The Stubbornly Indepedent Gotham Awards Loves George Clooney and an Olsen Sister

Will Leitch
·Editor

It's October 20. The leaves are finally turning, baseball is wrapping up, your family is starting to discuss holiday plans, and ... whoa, is it awards season already? Really? Are we gonna have to start filing taxes soon? The calendar is strange and terrifying.

Anyway, the first award nominees of the year are the Gotham Independent Film Awards, which award films that ... let's see ... man, these guys have a lot of rules! Here are the hurdles a film must jump to qualify:

They must be:

  • Filmmaking with a point of view. This presumably eliminates films that are simply a silent black screen for two hours.

  • Feature-length (defined as over 60 minutes). Sorry, "CSI: Miami" episode.

  • Films made with an economy of means. This probably means "not green-lit by Griffin Mill.

  • Films must be American. Xenophobes.

  • Screening availability by the Nominating Committee. You had to get the DVD in in time.

  • Independent Distribution. We don't know what this means. Does this just mean The IFC Center?

  • Theatrical release. It had to have shown in a NYC or LA theater this calendar year. Of course, this calendar year still has 2 1/2 months to go, so, yeah.

ANYWAY. Hurdles jumped! What made the cut? The big nominee was "The Descendants" with three nominations. The other four best feature nominations went to "Beginners," "Take Shelter," "Meek's Cutoff" and "The Tree of Life." Also a big winner/nominee was "Martha Marcy May Marlene," which is awesome and also got three. But "The Descendants" is the early favorite. Thanks, independent awards: You've successfully helped promote a George Clooney film. Fight the system!

(Seriously, though, they should totally fight the system.)

Here are the full nominees, via Awards Daily:

BEST FEATURE
Beginners
The Descendants
Meek's Cutoff
Take Shelter
The Tree of Life

BEST DOCUMENTARY
Better This World
Bill Cunningham New York
Hell and Back Again
The Interrupters
The Woodmans

BEST ENSEMBLE PERFORMANCE
Beginners
The Descendants
Margin Call
Martha Marcy May Marlene
Take Shelter

BREAKTHROUGH DIRECTOR
Mike Cahill, "Another Earth."
Sean Durkin, "Marthy Marcy May Marlene."
Vera Farmiga, "Higher Ground."
Evan Glodell, "Bellflower."
Dee Rees, "Pariah."

BREAKTHROUGH ACTOR
Felicity Jones, "Like Crazy."
Elizabeth Olsen, "Martha Marcy May Marlene."
Harmony Santana, "Gun Hill Road."
Shailene Woodley, "The Descendants."
Jacob Wysocki, "Terri."

BEST FILM NOT PLAYING AT A THEATER NEAR YOU
Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same (!!!!)
Green
The Redemption of General Butt Naked
Scenes of a Crime
Without