It’s that time of year again: one of (if not the?) first awards shows of the season: The Gotham Independent Film Awards!
I was on the committee to nominate the category of Breakthrough Actor Performance, along with Bilge Ebiri of the Village Voice, David Ehrlich of Indiewire, Tim Grierson, VP of LA Film Critis, and Katie Walsh, critic for LA Times and other outlets. It was a HELL of a year for brand-new actors giving unbelievably memorable performances and we had quite a task, narrowing the field down. There were some clear front-runners from the get-go, but after that, a free-for-all of opinion. Finally, though, we narrowed it down to 5 nominees that we all could agree on – and happily, I might add.
And they are:
Sasha Lane, “American Honey,” directed by Andrea Arnold
Lucas Hedges, “Manchester by the Sea, directed by Kenneth Lonergan
Ana Taylor-Joy, “The Witch,” directed by Robert Eggers
Royalty Hightower, “The Fits,” directed by Anna Rose Holmer
Lily Gladstone, “Certain Women,” directed by Kelly Reichardt
Congratulations to all of the very worthy nominees. It’s a pleasure to acknowledge you!
Some of these films already came out – others will open in the next 2 months. Please keep your eye out for them – on VOD and elsewhere. In my opnion, Manchester by the Sea will be an Oscar contender, but who knows.
In the case of Moonlight – the best film of the year as far as I’m concerned – coming out tomorrow – we ended up giving that ensemble cast a special Jury Prize – since we needed to acknowledge the accomplishment (unique, considering the film’s structure) – but weren’t sure which category to put the actors in.
The film is broken up like a triptych – with three actors playing the lead role – a little boy, a teenager, a man – and three actors playing his best friend. What is astonishing is the thru-line – the sense that you are truly watching the same people. Even more astonishing is that the adult actor (Trevante Rhodes – one of the best performances of the year) hadn’t seen any of the footage of his younger selves. He had to just intuit it, based on the script.
Once we got our nominees down, we agonized – and the Best Actor committee also agonized – what should we do? This was our solution and we are very happy with it – director Barry Jenkins is thrilled as well, judging from his Tweets.
In any case: these actors give astonishing performances. Please keep your eyes peeled.
I reviewed only 2 of the films:
The Witch – that one is probably already available either on DVD or VOD
and
The Fits. That one had its theatrical run in June – so not sure about its availability yet.
American Honey is still out in scattered theatres (at least in New York) – and Certain Women and Manchester by the Sea open in the next couple of months.
Glad to see Ana Taylor-Joy on the list. She was excellent!
She and Sasha Lane were the two who were unanimous from the get-go. We all came in with our Top 5s and they both were on all of our lists. Then we had to hash out the others – out of a pool of 30 choices, all of them wonderful! There were some interesting discussions and rounds of voting.
But for the most part Sasha and Ana remained “safe.”
Sasha has never acted before (which is, frankly, incredible when you see the performance.) Andrea Arnold saw her sunbathing on a beach and approached her about auditioning for a movie. And that, as they say, was that.
I’m looking forward to the ceremony – I couldn’t go the last time I was on one of these committees but I really want to go this year and actually MEET some of these fabulously talented people.