‘Ballast’ Nabs Four Gotham Nominations
Michael J. Smith Sr. in Ballast
Ready or not, it’s officially awards season with the IFP announcing its nominees for the 18th Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards (formerly known as the Gotham Awards).
Several films that might be familiar to you if you’ve been reading LiC lately have been showered with a little early awards loving and I’m happy to see it. Lance Hammer’s terrific Ballast was nominated for four awards including Best Feature, Best Director, Best Ensemble and Breakthrough Actor (Michael J. Smith Sr.). Courtney Hunt’s Frozen River got nominations for Best Feature and Breakthrough Actor (Melissa Leo). Jonathan Demme’s Rachel Getting Married got Ensemble and Breakthrough Actor (Rosemarie DeWitt), Tom McCarthy’s The Visitor got Best Feature, Ensemble and Breakthrough Actor (Richard Jenkins). Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona was nominated for Ensemble and Breakthrough Actor (Rebecca Hall).
Other welcome picks include Barry Jenkins’ Breakthrough Director nod for Medicine for Melancholy and Alejandro Polanco’s Breakthrough Actor nomination for Chop Shop.
Finally, the Best Documentary category earned nominations for Werner Herzog’s Encounters at the End of the World, Carl Deal and Tia Lessin’s Trouble the Water, James Marsh’s Man on Wire, Guido Santi and Tina Mascara’s Chris & Don: A Love Story and Maria Zenovich’s Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired.
Last year, Sean Penn’s Into the Wild won Best Feature, Michael Moore’s Sicko won Best Documentary, Ellen Page won Breakthrough Actor for Juno and Craig Zobel won Breakthrough Director for Great Wall of Sound.
Here’s a full list of this year’s nominees:
Best Feature
- Ballast - Lance Hammer
- Frozen River - Courtney Hunt
- Synecdoche, New York - Charlie Kaufman
- The Visitor - Tom McCarthy
- The Wrestler - Darren Aronofsky
Best Documentary
- Chris & Don: A Love Story - Guido Santi & Tina Mascara
- Encounters at the End of the World - Werner Herzog
- Man on Wire - James Marsh
- Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired - Maria Zenovich
- Trouble the Water - Tia Lessin & Carl Deal
Best Ensemble Performance
- Ballast - Micheal J. Smith, Sr., JimMyron Ross, Tarra Riggs, Johnny McPhail
- Rachel Getting Married - Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt, Bill Irwin, Tunde Adebimpe, Mather Zickel, Anna Deavere Smith, Anisa George, Debra Winger
- Synecdoche, New York - Philip Seymour Hoffman, Samantha Morton, Michelle Williams, Catherine Keener, Emily Watson, Dianne Wiest, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Hope Davis, Tom Noonan
- Vicky Cristina Barcelona - Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall, Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz
- The Visitor - Richard Jenkins, Hiam Abbas, Haaz Sleiman, Danai Gurira
Breakthrough Director
- Antonio Campos - Afterschool
- Dennis Dortch - A Good Day to Be Black & Sexy
- Lance Hammer - Ballast
- Barry Jenkins - Medicine for Melancholy
- Alex Rivera - Sleep Dealer
Breakthrough Actor
- Pedro Castaneda - August Evening
- Rosemarie DeWitt - Rachel Getting Married
- Rebecca Hall - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
- Melissa Leo - Frozen River
- Alejandro Polanco - Chop Shop
- Micheal J. Smith, Sr. - Ballast
Source: IndieWIRE
Filed under: Awards
Tags: A Good Day to be Black and Sexy, Afterschool, Alejandro Polanco, Alex Rivera, Anisa George, Anna Deavere Smith, Anne Hathaway, Antonio Campos, August Evening, Ballast, Barry Jenkins, Bill Irwin, Carl Deal, Catherine Keener, Charlie Kaufman, Chop Shop, Chris & Don: A Love Story, Courtney Hunt, Danai Gurira, Darren Aronofsky, Debra Winger, Dennis Dortch, Dianne Wiest, Emily Watson, Encounters at the End of the World, Frozen River, Gotham Awards, Gotham Independent Film Awards, Guido Santi, Haaz Sleiman, Hiam Abbas, Hope Davis, James Marsh, Javier Bardem, Jennifer Jason Leigh, JimMyron Ross, Johnny McPhail, Lance Hammer, Man on Wire, Maria Zenovich, Mather Zickel, Medicine for Melancholy, Micheal J. Smith, Michelle Williams, Pedro Castaneda, Penelope Cruz, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rebecca Hall, Richard Jenkins, Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, Rosemarie DeWitt, Samantha Morton, Scarlett Johansson, Sleep Dealer, Sr., Synecdoche New York, Tarra Riggs, The Visitor, The Wrestler, Tia Lessin, Tina Mascara, Tom McCarthy, Tom Noonan, Trouble the Water, Tunde Adebimpe, Werner Herzog
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God, I wish I was on that voting committee.
Does Bruce Wayne sponsor this event?
I was not a fan of Frozen River at all (though Leo’s performance was effective), and much to Sam’s consternation, I found The Visitor fairly overrated…
A somewhat interesting blend of films, however, a number of which I have yet to see.
You’d live in New York and stuff. You’d be all cool.
THE VISITOR as Best Feature Film. Well if that isn’t music to my ears…………..
The showing of BALLAST is indeed reason to celebrate as is the rightful recognition of Rosemarie DeWitt.
Impressive stuff.
I hate the fact that they’re already nominating films when there’s still over 60 days left in the year. It’s like seeing Christmas decorations up for sale in October: TOO EARLY!!!
I accept that some of these films may benefit from the exposure, so there’s that….
The “Breakthrough Director” category has two films I do not remember hearing of before, Sleep Dealer and A Good Day to be Black & Sexy.
I agree with Joel on this one, it is WAY too early to be nominating films!
In their defense, they’ve already seen many of the films we haven’t even heard of yet.
I think A Good Day to be Black and Sexy is playing AFI….I think Danny B saw it already. He said it wasn’t all that.
We’ll see.
I hope to see more of these opening in my neck of the woods soon…I’m kind of annoyed that I have to miss the upcoming press screening of RACHEL GETTING MARRIED.
God, I didn’t realize that it’s already time for the early awards. I’m completely out of the loop this year.
Matt, I missed my press screening of it earlier this month and have been kicking myself since. Ugh
I’m not ready yet either Alison. Last year I wasn’t really ready either but I just kinda fell into it. This year I’m actively kind of kicking and screaming.