27th Annual IFP Gotham Awards Nominations

The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP), the nation’s premier member organization of independent storytellers, announced yesterday the nominees for the 27th Annual IFP Gotham Awards. For 2017, ten competitive awards will be presented to independent features and series.

In addition to the competitive awards, Gotham Award Tributes will be given to actors Nicole Kidman and Dustin Hoffman, director Sofia Coppola, producer Jason Blum, cinematographer Ed Lachman, and a Gotham Humanitarian Tribute to Al Gore.

The Gotham Awards is one of the leading awards for independent film and signals the kick-off to the film awards season. As the first major awards ceremony of the film season, the IFP Awards provide critical early recognition and media attention to worthy independent films. The awards are also unique for their ability to assist in catapulting award recipients prominently into national awards season attention.

“This year offered a bountiful array of diverse, creative work that represents the very best from this community. We’re thrilled to celebrate these achievements,” said Joana Vicente, Executive Director of IFP and the Made in NY Media Center.

Thirty-four films and series received nominations this year. In addition, the nominating committee for the Best Actor and Best Actress categories voted to award a Special Jury Award to the ensemble cast of Mudbound.

Surprisingly a scary movie, Get Out by Jordan Peele, leads with four (4) nominations but four strong contenders follow very close with three (3) noms each, Lady Bird by Greta Gerwig, Call Me by Your Name by Luca Guadagnino, Columbus by Kogonada and The Florida Project by Sean Baker.

As many do, I also believe that 2017 is a great year for independent filmmaking but we have to see what happens as the rule of thumb is that when it comes to major awards, independent films tend to cease to be visible.  Perhaps this year is the exception to the rule as there are films by well-known filmmakers plus debut films by renown actors.  Besides the previous paragraph films there are several others to be considered, for example, Graig Gillespie's I, Tonya, the Safdie brothers' Good Time and Dee Rees' Mudbound which already collected a special ensemble award.

The 2017 IFP Gotham Independent Film Award nominations are:

Feature Films

Best Feature
Call Me by Your Name, Luca Guadagnino
Get Out, Jordan Peele
Good Time, Josh and Benny Safdie
I, Tonya, Craig Gillespie
The Florida Project, Sean Baker

Best Documentary
Ex Libris - The New York Public Library, Frederick Wiseman
Rat Film, Theo Anthony
Strong Island, Yance Ford
Whose Streets?, Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis
The Work, Jairus McLeary

Bingham Ray Breaktrhrough Director Award
Maggie Betts for Novitiate
Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird
Kogonada for Columbus
Jordan Peele for Get Out
Joshua Z Weinstein for Menashe

Best Screenplay
Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani for The Big Stick, Michael Showalter
Mike White for Brad's Status, Mike White
James Ivory for Call Me by Your Name, Luca Guadagnino
Kogonada for Columbus, Kogonada
Jordan Peele for Get Out, Jordan Peele
Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig

Best Actress
Melanie Lynskey in I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore, Macon Blair
Haley Lu Richardson in Columbus, Kogonada
Margot Robbie in I, Tonya,  Craig Gillespie
Saoirse Ronan in Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig
Lois Smith in Marjorie Prime, Michael Almereyda

Best Actor
William Dafoe in The Florida Project, Sean Baker
James Franco in The Disaster Artist, James Franco
Daniel Kaluuya in Get Out, Jordan Peele
Robert Pattinson in Good Time, Safdie brothers
Adam Sandler in The Meherowitz Stories (New and Selected), Noah Baumbach
Harry Dean Stanton in Lucky, John Carroll Lynch

Breakthrough Actor
Mary J. Blige in Mudbound, Dee Rees
Timothée Chalamet in Call Me by Your Name, Luca Guadagnino
Harris Dickinson in Beach Rats, Eliza Hittman
Kelvin Harrison Jr. in It Comes at Night, Trey Edward Shults
Brooklyn Prince in The Florida Project, Sean Baker

Special Gotham Jury Award for Ensemble Performance: Carey Mulligan, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Clarke, Jason Mitchell, Mary J. Blige, Rob Morgan, and Jonathan Banks in Mudbound


Series (TV and Online)

Breakthrough Series - Long Form
Atlanta
Better Things
Dear White People
Fleabag
Search Party

Breakthrough Series - Short Form
555
Inconceivable
Junior
Let Me Die a Nun
The Strange Eyes of Dr. Myes

Nominees are selected by committees of film critics, journalists, festival programmers, and film curators. Separate juries of writers, directors, actors, producers, editors and others directly involved in making films will determine the final Gotham Award recipients.

The Gotham Awards ceremony will be held on Monday, November 27th at Cipriani Wall Street.

Twenty-eight writers, critics and programmers participated in the nomination process. The Nominating Committees for the 2017 IFP Gotham Independent Film Awards were:

Nominating Committee for Best Feature, Best Screenplay, and Breakthrough Director
Justin Chang, Film Critic, Los Angeles Times
Peter Debruge, Chief Film Critic, Variety
Christy Lemire, Film Critic, RogerEbert.com; Co-host of What the Flick?!
David Rooney, Chief Theater Critic, The Hollywood Reporter
Joshua Rothkopf, Global Deputy Film Editor, Time Out New York

Nominating Committee for Best Documentary
Ben Fowlie, Executive Director, Points North Institute; Founder, Camden International Film Festival
Cynthia Fuchs, Film & TV Reviews, PopMatters; Director of Film & Media Studies, George Mason University
Eric Kohn, Deputy Editor & Chief Critic, Indiewire
Mike Maggiore, Programmer, Film Forum
Alissa Wilkinson, Film Critic, Vox

Nominating Committee for Best Actor and Best Actress
A.A. Dowd, Film Editor, The A.V. Club
David Ehrlich, Senior Film Critic, Indiewire
Tim Grierson, Senior U.S. Critic, Screen International; Chief Film Critic, Paste
Sheila O’Malley, Writer/Film Critic, RogerEbert.com, The Sheila Variations
Alison Willmore, Film Critic, BuzzFeed News; Co-host Filmspotting: Streaming Video Unit

Nominating Committee for Breakthrough Actor
Bilge Ebiri, Film Critic, Village Voice
David Sims, Senior Associate Editor, The Atlantic
Brian Tallerico, Film Editor, RogerEbert.com
Katie Walsh, Film Critic, Tribune Content Agency, Los Angeles Times
Emily Yoshida, Film Critic, New York Magazine/Vulture.com

Nominating Committee for Breakthrough Series – Long Form
Sophie Gilbert, Staff Writer, Culture, The Atlantic
Tim Goodman, Chief Television Critic, The Hollywood Reporter
Liz Shannon Miller, TV Editor, Indiewire
Sonia Saraiya, TV Critic, Variety
Matt Zoller Seitz, Editor-in-Chief, RogerEbert.com; TV Critic, New York Magazine/Vulture.com

Nominating Committee for Breakthrough Series – Short Form
Jude Dry, Reporter, Critic, Indiewire
Randi Kleiner, Founder & CEO, SeriesFest
Paula Mejia, Associate Editor, Atlas Obscura; Author, Jesus and Mary Chain’s Psychocandy

Gotham Independent Film Audience Award
IFP members will determine the Gotham Independent Film Audience Award with nominees comprised of the 14 nominated films in the Best Feature, Best Documentary, and Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award categories.

Breakthrough Series – Short Form
IFP members will determine the winner from among the five nominees for this award by viewing and voting for them online.

All IFP current, active members at the Individual Level and above will be eligible to vote for these audience-determined categories. Voting will take place online from November 17th at 12:01 AM EST and conclude on November 25th at 5:00 PM EST. In addition, IFP will be scheduling screenings of the nominated films for IFP members in the theater at the Made in NY Media Center by IFP in Brooklyn. These screenings will take place from November 10-21.

Appendix
2017 IFP Gotham Awards – Alphabetical List of Nominated Films & Series

4 Nominations
Get Out
Best Feature
Breakthrough Director
Best Screenplay
Best Actor

3 Nominations

Call Me by Your Name
Best Feature
Best Screenplay
Breakthrough Actor

Columbus
Breakthrough Director
Best Screenplay
Best Actress

The Florida Project
Best Feature
Best Actor
Breakthrough Actor

Lady Bird
Breakthrough Director
Best Screenplay
Best Actress

2 Nominations

Good Time
Best Feature
Best Actor

I, Tonya
Best Feature
Best Actress

Mudbound
Jury Award Ensemble Performance
Breakthrough Actor

1 Nomination
555 -Breakthrough Series – Short Form
Atlanta - Breakthrough Series – Long Form
Beach Rats -Breakthrough Actor
Better Things - Breakthrough Series – Long Form
The Big Sick -  Best Screenplay
Brad’s Status -Best Screenplay
Dear White People -Breakthrough Series – Long Form
The Disaster Artist - Best Actor
Ex Libris – The New York Public Library - Best Documentary
Fleabag - Breakthrough Series – Long Form
I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore - Best Actress
Inconceivable - Breakthrough Series – Short Form
It Comes at Night - Breakthrough Actor
Junior - Breakthrough Series – Short Form
Let Me Die a Nun - Breakthrough Series – Short Form
Lucky - Best Actor
Marjorie Prime - Best Actress
Menashe - Breakthrough Director
The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) -Best Actor
Novitiate - Breakthrough Director
Rat Film - Best Documentary
Search Party - Breakthrough Series – Long Form
The Strange Eyes of Dr. Myes - Breakthrough Series – Short Form
Strong Island - Best Documentary
Whose Streets? - Best Documentary
The Work - Best Documentary