Last night were the Gotham Independent Film Awards, here in New York City. I was on the nominating jury for one of the categories: Best Breakthrough Performance. Out of 40+ submissions to the category, we on the jury (A.A. Dowd, Sam Adams, Ronnie Scheib, Stephen Witty, and myself) had to narrow it down to only six nominees.
The nominees were:
Riz Ahmed in Nightcrawler
Macon Blair in Blue Ruin
Ellar Coltrane in Boyhood
Joey King in Wish I Was Here
Jenny Slate in Obvious Child
Tessa Thompson in Dear White People
And Tessa Thompson won last night for her fabulous and intelligent performance in the absolute-must-see Dear White People. (You can check out the full list of winners here.)
During our discussion about the nominees, all of them amazing in their own way, we the jury generally agreed that Thompson’s performance was crucial to the enormous ensemble in Dear White People (and everyone was fantastic in that film). Her performance anchored the whole film. Not an easy job. She made it look easy. She is a born leading lady. She brought everything she had to that role: her anger, her sense of humor, her vulnerability, her unstoppable-ness, her quiet certainty, her college-girl righteousness. It’s deeply romantic, what she’s doing, and also supremely subtle. She’s terrific. A movie star, really.
I haven’t reviewed Dear White People (but let me point you to my friend Steven Boone’s review over on Rogerebert.com – now THAT is film criticism!!), but watching it made me think: Oh my God, satire ISN’T dead. Americans can still handle satire! Oh me of little faith!
It was a very exciting category to be a part of, because these actors are either new to the industry, or new to stepping into that main spotlight. It’s a huge deal.
Congratulations to Tessa Thompson on her well-deserved win (and congratulations to all the nominees.)
