries “chickensh*t political censorship”, and calls to attention the plight of condemned Saudi poet Ashraf Fayadh
Uncle Bob, joking it up.
Ilana and Abby are back, setting up Best docu. Their joke about Fury Road being a documentary thudded.
Cynthia Nixon, one of the best actresses in the world, or at least in New York, has gone all Adele in the eyelash department…
The Look of Silence wins best Doc.
“That seems like pure fiction to us in America that somehow the regime that executed millions of people would still be in power, but that regime is still in power in Indonesia” – Said accepting the award for Look of Silence.
A powerful nod to the people of Indonesia.
Glenn Close, I’ve not only played opposite many a fine leading man, but I’ve also played a leading man.
Glenn Close kicking the truth and dropping science about sexism in Hollywood in her presentation of the award. She suggests if women would just play men they’d be allowed to age gracefully. Word.
Best Actor goes to Paul Dano
I’d almost forgotten what a great movie Love & Mercy is.
Dano: “I’m so so happy just to be here, and I’m so happy and fortunate and proud to have been a part of this film… it’s an experience I will cherish forever and I know a lot of us feel the same way about the films we’re here for, so thank you for the support IFP…”
Thanks Melinda Wilson for helping to tell Brian’s story. Nice speech.
Julianne Moore onstage now to present another of the night’s tribute awards, to Todd Haynes.
Is that really Julianne Moore? Who kidnapped Julianne Moore and replaced her with a starlet?
Paul Dano accepting his award.
Gotta stop looking at the screens and check out the human on the podium….
Julianne Moore is impossibly awesome.
They start off these clip jobs with a Siri like voice — but Siri after a couple of scotches — pronouncing Tribute. Creepy.
Speaking of Todd Haynes, Velvet Goldmine remains permanently in the number three spot of my favorite movies of all time.
Bait I ain’t taking, pal.
IT IS THE BEST.
Todd Haynes
Mariska Hargitay introduces breakthrough series.
They’re all amazing TV. Well maybe except Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.
It’s certainly the slightest nominee.
Mr. Robot!
Well Transparent has had its bounty…
Hell yes, Mr Robot deserves at least a couple of awards.
Such a great series to be slightly overshadowed by other amazing shows this year.
Best actress coming up from Harvey Keitel
Harvey and Robert warmed up at the same comedy club tonight.
Zackly.
Blythe Danner has done nothing but get better and better with age.
How do you measure Bel Powley against a Cate Blanchett or Blythe Danner or Lily Tomlin? How’s that work?
Bel wins. Crazy. Sorry but Crazy.
Please don’t say what an honor it is, please don’t
That’s quite the huge shock. She’s good, but if the jury was bigger I’d guess a split between Tomlin, Blanchett, Danner caused it.
Here’s Dan Rather, an old dog who still hunts. What’s it like to be in the same room as Tom Brokaw?
Just asking, by the way.
Redford clips. I’m gonna lose it.
Dan Rather is giving a very stirring speech.
All rise.
That amazing face, now a topographical map of his beloved West.
lovely speech about being wary of success. The equalizer was humility, something missing in political debates these days.
That felt good, he repeats, about being successful. “I really do like this!”
Really nicely spoken. Sincere even.
“I accept my award tonight, most humbly, and most gratefully”
John Turturro to give the big one, best feature.
Turturro looks like he stepped out of a Coen Bros. movie. Oh…
Spotlight
No complaints there.
So… Spotlight looks good going into Oscar season doesn’t it?
Yes it does — I imagine this was a blow to Carol. Again, no complaints there.
Everyone’s going down to the bar. Except me. See ya, Ross.
Thanks Jeremy, and thanks Deadline readers for tuning in.
