![\"tessa\"](\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/tessa.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\nLast 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. <\/p>\n
The nominees were:<\/p>\n
Riz Ahmed in Nightcrawler <\/em> And Tessa Thompson won last night for her fabulous and intelligent performance in the absolute-must-see Dear White People<\/i>. (You can check out the full list of winners here<\/a>.) <\/p>\n 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<\/i> (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.<\/p>\n \n
\nMacon Blair in Blue Ruin<\/em>
\nEllar Coltrane in Boyhood <\/em>
\nJoey King in Wish I Was Here<\/em>
\nJenny Slate in Obvious Child<\/em>
\nTessa Thompson in Dear White People<\/em> <\/p>\n