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First Cow Tops Nominees for 30th Annual IFP Gotham Awards; All Best Feature Nominees are Directed by Women
John Magaro in First Cow (Photo courtesy of A24/Allyson Riggs) The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) announced today the nominees for its 30th annual IFP Gotham Awards. Kelly Reichardt’s First Cow received the most nominations — Best Feature, Best Screenplay, Best Actor and Breakthrough Actor. Other multiple nominees include Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland, Radha Blank’s The 40-Year-Old Version, Charlie Kaufman’s I’m Thinking of Ending Things, Eliza Hittman’s Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Natalie Erika James’s Relic and Alex Thompson and Kelly O’Sullivan’s Saint Frances. And, for the first time, all five of the Best Feature Nominees — The Assistant, First Cow, Never Rarely Sometimes Always and Relic — are directed by women.
“We congratulate the 2020 IFP Gotham Award nominees,” said Jeffrey Sharp, Executive Director of IFP in a press release. “In this unprecedented year we look forward to bringing the industry together and shining a light on some incredible films and television shows. We are proud to be celebrating our 30th anniversary in our resilient city, and continuing the core mission of IFP, independent storytelling.”
Customarily held the first Monday after Thanksgiving, the Gothams this season will take place on Monday, January 11, 2021. States IFP, “The awards show will be presented live from Cipriani Wall Street New York in a hybrid format featuring virtual interactive tables in order to follow health and safety protocols brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The 2020 IFP Gotham Award nominations are:
Best Feature
The Assistant. Kitty Green, director; Kitty Green, Scott Macaulay, James Schamus, P. Jennifer Dana, Ross Jacobson, producers (Bleecker Street)
First Cow. Kelly Reichardt, director; Neil Kopp, Vincent Savino, Anish Savjani, producers (A24)
Never Rarely Sometimes Always. Eliza Hittman, director; Adele Romanski, Sara Murphy, producers (Focus Features)
Nomadland. Chloé Zhao, director; Frances McDormand, Peter Spears, Mollye Asher, Dan Janvey, Chloé Zhao, producers (Searchlight Pictures)
Relic. Natalie Erika James, director; Anna Mcleish, Sarah Shaw, Jake Gyllenhaal, Riva Marker, producers (IFC Midnight)
Best Documentary
76 Days. Hao Wu, Weixi Chen, Anonymous, directors; Hao Wu, Jean Tsien, producers (MTV Documentary Films)
City Hall. Frederick Wiseman, director; Frederick Wiseman, Karen Konicek, producers (Zipporah Films)
Our Time Machine. Yang Sun, S. Leo Chiang directors; S. Leo Chiang, Yang Sun, producers (Passion River Films)
A Thousand Cuts. Ramona S. Diaz, director; Ramona S. Diaz, Leah Marino, Julie Goldman, Christopher Clements, Carolyn Hepburn, producers (PBS Distribution | FRONTLINE )
Time. Garrett Bradley, director; Lauren Domino, Kellen Quinn, Garrett Bradley, producers (Amazon Studios)
Best International Feature
Bacurau. Kleber Mendonça Filho, Juliano Dornelles, directors; Emilie Lesclaux, Saïd Ben Saïd, Michel Merkt, producers (Kino Lorber)
Beanpole. Kantemir Balagov, director; Alexander Rodnyansky, Sergey Melkumov, producers (Kino Lorber)
Cuties (Mignonnes). Maïmouna Doucouré, director; Zangro, producer (Netflix)
Identifying Features. Fernanda Valadez, director; Astrid Rondero, producer (Kino Lorber)
Martin Eden. Pietro Marcello, director; Pietro Marcello, Beppe Caschetto, Thomas Ordonneau, Michael Weber, Viola Fügen, producers (Kino Lorber)
Wolfwalkers. Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart, directors; Paul Young, Nora Twomey, Tomm Moore, Stéphan Roelants, producers (Apple)
Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award
Radha Blank for The Forty-Year-Old Version (Netflix)
Channing Godfrey Peoples for Miss Juneteenth (Vertical Entertainment)
Alex Thompson for Saint Frances (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
Carlo Mirabella-Davis for Swallow (IFC Films)
Andrew Patterson for The Vast of Night (Amazon Studios)
Best Screenplay
Bad Education, Mike Makowsky (HBO)
First Cow, Jon Raymond, Kelly Reichardt (A24)
The Forty-Year-Old Version, Radha Blank (Netflix)
Fourteen, Dan Sallitt (Grasshopper Film)
The Vast of Night, James Montague, Craig Sanger (Amazon Studios)
Best Actor
Riz Ahmed in Sound of Metal (Amazon Studios)
Chadwick Boseman in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Netflix)
Jude Law in The Nest (IFC Films)
John Magaro in First Cow (A24)
Jesse Plemons in I’m Thinking of Ending Things (Netflix)
Best Actress
Nicole Beharie in Miss Juneteenth (Vertical Entertainment)
Jessie Buckley in I’m Thinking of Ending Things (Netflix)
Yuh-Jung Youn in Minari (A24)
Carrie Coon in The Nest (IFC Films)
Frances McDormand in Nomadland (Searchlight Pictures)
Breakthrough Actor
Jasmine Batchelor in The Surrogate (Monument Releasing)
Kingsley Ben-Adir in One Night in Miami… (Amazon Studios)
Sidney Flanigan in Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Focus Features)
Orion Lee in First Cow (A24)
Kelly O’Sullivan in Saint Frances (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
Breakthrough Series – Long Format (over 40 minutes)
The Great, Tony McNamara, creator; Tony McNamara, Marian Macgowan, Mark Winemaker, Elle Fanning, Brittany Kahan Ward, Doug Mankoff, Andrew Spaulding, Josh Kesselman, Ron West, Matt Shakman, executive producers (Hulu)
Immigration Nation, Christina Clusiau, Shaul Schwarz, Dan Cogan, Jenny Raskin, Brandon Hill, Christian Thompson, executive producers (Netflix)
P-Valley, Katori Hall, creator; Katori Hall, Dante Di Loreto, Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping, Liz W. Garcia, executive producers (STARZ)
Unorthodox, Anna Winger, Alexa Karolinski , creators; Anna Winger, Henning Kamm, executive producers (Netflix)
Watchmen, Damon Lindelof, Creator for Television; Tom Spezialy , Nicole Kassell , Stephen Williams, Joseph E. Iberti, executive producers (HBO)
Breakthrough Series – Short Format (under 40 minutes)
Betty, Crystal Moselle, Lesley Arfin, Igor Srubshchik, Jason Weinberg, executive producers (HBO)
Dave, Dave Burd, Jeff Schaffer, creators; Dave Burd, Jeff Schaffer, Saladin K. Patterson, Greg Mottola, Kevin Hart, Marty Bowen, Scooter Braun, Mike Hertz, Scott Manson, James Shin, executive producers (FX Networks)
I May Destroy You, Michaela Coel , creator; Michaela Coel, Phil Clarke, Roberto Troni, executive producers (HBO)
Taste the Nation, Padma Lakshmi, David Shadrack Smith, Sarina Roma, executive producers (Hulu)
Work in Progress, Abby McEnany, Tim Mason, creators, Abby McEnany, Tim Mason, Lilly Wachowski, Lawrence Mattis, Josh Adler, Ashley Berns, Julia Sweeney, Tony Hernandez, executive producers (SHOWTIME)
Gotham Audience Award
IFP members will determine the Gotham Audience Award with nominees comprised of the 20 nominated films in the Best Feature, Best Documentary, Best International Feature, and Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award categories. All IFP current, active members are eligible to vote. Voting will take place online in December.
Thirty-five writers, critics and programmers participated in the nomination process. The Nominating Committees for the 2020 IFP Gotham Awards were:
Nominating Committee for Best Feature and Best Screenplay:
Justin Chang, Film Critic, Los Angeles Times, NPR’s “Fresh Air”
K. Austin Collins. Film Critic, Rolling Stone
Eric Kohn, Executive Editor & Chief Critic, IndieWire
Alison Willmore, Film Critic, Vulture
Stephanie Zacharek, Film Critic, TIME
Nominating Committee for Best Documentary:
Ben Fowlie, Executive Director, Points North Institute; Founder, Camden International Film Festival
Cynthia Fuchs, Director Film & Media Studies, George Mason University; Contributing Editor, PopMatters
Sky Sitney, Co-Creator & Co-Director, Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival
Abby Sun, Curator, the DocYard, and Researcher, MIT Open Doc Lab
Alissa Wilkinson, Film Critic, Vox
Nominating Committee for Best International Feature:
Florence Almozini, Senior Programmer at Large, Film at Lincoln Center
Bilge Ebiri, Film Critic and Writer, New York Magazine/Vulture
David Fear, Senior Editor & Film/TV Critic, Rolling Stone
Tomris Laffly, Film Critic, RogerEbert.com, Variety
David Rooney, Chief Film Critic, The Hollywood Reporter
Nominating Committee for Breakthrough Director
Monica Castillo, Arts and Culture Reporter, Colorado Public Radio
Peter Debruge, Chief Film Critic, Variety
David Ehrlich, Senior Film Critic, Indiewire
Devika Girish, Assistant Editor, Film Comment and Film at Lincoln Center
Soraya Nadia McDonald, Culture Critic, The Undefeated
Nominating Committee for Best Actor and Best Actress:
Robert Daniels, Contributor, RogerEbert.com and The Playlist
Tim Grierson, Senior U.S. Critic, Screen International; Contributing Editor, MEL
Mark Harris, Writer, New York Magazine
Jessica Kiang, Film Critic, Variety, The Playlist, Sight & Sound
Christy Lemire, Film Critic, RogerEbert.com; Co-host Breakfast All Day podcast
Nominating Committee for Breakthrough Actor:
Kate Erbland, Deputy Editor, Film, IndieWire
Jon Frosch, Reviews Editor, The Hollywood Reporter
Beatrice Loayza, Writer & Film Critic
David Sims, Staff Writer, Culture, The Atlantic
Brian Tallerico, Editor, RogerEbert.com
Nominating Committee for Breakthrough Series
Judy Berman, TV Critic, TIME
Jen Chaney, TV Critic, Vulture
Daniel Fienberg, Chief Television Critic, The Hollywood Reporter
Caroline Framke, TV Critic, Variety
Matthew Gilbert, TV Critic, The Boston Globe
