Wes Anderson’s ’60s-set ode to childhood imagination and romance, Moonrise Kingdom, picked up the Best Picture Award at the IFP Gotham Awards Monday night at Cipriani’s in New York. Winning two awards was Beasts of the Southern Wild director Benh Zeitlin, who won both the Breakthrough Director Award as well as a newly inaugurated Bingham Ray Award, for “filmmakers who bring a distinctive vision to the world.” The latter award came with $10,000 and $60,000 worth of equipment rental from Panavision. The Breakthrough Actor award went to Emayatzy Corinealdi for her portrayal of a convict’s faithful wife in Ava DuVernay’s …

This morning, the Gotham Awards nominations were announced (indeed tweeted), and in a very competitive field, Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild, Richard Linklater’s Bernie, Ava DuVernay’s Middle of Nowhere and Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom lead the way, each earning two nominations. Commenting on the nominations, IFP’s executive director Joana Vicente said, “From master film artists to richly talented newcomers, this year’s nominees comprise a diverse group of filmmakers and actors that defines the spectrum of independent film today. In addition to celebrating the work and the community, we also hope that the Gotham Award attention will encourage more …

In Sophia Takal’s Green, a couple of young, New York sophisticates travel upstate in order to research a book on sustainable farming, but when a working-class local woman becomes the object of their affection, jealousy and sexual gamesmanship threaten to ruin their relationship. Mining the insecurities that persist amongst young lovers is not necessarily new ground, but Takal, working with her fiance Lawrence Levine and roommate Kate Lyn Sheil, invests the storytelling with a moody disquiet, an emotional honesty and a jarring sense of foreboding that elevate the film above so many of its predecessors. Widely deploying the color of envy in …

After winning the Breakthrough Director award at this year’s Gotham Independent Film Awards, Dee Rees sat down with us for a brief chat about her highly anticipated debut, Pariah. Which opens this week. If you’re an avid reader our site (or the magazine), you already know a bit about Rees. She was one of our 25 New Faces of Independent Film in 2008 and already this year you’ve seen her in our video pieces from Sundance and the NYC taxi cab spots we produced. But that’s not all. Later this week you’ll see another video with Rees from Sundance, which …

In the first of a series of videos we did at this year’s Gotham Independent Film Awards, Gary Oldman talks to Filmmaker about his new film, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (which opens Fri.) as well as what he’s gotten out of working on franchises like Batman and Harry Potter and why acting still interests him. Oldman was honored with a Tribute Award at this year’s Gothams. See more news and features from nominees and winners here. Coming later this month (and throughout awards season) we’ll have more videos of winners from the Gotham Awards.

That was quite surreal. I’ve been to just two events like that before, so the red carpet shenanigans, seeing so many “movie stars” and directors you’ve listened to on DVD commentaries, and being in a room with so many people you’ve tried to get financing from – is really a strange experience. The kind that makes you all wild eyed and sweaty palmed. But mostly I was really truly just very happy to be there and felt very safe that we weren’t going to win anything and that I was just lucky to be included, to be in the group, to …

In early 2009 I took my childhood friend Evan Sneider, a 31 year-old with Down Syndrome, out to lunch to see whether he’d be interested in letting me write a feature length film for him to star in, Girlfriend. “It’s going to be a little dark, Evan,” I said to him. “There’s going to be violence, and maybe even a little sex.” “That’s fine with me,” Evan said with a smile while finishing a steak and cheese pizza. “Sounds like fun.” Five months after that lunch we were casting the other roles and had found three willing actors – Shannon …

With last night’s Gothams Awards ceremony in New York, awards season is now in full swing. Adding to the momentum, Film Independent just announced the nominees for its 27th annual Independent Spirit Awards. Leading the pack with five nominations each is Jeff Nichols’ apocalyptic southern gothic, Take Shelter and Michel Hazanavicius’ silent romance, The Artist. Next in line, receiving four nominations, were Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive and Mike Mills’ Beginners (which split Best Picture with The Tree of Life at the Gothams last night). J.C. Chandor’s Margin Call will receive the annual Robert Altman Award, given each year to one …

At last night’s 21st annual Gotham Independent Film Awards Mike Mills‘ Beginners and Terrence Malick‘s The Tree of Life split the Best Feature prize, closing a night filled with shocking outcomes that included the films with the most nominations, The Descendants and Martha Marcy May Marlene, getting shut out. Along with the eight awards handed out, see full list of winners below, there were also sightings by some of the most respected talents working today, including Tilda Swinton, Jim Jarmusch, Christopher Plummer and the co-hosts for the night Oliver Platt and Edie Falco. In addition, career tribute awards were handed …

I was very very lucky. First, because I was blissfully unaware that the Gothams would announce the nominations on that day. In fact I was trying to get used to the idea my film — Beginners— had run its course and now it was time to put it to bed, move on, stop worrying about that project. Which isn’t easy. I started this in 2005, I’m used to putting everything I have into it, and the film contains so many people and places and things I truly love (both the real people who inspired the story and the filmmaking family …