The 30th-annual Gotham Awards are holding a virtual ceremony tonight at 8 p.m. ET. While the awards ceremony is traditionally held on the first Monday after Thanksgiving, the coronavirus pandemic delayed the 2020 event to January 11, 2021. While top critic groups like the New York Film Critics Circle and the Los Angeles Film Critics Associations have already announced their 2020 winners, the Gothams will be the first prominent awards ceremony of the 2020-2021 Oscar season. Gotham winners don’t always overlap with the Oscars, but a Gotham victory does provide a boost in buzz as the awards race heads to Oscar nominations (see past Gotham acting winners like Adam Driver for “Marriage Story,” Awkwafina for “The Farewell,” Ethan Hawke for “First Reformed,” and Toni Collette “Hereditary.”).
The eligibility period for the 2020 Gotham Awards was extended to February 28, 2021, which is the reason films that have yet to be released in theaters or on PVOD such as A24’s “Minari” and Searchlight’s “Nomadland” scored nominations this year. Films with budgets exceeding $35 million were automatically disqualified from Gotham Awards consideration. For this reason, major Oscar contenders from Netflix such as Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods,” David Fincher’s “Mank,” George Clooney’s “The Midnight Sky,” and Ryan Murphy’s “The Prom” were not eligible. This year’s Gotham Award nominees are led by Kelly Reichardt’s “First Cow,” which led all films with four nominations. “First Cow” is competing for Best Feature, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, and Breakthrough Actor. Also nominated for Best Feature are Eliza Hittman’s “Never Rarely Sometimes Always,” Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland,” Kitty Green’s “The Assistant,” and Natalie Erika James’s “Relic.” This is the first year in Gotham Awards history where all five Best Feature nominees are films directed by women. For the complete list of 2020 Gotham Award nominations, visit IndieWire’s nom announcement here.
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