In what may be the beginning of a repeat of last year, “Call Me By Your Name” won Best Feature at last night’s Gotham Awards from the Independent Feature Project in New York. At the slickly produced dinner at Cipriani Wall Street, Saorise (pronounced shur-suh) Ronan won Best Actress in Greta Gerwig’s “Lady Bird” and James Franco took home Best Actor for “The Disaster Artist.”
The throwback to last year was the win for Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight,” which went on to win Best Picture at the Oscars, Like “Moonlight,” Luca Guadagnino’s movie based on the novel of the same name is a gay coming of age story that transcends to a love story for everyone. The movie’s star, Timothee Chalamet, won Breakthrough Actor.
Scattered among the award were tributes and lifetime achievement awards for Nicole Kidman, Dustin Hoffman, Sofia Coppola, producer Jason Blum. Hoffman gave an odd, meandering acceptance speech. It hasn’t helped his Oscar chances that his publicist has refused to let anyone interview Hoffman because of recent charges of sexual harassment. Netflix has also barred press from events. Hoffman seems unaware of what’s going on around him. It’s all quite peculiar and off putting.
Ronan’s win puts her where she was already: leading a pack of four potential actresses for the Oscar (Judi Dench, Sally Hawkins, Frances McDormand) with Meryl Streep threatening to up end everything.
Franco’s win may not mean as much since “The Disaster Artist” is a niche movie. But it was nice to see him win something for the effort since “The Disaster Artist” is an indie movie about an indie movie.
Best Feature
Call Me by Your Name (Sony Pictures Classics)
Best Documentary
Strong Island (Netflix)
Best Actor*
James Franco in The Disaster Artist (A24)
Best Actress*
Saoirse Ronan in Lady Bird (A24)
Breakthrough Series – Long Form
Atlanta (FX Networks)
Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award
Jordan Peele for Get Out (Universal Pictures)
Breakthrough Actor
Timothée Chalamet in Call Me by Your Name (Sony Pictures Classics)
Breakthrough Series – Short Form
The Strange Eyes of Dr. Myes (YouTube)
Best Screenplay
Get Out, Jordan Peele (Universal Pictures)
* The 2017 Best Actor/Best Actress nominating committee also voted to award a special Gotham Jury Award for ensemble performance to Mudbound, The award will go to actors Carey Mulligan, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Clarke, Jason Mitchell, Mary J. Blige, Rob Morgan, and Jonathan Banks.
