This morning the 21st Gotham Independent Film Award nominations were announced, giving us one of our first indicators of what to keep an eye on when it comes to considering our Oscar predictions.
Personally, I really like the list they’ve come up with, though I’m sure some will immediately wonder what happened to Drive. Well, let’s take a look at a few of the org’s rules for consideration before getting too upset:
- Filmmaking with a point of view
IFP believes that filmmaking is a subjective art form. Each Gotham Independent Film Award will be given to individual films or performers in films where the vision of an individual director, producer, writer or writer/director is abundantly evident, and where the film cannot be classically defined as a “work for hire.” - Feature-length (defined as over 60 minutes)
- Films made with an economy of means
- Films must be American
The film must be directed and/or produced by a US born or based filmmaker. - Screening availability by the Nominating Committee
The film must be submitted on DVD by the deadline or made available for screening by nominating committee. (Not applicable to the Festival Genius Audience Award) - Independent Distribution
Films must be scheduled for a theatrical or digital platform or Pay TV release during calendar year 2011 (Midnight January 1 – 11:59 pm December 31). - Theatrical release
The release can be through a specialty division of a studio, an independent distributor, or via self-distribution. The film must be screened for paid admission in a commercial motion picture theatre in New York City and/or Los Angeles County. It must run for at least seven consecutive days. The film must be advertised and marketed during the New York and/or Los Angeles County run in a manner considered normal and customary to the industry. The film must be publicly exhibited by means of 16mm, 35mm or 70mm film, or in a digital format, delivered to the screen by an image and sound file format suitable for exhibition in existing commercial cinema sites.
When it comes to Drive, I’m sure having Danish helmer Nicolas Winding Refn as director was a bit of a hang up. Also, I believe Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris was an entirely international production. The one film I think we can scratch off any consideration (and I already had) is Tom McCarthy’s Win Win, a very good film, but one that appears to have been lost amidst its early release date.
As for those that did receive nominations, you could remove Meek’s Cutoff and Take Shelter from the list of Best Feature nominees and make me a whole lot happier, but I am glad to see Beginners is still carrying weight, not only in Best Feature, but also with a Best Ensemble nomination.
For once, I am also satisfied with the list of Breakthrough Actor nominees, a category that usually tends to pull together a few names that broke through a few years prior. This year the three I recognize and have seen included Felicity Jones (Like Crazy), Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene) and Shailene Woodley (The Descendants). Based on what I’ve seen, Olsen should begin preparing her acceptance speech.
I’ve included the complete list of nominees on the second page, so click over and check ’em out. The awards will be held on November 28 in New York at Cipriani Wall Street. Along with the awards listed on the next page, Charlize Theron, Gary Oldman, David Cronenberg and Tom Rothman will each receive career tribute recognition as I detailed earlier.
