An indie film that had it’s world premiere at the Blackstar Film Festival (coined as the Black Sundance) in 2019 and was released by Kino Lorber this past February is easily the surprise nomination for this year’s Gotham Awards. Shatara Michelle Ford‘s Test Pattern received a nomination for Best Feature, the Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award for it’s filmmaker and an Outstanding Lead Performance nom for Brittany S. Hall.
On first glance, the November 29th award gala will be a battle between two Netflix items (and first-time works) from actresses-turned-director in Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Lost Daughter) and Rebecca Hall (Passing). Sean Baker’s Red Rocket three nominations while another A24 title in David Lowery’s The Green Knight received some love for Screenwriting and Best Picture category.
While A24, Netflix and Neon landed most of the noms, new indie distrib Utopia Distribution have some skin in the game with double noms a piece for El Planeta and Shiva Baby, while MUBI landed two items in the Best International Feature category with noms for Andreas Fontana’s Azor and Alexandre Koberidze’s just preemed in NYFF item What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?. While plenty of folks for touting this as a CODA year, that film only managed to lands acting noms and mysteriously Janicza Bravo’s excellent Zola , failed to garner Best Screenwriting and Best Feature mentions but deservingly landed Taylour Paige and Colman Domingo some acting noms — C’mon C’mon finds itself in the same tally. Here are the noms for the film categories.
Best Feature
The Green Knight – David Lowery (A24)
The Lost Daughter – Maggie Gyllenhaal (Netflix)
Passing – Rebecca Hall (Netflix)
Pig – Michael Sarnoski (NEON)
Test Pattern – Shatara Michelle Ford (Kino Lorber)
Best Documentary Feature
Ascension (MTV Documentary Films)
Faya Dayi (Janus Films)
Flee (NEON)
President (Greenwich Entertainment)
Summer Of Soul (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (Searchlight Pictures)
Best International Feature
Azor – Andreas Fontana (MUBI)
Drive My Car – Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Sideshow and Janus Films)
The Souvenir Part II – Joanna Hogg (A24)
Titane – Julia Ducournau (NEON)
What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? – Alexandre Koberidze (MUBI)
The Worst Person In The World – Joachim Trier (NEON)
Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award
Maggie Gyllenhaal for The Lost Daughter (Netflix)
Edson Oda for Nine Days (Sony Pictures Classics)
Rebecca Hall for Passing (Netflix)
Emma Seligman for Shiva Baby (Utopia Distribution)
Shatara Michelle Ford for Test Pattern (Kino Lorber)
Best Screenplay
The Card Counter, Paul Schrader (Focus Features)
El Planeta, Amalia Ulman (Utopia Distribution)
The Green Knight, David Lowery (A24)
The Lost Daughter, Maggie Gyllenhaal (Netflix)
Passing, Rebecca Hall (Netflix)
Red Rocket, Sean Baker & Chris Bergoch (A24)
Outstanding Lead Performance
Olivia Colman in The Lost Daughter (Netflix)
Frankie Faison in The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain (Gravitas Ventures)
Michael Greyeyes in Wild Indian (Vertical Entertainment)
Brittany S. Hall in Test Pattern (Kino Lorber)
Oscar Isaac in The Card Counter (Focus Features)
Taylour Paige in Zola (A24)
Joaquin Phoenix in C’mon C’mon (A24)
Simon Rex in Red Rocket (A24)
Lili Taylor in Paper Spiders (Entertainment Squad)
Tessa Thompson in Passing (Netflix)
Outstanding Supporting Performance
Reed Birney in Mass (Bleecker Street)
Jessie Buckley in The Lost Daughter (Netflix)
Colman Domingo in Zola (A24)
Gaby Hoffmann in C’mon C’mon (A24)
Troy Kotsur in CODA (Apple)
Marlee Matlin in CODA (Apple)
Ruth Negga in Passing (Netflix)
Breakthrough Performer
Emilia Jones in CODA (Apple)
Natalie Morales in Language Lessons (Shout! Studios)
Rachel Sennott in Shiva Baby (Utopia Distribution)
Suzanna Son in Red Rocket (A24)
Amalia Ulman in El Planeta (Utopia Distribution)
Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).
