Moonlight kicked off its awards season right at Monday night’s Gotham Awards, winning Best Feature and Best Screenplay, along with the Special Jury Award for Ensemble Performance. Casey Affleck, whose history of being accused of sexual harassment has recently resurfaced, unsurprisingly took home Best Actor for the acclaimed Manchester by the Sea, and Isabelle Hupert took home Best Actress for Paul Verhoeven’s controversial Elle. The excellent O.J.: Made in America won for Best Documentary.
The Gothams are one of the least reliable Oscar bellwethers; although its Best Feature winners mirrored the academy’s in 2014 and 2015, in the two years before that, the Gothams’ top choices, Inside Llewyn Davis and Moonrise Kingdom, weren’t even nominated for Best Picture. Another way of putting that: The Gothams’ nominees and even its winners tend to fall into the underdog category—the raved-about performances or creative endeavors that likely won’t get the splashy campaign push once the race really heats up. That’s why the Gotham Awards can be so satisfying. A performance like Anya Taylor-Joy’s in The Witch this year, or Bel Powley in The Diary of a Teenage Girl last year, gets some deserved recognition, and the season isn’t solely dominated by one person or film. There have been enough standout moments at the movies this year for the accolades to be spread far and wide.
Check out all of the Gotham Awards’ nominees, with the winners in bold, below.
Best Feature
Certain Women
Everybody Wants Some!!
Manchester by the Sea
Moonlight
Paterson
Best Actor
Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea
Jeff Bridges, Hell or High Water
Adam Driver, Paterson
Joel Edgerton, Loving
Craig Robinson, Morris from America
Best Actress
Kate Beckinsale, Love and Friendship
Annette Bening, 20th Century Women
Isabelle Huppert, Elle
Ruth Negga, Loving
Natalie Portman, Jackie
Breakthrough Actor
Lily Gladstone, Certain Women
Lucas Hedges, Manchester by the Sea
Royalty Hightower, The Fits
Sasha Lane, American Honey
Anya Taylor-Joy, The Witch
Best Documentary
Cameraperson
I Am Not Your Negro
O.J.: Made in America
Tower
Weiner
Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award
Robert Eggers, The Witch
Anna Rose Holmer, The Fits
Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Swiss Army Man
Trey Edward Shults, Krisha
Richard Tanne, Southside With You
Best Screenplay
Hell or High Water, Taylor Sheridan
Love and Friendship, Whit Stillman
Manchester by the Sea, Kenneth Lonergan
Moonlight, story by Tarell Alvin McCraney; screenplay by Barry Jenkins
Paterson, Jim Jarmusch
Special Jury Award For Ensemble Performance (previously announced)
Moonlight, Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris, Alex Hibbert, André Holland, Jharrel Jerome, Janelle Monáe, Jaden Piner, Trevante Rhodes, and Ashton Sanders
Breakthrough Series—Long Form
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
The Girlfriend Experience
Horace and Pete
Marvel’s Jessica Jones
Master of None
Breakthrough Series—Short Form
The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo (YouTube)
Her Story (herstoryshow.com)
The Movement (Mic)
Sitting in Bathrooms with Trans People (Seriously.TV)
Surviving (YouTube)
