The nominees for the 28th Annual IFP Gotham Awards were announced Thursday morning, signaling the official start to awards season. (Are you even ready?!) Paul Schrader’s hot, guilty priest drama First Reformed and Yorgos Lanthimos’s punk period piece The Favourite lead the nominations with three each, with The Favourite earning the honor of a special Gotham Jury Award to its trio of stars Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, and Rachel Weisz. On the TV side, Killing Eve and Sharp Objects will compete for the top honor. Twenty-seven writers, critics, and programmers participated in the nomination process, including New York Magazine and Vulture’s own Emily Yoshida and Mark Harris.
At last year’s IFP Gotham Awards, Jordan Peele and Get Out took home the awards for Breakthrough Director, Best Screenplay, and the night’s Audience Award, while Call Me by Your Name won the Best Feature prize. The Gothams aren’t a clear indicator of Oscar glory — they only award indies, after all — but get used to these names, we’ll probably see them a lot this season. The awards will be handed out Monday, November 26.
Best Feature
The Favourite, Yorgos Lanthimos, director (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
First Reformed, Paul Schrader, director (A24)
If Beale Street Could Talk, Barry Jenkins, director (Annapurna Pictures)
Madeline’s Madeline< Josephine Decker, director (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
The Rider, Chloé Zhao, director (Sony Pictures Classics)
Best Documentary
Bisbee ‘17, Robert Greene, director (4th Row Films)
Hale County This Morning, This Evening, RaMell Ross, director (The Cinema Guild)
Minding the Gap, Bing Liu, director (Hulu & Magnolia Pictures)
Shirkers, Sandi Tan, director (Netflix)
Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, Morgan Neville, director (Focus Features)
Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award
Ari Aster for Hereditary (A24)
Bo Burnham for Eighth Grade (A24)
Jennifer Fox for The Tale (HBO)
Crystal Moselle for Skate Kitchen (Magnolia Pictures)
Boots Riley for Sorry to Bother You (Annapurna Pictures)
Best Screenplay
The Favourite, Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
First Reformed, Paul Schrader (A24)
Private Life, Tamara Jenkins (Netflix)
Support the Girls, Andrew Bujalski (Magnolia Pictures)
Thoroughbreds, Cory Finley (Focus Features)
Best Actor
Adam Driver in BlacKkKlansman (Focus Features)
Ben Foster in Leave No Trace (Bleecker Street)
Richard E. Grant in Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Ethan Hawke in First Reformed (A24)
Lakeith Stanfield in Sorry to Bother You (Annapurna Pictures)
Best Actress*
Glenn Close in The Wife (Sony Pictures Classics)
Toni Collette in Hereditary (A24)
Kathryn Hahn in Private Life (Netflix)
Regina Hall in Support the Girls (Magnolia Pictures)
Michelle Pfeiffer in Where Is Kyra? (Paladin and Great Point Media)
*The 2018 Best Actress nominating committee also voted to award a special Gotham Jury Award to Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, and Rachel Weisz for their ensemble performance in The Favourite. (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Breakthrough Actor
Yalitza Aparicio in Roma (Netflix)
Elsie Fisher in Eighth Grade (A24)
Helena Howard in Madeline’s Madeline (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
KiKi Layne in If Beale Street Could Talk (Annapurna Pictures)
Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie in Leave No Trace (Bleecker Street)
Breakthrough Series – Long Form
Alias Grace, Sarah Polley, Mary Harron, Noreen Halpern, executive producers (Netflix)
Big Mouth, Nick Kroll, Andrew Goldberg, Jennifer Flackett, Mark Levin, creators; Nick Kroll, Andrew Goldberg, Mark Levin & Jennifer Flackett, executive producers (Netflix)
The End of the F***ing World, Andy Baker, Murray Ferguson, Petra Fried, Ed MacDonald, Dominic Buchanan, Jonathan Entwistle, executive producers (Netflix)
Killing Eve, Sally Woodward Gentle, Lee Morris, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, executive producers (BBC America)
Pose, Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, Steven Canals, creators; Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, Nina Jacobson, Brad Simpson, Alexis Martin Woodall, Sherry Marsh, executive producers (FX Networks)
Sharp Objects, Marti Noxon, creator; Marti Noxon, Jason Blum, Gillian Flynn, Amy Adams, Jean-Marc Vallée, Nathan Ross, Gregg Fienberg, Charles Layton, Marci Wiseman, Jessica Rhoades, executive producers (HBO)
Breakthrough Series – Short Form
195 Lewis, Chanelle Aponte Pearson and Rae Leone Allen, creators
Cleaner Daze, Tess Sweet and Daniel Gambelin, creators
Distance, Alex Dobrenko, creator
The F Word, Nicole Opper, creator
She’s the Ticket, Nadia Hallgren, creator
