Last Monday, November 27th, the Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) announced the winners of the current edition of the annual Gotham Awards at a ceremony hosted by John Cameron Mitchell and held at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City.Wasn't able to watch ceremony live but was able to see a couple of tweets that made me laugh loud as one was saying something like this: "Who is that guy?" referring of course to wonderful real-life character and film director extraordinaire John Cameron Mitchell; another questions his ensemble piece that wasn't until saw Mitchell's photos understood why can someone who isn't familiar with his outstanding/remarkable looks will question what he's wearing, lol! He is just fab but can understand if someone haven't seen him before will have extreme reactions, either you love him or you hate him. I do love him and enjoy every single time he's on shows like for example, the Good Wife.
Get Out got the most nominations and perhaps not surprising also got the most wins by winning two out of the four nominations it got plus the Audience Award to a total of three (3) wins but top award didn't go to this film as went to Luca Guadagnino's Call Me by Your Name, a film that also was honored with the Breakthrough Actor award to Thimothee Chalamet.
These are the winners
Best Film: Call Me by Your Name, Luca Guadagnino
Best Documentary: Strong Island, Yance Ford
Breakthrough Director Award: Jordan Peele for Get Out
Best Screenplay: Jordan Peele for Get Out
Best Actress: Saorise Ronan in Lady Bird
Best Actor: James Franco in The Disaster Artist
Breakthrough Actor: Thimothee Chalamet in Call Me by Your Name
Special Jury Award for Ensemble Performance: Carey Mulligan, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Clarke, Jason Mitchell, Mary J. Blige, Rob Morgan and Jonathan Banks in Mudbound
Audience Award: Get Out
Have to agree with those that comment Mudbound is an excellent movie and deserved more recognition than the ensemble award. Mudbound slowly grabs you, takes you inside story and film; doesn't release you when it ends, you need a few minutes to break the spell. Kudos to Dee Rees for such magnificent and yet, very-simple straight-forward film.
Usually Gotham Awards do not signal a trend but I'm hoping this year becomes an exception and we see Guadagnino's and Gerwig's films collecting more honors in the 2017-2018 awards season. Sigh.
