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Gotham Awards Announce 2012 Nominations

“Beasts of the Southern Wild,” “Bernie,” “Middle of Nowhere,” and “Moonrise Kingdom” led the 22nd Gotham Independent Film Award nominations with two apiece, it was announced this morning.

It was — as always — a rather surprising and occasionally wacky batch of nominations, with perhaps the biggest snub coming with “Beasts” missing out on the best feature category in favor of unsuspected nominee Julia Loktev’s “The Loneliest Planet.”

“Planet” was joined in that category by Richard Linklater’s “Bernie,” Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master,” Ava DuVernay’s “Middle of Nowhere” and Wes Anderson’s “Moonrise Kingdom.” Indiewire’s predictions earlier this week had suggested “The Master” and “Moonrise” would be joined by “Beasts,” “Silver Linings Playbook” and “The Sessions.”

READ MORE: Ava DuVernay and 10 More Trail-Blazing Black Female Directors

“Silver Linings” managed to score a nom in the best ensemble category (and its director David O. Russell was already announced as a Career Tribute honoree, along with Matt Damon, Marion Cotillard and Jeff Skoll), but “The Sessions” was snubbed completely. Other films that didn’t make the cut in any category: “Arbitrage,” “Compliance,” “End of Watch,” “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” and “Smashed.”

In the documentary category, four Sundance premieres — Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s “Detropia,” David France’s “How To Survive a Plague,” Matthew Akers’s “Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present” and Rodney Ascher’s “Room 237” — will go up against Peter Nick’s “The Waiting Room,” which premiered at Full Frame. Snubbed docs included “The Central Park Five,” “The House I Live In,” “The Invisible War,” “The Queen of Versailles” and “West of Memphis.”

READ MORE: The Gotham Award Nominating Committees’ Reviews of Their Favorite Movies

One of the weirdest nominations came in the breakthrough actor category, where Melanie Lynskey was nominated for “Hello, I Must Be Going.” While there are clearly a few ways to define “breakthrough,” by most standards Lynskey’s came in 1994’s “Heavenly Creatures,” and she’s enjoyed a consistent career ever since. She’ll be up against genuine newcomers Emayatzy Corinealdi (“Middle of Nowhere”), Thure Lindhardt (“Keep The Lights On”), Quvenzhané Wallis (“Beasts of the Southern Wild”), and Gotham Awards host Mike Birbiglia (“Sleepwalk With Me”).

The nominations were decided by various small committees listed below, including Indiewire’s own Eric Kohn (and they give clues as to a few snubs… Karina Longworth, for example, negatively reviewed “Beasts of the Southern Wild” and was 20% of the best feature vote).

Nominating Committee for Best Feature and Breakthrough Director:
Scott Foundas, Associate Program Director, Film Society of Lincoln Center; Contributing Editor, Film Comment
Ann Hornaday, Film Critic, The Washington Post
Glenn Kenny, Chief Film Critic, MSN Movies
Karina Longworth, Film Writer, LA Weekly & Village Voice
Wesley Morris, Film Critic, The Boston Globe

Nominating Committee for Best Ensemble Performance and Breakthrough Actor:
Peter Debruge, Senior Film Critic/Associate Features Editor, Variety
Ed Gonzalez, Film Editor and Co-Founder, Slant Magazine
Eric Kohn, Lead Film Critic, Indiewire
Leah Rozen, Movie Critic, The Wrap.com and freelance writer
Elizabeth Weitzman, Film Critic, New York Daily News

Nominating Committee for Best Documentary:
Cynthia Fuchs, Film-TV Editor, PopMatters
Tom Hall, Artistic Director, Sarasota Film Festival
Rachel Rosen, Artistic Director, San Francisco Film Society
Ronnie Scheib, Film Critic, Variety
Sky Sitney, Festival Director, AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Festival

Nominating Committee for Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You:
Joshua Siegel, Associate Curator, Department of Film, Museum of Modern Art; and members of the editorial staff of Filmmaker Magazine: Scott Macaulay (Editor-in-Chief), Nick Dawson, Brandon Harris, Ray Pride, Alicia Van Couvering

The Gotham Awards ceremony will be held on Monday, November 26th at Cipriani Wall Street.  Full list of nominations on the next page (and click on each film title for their Criticwire pages).

Best Feature

Bernie
Richard Linklater, director; Richard Linklater, Ginger Sledge, Celine Rattray, Martin Shafer, Liz Glotzer, Matt Williams, David McFadzean, Judd Payne, Dete Meserve, producers (Millennium Entertainment)

The Loneliest Planet
Julia Loktev, director; Jay Van Hoy, Lars Knudsen, Helge Albers, Marie Therese Guirgis, producers (Sundance Selects)

The Master
Paul Thomas Anderson, director; Joanne Sellar, Daniel Lupi, Paul Thomas Anderson, Megan Ellison, producers (The Weinstein Company)

Middle of Nowhere
Ava DuVernay, director; Howard Barish, Ava DuVernay, Paul Garnes, producers (AFFRM and Participant Media)

Moonrise Kingdom
Wes Anderson, director; Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales, Jeremy Dawson, producers (Focus Features)

Best Documentary

Detropia
Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, directors; Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady, Craig Atkinson, producers (Loki Films)

How to Survive a Plague
David France, director; Howard Gertler, David France, producers (Sundance Selects)

Marina Abramović: The Artist is Present
Matthew Akers, director; Jeff Dupre, Maro Chermayeff, producers (HBO Documentary Films and Music Box Films)

Room 237
Rodney Ascher, director; Tim Kirk, producer (IFC Midnight)

The Waiting Room
Peter Nicks, director; Peter Nicks, Linda Davis, William B. Hirsch, producers (International Film Circuit)

Best Ensemble Performance

Bernie
Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, Matthew McConaughey (Millennium Entertainment)

Moonrise Kingdom
Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward, Jason Schwartzman, Bob Balaban (Focus Features)

Safety Not Guaranteed
Aubrey Plaza, Mark Duplass, Jake Johnson, Karan Soni, Jenica Bergere, Kristen Bell, Jeff Garlin, Mary Lynn Rajskub (Film District)

Silver Linings Playbook
Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Jacki Weaver, Chris Tucker, Anupam Kher (The Weinstein Company)

Your Sister’s Sister
Emily Blunt, Rosemarie Dewitt, Mark Duplass (IFC Films)
 

Breakthrough Director

Zal Batmanglij for Sound of My Voice (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky for Francine (Factory 25 and The Film Sales Company)

Jason Cortlund and Julia Halperin for Now, Forager (Argot Pictures)

Antonio Méndez Esparza for Aquí y Allá (Here and There) (Torch Films)

Benh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

 
Breakthrough Actor

Mike Birbiglia in Sleepwalk with Me (IFC Films)

Emayatzy Corinealdi in Middle of Nowhere (AFFRM and Participant Media)

Thure Lindhardt in Keep the Lights On (Music Box Films)

Melanie Lynskey in Hello, I Must Be Going (Oscilloscope Laboratories)

Quvenzhané Wallis in Beasts of the Southern Wild (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You

Kid-Thing
David Zellner, director; Nathan Zellner, Producer

An Oversimplification of Her Beauty
Terence Nance, director; Terence Nance, Andrew Corkin, James Bartlett, producers

Red Flag
Alex Karpovsky, director; Alex Karpovsky, Michael Bowes, producers

Sun Don’t Shine
Amy Seimetz, director; Kim Sherman, Amy Seimetz, producers

Tiger Tail in Blue
Frank V. Ross, director; Adam Donaghey, Drew Durepos, producers

Also, for the second consecutive year, IFP is proud present the euphoria Calvin Klein Spotlight on Women Filmmakers ‘Live the Dream’ grant, a $25,000 cash award for an alumna of IFP’s Independent Filmmaker Labs. This grant aims to further the careers of emerging women directors by supporting the completion, distribution and audience engagement strategies of their first feature film.

The nominees are:

Leah Meyerhoff, director, I BELIEVE IN UNICORNS

Stacie Passon, director, CONCUSSION

Visra Vichit Vadakan, KARAOKE GIRL

 

 

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