Gotham Awards Decide to Give Both ‘Beginners’ and ‘Tree of Life’ Best Feature Prize

Tim Grierson
·Editor
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Whether it's sports or awards, there's something deeply unsatisfying about a tie. On one hand, sure, you get more than one winner -- which means fewer losers -- but on the other, hey, there can only be one "best," right? Well, last night's 21st Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards don't care what you think, and for the first time ever they had a tie for Best Feature. Your winners are "Beginners" and "The Tree of Life." Those are two very different movies.

"The Tree of Life" is already starting to pile up the awards -- yesterday it ended up No. 1 on Sight & Sound's end-of-the-year poll -- but for "Beginners" (written and directed by Mike Mills) this is the first major prize. The romantic drama also took home the Best Ensemble Performance Award, which will certainly help Christopher Plummer's Best Supporting Actor chances.

In case you're wondering, "The Tree of Life" and "Beginners" beat out "The Descendants," "Meek's Cutoff" and "Take Shelter" for Best Feature. The past two years, the Gotham winner has gone on to get a Best Picture nomination, so "Tree of Life" and "Beginners" have to at least feel a little better about their Oscar chances today than they did yesterday at this time.

Here's the full list of winners:

Best Feature
"Beginners" and "The Tree of Life" (tie)

Best Documentary
"Better This World"

Breakthrough Director Award
Dee Rees, "Pariah"

Breakthrough Actor
Felicity Jones, "Like Crazy"

Best Ensemble Performance Award
Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Melanie Laurent, Goran Visnjic, Kai Lennox, Mary Page Keller, Keegan Boos, "Beginners"

Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You Award
"Scenes of a Crime"

Gotham Independent Film Audience Award
"Girlfriend"

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Lucy Mulloy, "Una Noche"

Gotham Awards: 'Tree Of Life,' 'Beginners' Share Kudos For Best Feature [Deadline]