21st Gotham Noms: Martha Marcy May Marlene Grabs 3 Noms But No Best Feature Kudo

Continuing with their policy of spreading the joy in across all categories, the Gotham independent film award nominations has Sean Durkin’s Martha Marcy May Marlene and Alexander Payne’s The Descendantsleading the pack with three noms each, but mysteriously it is Durkin’s gem that is pushed aside in a Best Feature category that includes Payne’s film and Tree of Life, the other best indie film of the year in Jeff Nichols’s Take Shelter, and a pair of films that many of us associate to 2010 in Meek’s Cutoff and Beginners. The 21st gala will take place in late November.

It would be a huge surprise if Martha Marcy May Marlene doesn’t take home Breakthrough Actor (Elizabeth Olsen) and Breakthrough Director (the category see Durkin measure himself up against four other Sundance Film Festival newbies – he claimed the Best Directing prize at the festival), but in the Best Ensemble Performance category MMMM has some fierce comp in Mills’ main trio of players in Beginners.

The Best Documentary category includes Katie Galloway and Kelly Duane de la Vega’s Better This World (POV), Richard Press’
Bill Cunningham New York (Zeitgeist Films), Steve James’ The Interrupters (The Cinema Guild), C. Scott Willis’ The Woodmans (Kino Lorber) and our favorite of the bunch in Danfung Dennis’ Hell and Back Again (Docurama Films).

In our favorite category of them “Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You”, we have Park City items such as Madeleine Olnek’s Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same, Eric Strauss and Daniele Anastasion’s The Redemption of General Butt Naked and from Slamdance, not Sundance we got Mark Jackson’s Without, from SXSW we have Green by Sophia Takal and from the Full Frame Festival and tons of other Docu fests we have Blue Hadaegh & Grover Babcock’s Scenes of a Crime.

New this year, the IFP will present a $25,000 cash award for an alumnus of IFP’s Independent Filmmaker Labs – the cash goes towards supporting the completion, distribution and audience engagement strategies of their first feature film and among the candidates we have the just (In the Pipeline) profiled Lucy Mulloy with Una Noche with a 33.3 percent chance at grabbing the prize going up against Jenny Deller’s Future Weather an indie pic shot in Philly with Zac Mulligan (who lensed Obselidia) and Filmmaker Magazine 25 New Faces director Rola Nashef and her Detroit Unleaded – told via the POV of a behind a counter Lebanese American. Winners in all categories will be announced on November 28th. Here are the nominees.

Best Feature:
Beginners
Mike Mills, director; Leslie Urdang, Dean Vanech, Miranda de Pencier, Jay Van Hoy, Lars Knudsen, producers (Focus Features)

The Descendants
Alexander Payne, director; Jim Burke, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor, producers (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Meek’s Cutoff
Kelly Reichardt, director; Neil Kopp, Anish Savjani, Elizabeth Cuthrell, David Urrutia, producers (Oscilloscope Laboratories)

Take Shelter
Jeff Nichols, director; Tyler Davidson, Sophia Lin, producers (Sony Pictures Classics)

The Tree of Life
Terrence Malick, director; Sarah Green, Bill Pohlad, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Grant Hill, producers (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Best Documentary:
Better This World
Katie Galloway and Kelly Duane de la Vega, directors; Katie Galloway, Kelly Duane de la Vega, Mike Nicholson, producers (Loteria Films, Picturebox, Motto Pictures and Passion Pictures; ITVS in association with American Documentary | POV)

Bill Cunningham New York
Richard Press, director; Philip Gefter, producer (Zeitgeist Films)

Hell and Back Again
Danfung Dennis, director; Mike Lerner, Martin Herring, producers (Docurama Films)

The Interrupters
Steve James, director; Alex Kotlowitz, Steve James, producers (The Cinema Guild)

The Woodmans
C. Scott Willis, director; Neil Barrett, Jeff Werner, C. Scott Willis, producers (Lorber Films; Kino Lorber, Inc.)

Best Ensemble Performance:
Beginners
Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Mélanie Laurent, Goran Visnjic, Kai Lennox, Mary Page Keller, Keegan Boos (Focus Features)

The Descendants
George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Beau Bridges, Robert Forster, Judy Greer, Matthew Lillard, Nick Krause, Amara Miller, Mary Birdsong, Rob Huebel (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Margin Call
Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Penn Badgley, Simon Baker, Mary McDonnell, Demi Moore, Stanley Tucci, Aasif Mandvi (Roadside Attractions)

Martha Marcy May Marlene
Elizabeth Olsen, Christopher Abbott, Brady Corbet, Hugh Dancy, Maria Dizzia, Julia Garner, John Hawkes, Louisa Krause, Sarah Paulson (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Take Shelter
Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain, Tova Stewart, Shea Whigham, Katy Mixon, Kathy Baker, Ray McKinnon, Lisagay Hamilton, Robert Longstreet (Sony Pictures Classics)

Breakthrough Director:
Mike Cahill for Another Earth (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Sean Durkin for Martha Marcy May Marlene (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Vera Farmiga for Higher Ground (Sony Pictures Classics)
Evan Glodell for Bellflower (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
Dee Rees for Pariah (Focus Features)

Breakthrough Actor:
Felicity Jones in Like Crazy (Paramount Vantage)
Elizabeth Olsen in Martha Marcy May Marlene (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Harmony Santana in Gun Hill Road (Motion Film Group)
Shailene Woodley in The Descendants (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Jacob Wysocki in Terri (ATO Pictures)

Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You:
Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same
Madeleine Olnek, director; Laura Terruso, Madeleine Olnek, producers

Green
Sophia Takal, director; Lawrence Michael Levine, producer

The Redemption of General Butt Naked
Eric Strauss, Daniele Anastasion, directors and producers

Scenes of a Crime
Blue Hadaegh & Grover Babcock, directors and producers

Without
Mark Jackson, director; Mark Jackson, Jessica Dimmock, Michael Requa, Jaime Keeling, producers