The awards season has officially kicked off as Call Me By Your Name and Get Out were the two big winners at last evening’s 27th annual Gotham Independent Film Awards in New York City.
Director Luca Guadagnino’s coming-of-age drama Call Me By Your Name took home the Best Feature honor, as well as earned the Breakthrough Actor award for 21-year-old star Timothée Chalamet. Jordan Peele won both the Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director and Best Screenplay for his dark satire/thriller about race relations Get Out. The film also won the Gotham’s Audience Award. The Audience Award is determined by online voting between the 14 films nominated for Best Feature, Best Documentary, and the Breakthrough Director Award.
The Gotham Awards’ other two acting prizes went to James Franco for The Disaster Artist and Saoirse Ronan for Lady Bird. Both wins position the two as contenders for the Academy Awards as the race for Oscar gold begins to heat up. Director Dee Rees’ Mudbound received a special Gotham Jury Award for its ensemble cast consisting of Carey Mulligan, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Clarke, Jason Mitchell, Mary J. Blige, Rob Morgan and Jonathan Banks.
Netflix’s Strong Island, which looks at racism in the judicial system, took home the award for Best Documentary.
Ha! That’s a confusing headline, “Wait, do you want me to call you by my name, or get out….you’re so fickle!”