The IFP Gotham Awards – the first of the big year-end film award ceremonies, though “year-end” is a bit of a misnomer since there’s more than a month of said year remaining but I digress – were held last night in New York City, and the night’s big winners were Call Me By Your Name, Get Out, and A24.
Luca Guadagnino’s luminous adaptation of André Aciman’s novel won the night’s biggest prize, for Best Feature, as well as a Breakthrough Actor trophy for star Timothée Chalamet (who also appears in one of the evening’s other winners, Lady Bird).
But Jordan Peele’s provocative Get Out took home the most prizes, as winner of the Audience Award as well as Director, Screenplay, and Breakthrough Director awards for Peele. And distributor A24 – which is, keep in mind, barely five years old – saw its stars dominate the acting prizes, with James Franco winning Best Actor for The Disaster Artist , and Saoirse Ronan taking Best Actress for Lady Bird .
And how did these winners affect the Awards Conversation™? Well, consider this: last year, the winners of Best Feature (Moonlight), Documentary (O.J.: Made in America), Actor (Casey Affleck), and Screenplay (Moonlight) all went on to win those same prizes at the Oscars. In fact, the Gothams’ Best Feature and the Oscars’ Best Picture have matched for the last three years straight (Moonlight, Spotlight, Birdman). So, y’know, adjust your preemptive Oscar predictions accordingly.
Here’s the full list of last night’s Gotham winners:
Best Feature Call Me by Your Name
Best Documentary Strong Island
Audience Award Get Out
Best Director Jordan Peele, Get Out
Best Screenplay Get Out, Jordan Peele (Universal Pictures)
Best Actor James Franco in The Disaster Artist
Best Actress Saoirse Ronan in Lady Bird
Breakthrough Series – Long Form Atlanta
Breakthrough Series – Short Form The Strange Eyes of Dr. Myes
Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award Jordan Peele for Get Out
Breakthrough Actor Timothée Chalamet in Call Me by Your Name