By Jake Coyle, Film Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story” was the resounding winner at the IFP Gotham Awards, taking four awards including best feature at the annual New York awards-season kickoff.
By the end of the night on Monday, Baumbach, having long ago exhausted his one prepared speech, stood at the podium exhorting cast members Adam Driver and Laura Dern to lend him help. Having already given their own speeches — Driver for best actor, Dern as a tribute honoree — they demurred, content to watch Baumbach squirm again while he improvised a few remarks.
Baumbach turned, ultimately, to his actors — “My special effect, my everything is the cast,” he said — and to Netflix for what he called its “unconditional” support of his film, a portrait of divorce starring Driver and Scarlett Johansson. Earlier, Baumbach thanked Netflix, too, for saving the Manhattan single-screen Paris Theatre, which the streaming company purchased last week.
Praise for Netflix and its chief content creative officer Ted Sarandos, who was also in attendance, was a common refrain throughout the evening. The streaming service, which filled up numerous tables at the banquet at Cipriani’s Wall Street in downtown Manhattan, also celebrated wins for Ava DuVernay’s Central Park Five series “When They See Us,” (DuVernay was additionally singled out for tribute) and the documentary “American Factory.”
The Gothams, now in their 29th year, are the premier New York gala for independent film, a kind of earlier East Coast corollary to Los Angeles’ Independent Film Spirit Awards in February. Put on by the nonprofit Independent Film Project with nominees selected by committees, Gotham winners can diverge from seasonal favorites. Last year, Chloe Zhao’s lyrical western “The Rider” took best feature.
But a recent stretch of Gotham winners went on to land best picture at the Academy Awards, including Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight,” Tom McCarthy’s “Spotlight” and Alejandro Inarritu’s “Birdman.”
And “Marriage Story,” which begins streaming Friday after playing for several weeks in theaters, seems sure to continue a long march through awards season. Acclaim has been heaped on its leads and its ensemble, and it’s been celebrated as a crowning achievement for the 50-year-old Baumbach. Besides best feature and actor distinction, "Marriage Story" won for best screenplay (Baumbach) as well as earning the Audience Award.
While not a surprise to others, the most shocked winner of the evening was easily Awkwafina, who took best actress for her performance in Lulu Wang’s family drama “The Farewell.”
“Oh my god. I never won anything. I can’t even win an argument in the Instagram comments,” said Awkwafina.
A handful of movies up for best feature — “Uncut Gems” with Adam Sandler, “Hustlers” with Jennifer Lopez — went home emptyhanded. Trey Edward Schultz’ ambitious family melodrama “Waves,” also up for best feature, scored an award for Taylor Russell as breakthrough actor.
The Gotham Awards liberally sprinkle in tributes throughout the ceremony. This year’s honorees included Dern, DuVernay, Sam Rockwell, FilmNation chief executive Glen Basner and Jason DaSilva, a filmmaker and disability rights activist. DaSilva’s Emmy-winning documentary “When I Walk” chronicles his own experience with multiple sclerosis.
DuVernay shared her tips for directing, among them: treat actors and crew the same, don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know” and change your socks at lunchtime.
Both Baumbach and Greta Gerwig presented Dern with her award, donning what they called “Laura Dern sweaters” for the occasion. The two filmmakers, aside from living together as a couple with a son, share Dern in their latest movies. In “Marriage Story,” Dern plays a ruthless divorce attorney. In Gerwig’s “Little Women” (an upcoming Sony Pictures release ineligible for the Gothams), she plays Louisa May Alcott’s benevolent matriarch Marmee.
Gerwig and Baumbach swapped their speeches, which resulted in Baumbach declaring that he loved Dern “even more than Leonardo DiCaprio, who I sincerely believed I would someday marry.”
The Gothams reliably serve as pep rallies for independent cinema and those that toil in the ever-threatened lower-budgeted realm of moviemaking. Presenter Natasha Lyonne, whose Netflix series “Russian Doll” was nominated for best breakthrough series in episodes less than 40 minutes, evoked that sense of indie pride with more than a touch of sarcasm.
“If there’s one thing everyone in the room can agree on,” Lyonne said while presenting, “it’s that we can never have enough Batman movies.”
Here’s a category-by-category rundown of this year’s Gotham Award winners:
Best Feature
Marriage Story
Noah Baumbach, director; Noah Baumbach, David Heyman, producers (Netflix)
Best Documentary
American Factory
Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert, directors; Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert, Jeff Reichert, Julie Parker Benello, producers (Netflix)
Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award
Laure De Clermont-Tonnerre for The Mustang (Focus Features)
Best Screenplay
Marriage Story, Noah Baumbach (Netflix)
Best Actor
Adam Driver in Marriage Story (Netflix)
Best Actress
Awkwafina in The Farewell (A24)
Breakthrough Actor
Taylor Russell in Waves (A24
Breakthrough Series – Long Format (over 40 minutes)
When They See Us, Ava DuVernay, creator; Jeff Skoll, Jonathan King, Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro, Berry Welsh, Oprah Winfrey, Ava DuVernay, executive producers (Netflix)
Breakthrough Series – Short Format (under 40 minutes)
PEN15, Maya Erskine, Anna Konkle, Sam Zvibleman, creators; Anna Konkle, Sam Zvibleman, Debbie Liebling, Gabe Liedman, Marc Provissiero, Brooke Pobjoy, Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, Akiva Schaffer, Becky Sloviter, Shelley Zimmerman, Brin Lukens, Jordan Levin, executive producers (Hulu)
Audience Award
Marriage Story (Netflix)
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More