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GOTHAM INDEPENDENT FILM AWARDS WINNERS ANNOUNCED

Posted Monday, November 28th, 2011 - Comments Off on GOTHAM INDEPENDENT FILM AWARDS WINNERS ANNOUNCED
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New York, NY (November 28, 2011) – The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP), the nation’s oldest and largest organization of independent filmmakers, announced today the winners at the 21st Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards ceremony in New York City’s Cipriani Wall Street.

Presented by IFP, the Gotham Independent Film AwardsTM is one of the leading awards for independent film and the first major honors of the film awards season. As previously announced, the awards ceremony streamed live in its entirety to a global audience at www.ifp.org.

A total of 29 films received nominations in seven competitive categories, including: Best Feature, Best Documentary, Breakthrough Director, Breakthrough Actor, Best Ensemble Performance, Audience Award and Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You®.

For the second year, IFP will honor the recipient of the Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You award with a theatrical release package so the winner WILL show at a Theater Near You. The package includes a one-week run at Cinema Village in New York City, advertising support in the New York Times, and a cash award of $15,000 from The Royal Bank of Canada.

New this year, IFP is proud present the inaugural euphoria Calvin Klein Spotlight on Women Filmmakers ‘Live the Dream’ grant, a $25,000 cash award for an alumnus of IFP’s Independent Filmmaker Labs. This grant aims to further the careers of emerging women directors by supporting the completion, distribution and audience engagement strategies of their first feature film.

In addition to the competitive awards, career tributes were given to actors Gary Oldman and Charlize Theron (Theron tribute sponsored by euphoria Calvin Klein), director David Cronenberg and Fox Filmed Entertainment Chairman and CEO, Tom Rothman.

. The 21st Annual Gotham Independent Film AwardTM Recipients:

Best Feature presented by Tilda Swinton A Tie between: BEGINNERS Directed by Mike Mills

Produced by Leslie Urdang, Dean Vanech, Miranda de Pencier, Jay Van Hoy, Lars Knudsen Released by Focus Features

TREE OF LIFE Directed by Terrence Malick Produced by Sarah Green, Bill Pohlad, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Grant Hill Released by Fox Searchlight The Best Feature Jury included: Anne Carey, Jodie Foster, Nicole Kidman, Lee Percy, and Natalie Portman

Best Documentary presented by director Bennett Miller and documentarian Chris Hegedus. BETTER THIS WORLD Directed and produced by Katie Galloway and Kelly Duane de la Vega

Produced by Mike Nicholson The Best Documentary Jury included: Jonathan Caouette, Keiko Deguchi, Rachel Grady, Chris Hegedus and Stanley Nelson

Breakthrough Director Award presented by Alexander Payne and Felicity Jones DEE REES Writer and director of Pariah Released by Focus Features

The Breakthrough Director Jury included: Ellen Kuras, Anthony Mackie, John Cameron Mitchell, Mike S. Ryan, Mira Sorvino

Breakthrough Actor Award presented by actors Stanley Tucci and Melissa Leo. FELICITY JONES Actor in Like Crazy Released by Paramount Vantage

The Breakthrough Actor Jury included: Chris Eyre, Melissa Leo, Anne Rosellini, Ira Sachs and Jeffrey Wright

Best Ensemble Performance Award presented by actor/director Vera Farmiga and actor Peter Facinelli Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Melanie Laurent, Goran Visnjic, Kai Lennox, Mary Page Keller, Keegan Boos

in BEGINNERS Released by Focus Features The Best Ensemble Performance Jury included: Lena Dunham, Ryan Fleck, Peter Hedges, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Emily Watson.

Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You Award presented by actor Judy Greer and RBC CEO, Mark Standish SCENES OF A CRIME Blue Hadaegh & Grover Babcock, Directors and Producers

The recipient of The Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near YouTM award was determined by the editors of Filmmaker magazine, a publication of IFP, and a curator from The Museum of Modern Art.

Gotham Independent Film Audience Award sponsored by Heineken USA and presented by actors Sarah Paulson and Zachary Quinto. GIRLFRIEND Justin Lerner, Director

Produced by Jerad Anderson, Kristina Lauren Anderson, Justin Lerner, Shaun O’Banion The Audience Award was voted on line by filmgoers who love movies.

euphoria Calvin Klein Spotlight on Women Filmmakers ‘Live the Dream’ grant

presented by Shailene Woodley. LUCY MULLOY for upcoming film UNA NOCHE The euphoria Calvin Klein Spotlight on Women Filmmakers’ ‘Live the Dream’ grant jury included: Zoe Cassavetes, Katherine Dieckmann, Judy Greer and Jon Kilik.

The Premier Sponsors of the Gotham Independent Film AwardsTM are Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and The New York Times, Presenting Sponsor euphoria Calvin Klein, Official Partners: Heineken USA (sponsor of the Gotham Independent Film Audience Award); Russian Standard Vodka; charitybuzz; MoMA; Andaz Wall Street; Official Haircare Partner BaBylissPRO and Official Wine Partner Mionetto Prosecco.

About Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP)

The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) is the nation’s oldest and largest not-for- profit advocacy organization for independent filmmakers. Since its debut at the 1979 New York Film Festival, IFP has supported the production of over 7,000 films and offered resources to more than 20,000 filmmakers, providing an opportunity for many diverse voices to be heard. IFP believes that independent films enrich the universal language of cinema, seeding the global culture with new ideas, kindling awareness, and fostering activism. The organization championed the early work of pioneering independent filmmakers Charles Burnett, Todd Haynes, Mira Nair, Michael Moore, Joel and Ethan Coen, Kevin Smith, and Todd Solondz. IFP continues to play a vital role in launching first films of many of today’s rising stars on the independent scene including Debra Granik (“Down to the Bone”), Miranda July (“Me, You and Everyone We Know”), and Ryan Fleck & Anna Boden (“Half Nelson”).

IFP represents a network of 10,000 filmmakers in New York City and around the world and fosters the development of 350 feature and documentary films each year. Through its workshops, seminars, conferences, mentorships, and Filmmaker Magazine, IFP schools its members in the art, technology, and business of independent filmmaking. The year-round program includes Independent Film Week, Envision, The Cross-Media Forum, The Gotham Awards, and the Independent Filmmaker Labs. IFP’s programs promote diverse voices in independent film by working to include racial, ethnic,

religious, ideological, gender and sexual diversity. IFP, often in collaboration with other cultural institutions, builds audiences by hosting premieres and special screenings.

For more information: www.ifp.org

About the Gotham Independent Film AwardsTM

The Gotham Independent Film Awards, selected by distinguished juries and presented in New York City, the home of independent film, are the first honors of the film awards season. This public showcase honors the filmmaking community, expands the audience for independent films, and supports the work that IFP does behind the scenes throughout the year to bring such films to fruition.

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon