AWARD SEASON 2020 BEGINS

As COVID-19 continues to ravage society and forcing people to consider a return to sheltering in place, it was questionable whether award season would be able to proceed due to many films being delayed and a large number of theaters across the country forced to remain shut down. And those films that did manage to be released through streaming and drive-in theaters found a far more limited audience due to a lack of major promotion. Without a certain amount of buzz to generate attention, most people are not even aware of these feature films, particularly indie fare.

But surprisingly award season appears to be starting with a trickle as the IFP Gotham and The European Film Academy have announced nominations for their awards. The Gotham Awards, which recognizes the best of independent cinema, unveiled its nominees for this year and, as a major first, all five of the nominated films for Best Feature were directed by women. One of those nominees, Kelly Reichardt’s period drama, "First Cow" leads with the most nods with four and includes Best Screenplay, Best Actor and Best Breakthrough Actor. The other nominees are Kitty Green for "The Assistant", Eliza Hittman for "Never Rarely Sometimes Always", Chloé Zhao for "Nomadland" and Natalie Erika James for "Relic". The 30th annual award ceremony will be held on January 11th, 2021 at their longtime home, Cipriani Wall Street, however without any in-person attendees.

The European Film Awards, which honors the best of cinema throughout the continent, will be a live-streamed ceremony and held on December 12, 2020. Danish filmmaker, Thomas Vinterberg and his comedy, "Another Round" leads the nominations with a total of four including Best Actor for Mads Mikkelsen who stars as a teacher who takes part in an experiment which requires him to be drunk all the time.

Here is the list of nominations for the 2020 IFP Gotham Awards:

Best Feature:

"The Assistant"
"First Cow"
"Never Rarely Sometimes Always"
"Nomadland"
"Relic"

Best Screenplay:

Mike Makowsky, "Bad Education"
Jon Raymond and Kelly Reichardt, "First Cow"
Radha Blank, "The Forty-Year-Old Version"
Dan Sallitt, "Fourteen"
James Montague and Craig Sanger, "The Vast of Night"

Best Actress:

Nicole Beharie, "Miss Juneteenth"
Jessie Buckley, "I’m Thinking of Ending Things"
Yuh-Jung Youn, "Minari"
Carrie Coon, "The Nest"
Frances McDormand, "Nomadland"

Best Actor:

Riz Ahmed, "Sound of Metal"
Chadwick Boseman, "Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom"
Jude Law in "The Nest"
John Magaro, "First Cow"
Jesse Plemons, "I’m Thinking of Ending Things"

Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award:

Radha Blank, "The Forty-Year-Old Version"
Channing Godfrey Peoples, "Miss Juneteenth"
Alex Thompson, "Saint Frances"
Carlo Mirabella-Davis, "Swallow"
Andrew Patterson, "The Vast of Night"

Breakthrough Actor Award:

Jasmine Batchelor, "The Surrogate"
Kingsley Ben-Adir, "One Night in Miami"
Sidney Flanigan, "Never Rarely Sometimes Always"
Orion Lee, "First Cow"
Kelly O’Sullivan, "Saint Frances"

Best Documentary:

"76 Days"
"City Hall"
"Our Time Machine
"A Thousand Cuts"
"Time"

Best International Feature:

"Bacurau" (Brazil/France)
"Beanpole" (Russia)
"Mignonnes (Cuties)" (France)
"Identifying Features" (Mexico/Spain)
"Martin Eden" (Italy/France)
"Wolfwalkers" (Ireland)

Here are the nominations for the 2020 European Film Awards:

Best European Film:

"Another Round" (Denmark)
"Berlin Alexanderplatz" (Germany)
"Corpus Christi" (Poland)
"Martin Eden" (Italy/France)
"The Painted Bird" (Czechoslovakia)
"Undine" (Germany)

Best European Director:

Thomas Vinterberg, "Another Round"
Jan Komasa, "Corpus Christi"
Pietro Marcello, "Martin Eden"
Agnieszka Holland, "Charlatan"
Francois Ozon, "Summer Of 85" (France)
Maria Sødahl, "Hope" (Norway)

Best European Screenplay:

Martin Behnke and Burhan Qurbani, "Berlin Alexanderplatz"
Costa-Gavras, "Adults In The Room"
Damiano and Fabio D’Innocenzo, "Bad Tales"
Pietro Marcello and Maurizio Braucci, "Martin Eden"
Mateusz Pacewicz, "Corpus Christi"
Thomas Vinterberg and Tobias Lindholm, "Another Round"

Best European Actress:

Paula Beer, "Udine"
Natasha Berezhnaya, "Dau. Natasha"
Andrea Bræin Hovig, "Hope"
Ane Dahl Torp, "Charter"
Nina Hoss, "My Little Sister"
Marta Nieto, "Mother"

Best European Actor:

Bartosz Bielenia, "Corpus Christi"
Goran Bogdan, "Father"
Elio Germano, "Hidden Away"
Luca Marinelli, "Martin Eden"
Mads Mikkelsen, "Another Round"
Viggo Mortensen, "Falling"

Best European Documentary:

"Acasa, My Home"
"Collective"
"Gunda"
"Little Girl"
"Saudi Runaway"
"The Cave"

Best European Short Film:

"All Cats Are Grey In The Dark"
"Genius Loci"
"Past Perfect"
"Sun Dog"
"Uncle Thomas"
"Accounting For The Days"