Frozen River Wins Big at the Gothams

Courtney Hunt’s Frozen River wins Feature at the Gothams. It’s nice to see the critics start rallying around this labor of love. This is a film that was made on a wing and a prayer, one that almost didn’t get made were it not for the tenacity of the film’s star, Melissa Leo, and of course, writer/director Hunt. It continues to resonate as the year wears on. Trouble the Water won Best Doc. Here are the winners:

Best Feature presented by actors Michelle Williams & Marisa Tomei.
FROZEN RIVER
Directed by Courtney Hunt; Produced by Heather Rae, Chip Hourihan (Sony
Pictures Classics)
The Best Feature Jury included actor Steve Buscemi, filmmakers Mira Nair and
Whit Stillman, editor Lee Percy and producer Sarah Green.

Best Documentary presented by filmmaker Mira Nair and actor Dennis Hopper.
TROUBLE THE WATER
Directed & Produced by Tia Lessin & Carl Deal (Zeitgeist Films in association
with HBO Documentary Films)
The Best Documentary Jury included filmmakers Barbara Kopple, Stanley
Nelson, Terry Zwigoff, Peter Gilbert and Cynthia Wade.

Breakthrough Director Award presented by actors Patricia Clarkson & Mickey
Rourke.
Lance Hammer
Director, BALLAST (Alluvial Film Company)

The Breakthrough Director Jury included actor/filmmaker Ethan Hawke,
director of photography Maryse Alberti, producer Frida Torresblanco, and
filmmakers Charles Burnett & Rebecca Miller.

Breakthrough Actor Award presented by actors Amy Adams & Debra Winger
Melissa Leo
Actress, FROZEN RIVER (Sony Pictures Classics)
The Breakthrough Actor Jury included actors Amy Ryan and Terrence Howard,
filmmaker Rian Johnson, producer Lydia Dean Pilcher and composer Carter
Burwell.

Best Ensemble Performance Award presented by actors Ethan Hawke &
Jennifer Esposito.
SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Samantha Morton, Michelle Williams, Catherine
Keener, Emily Watson, Dianne Wiest, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Hope Davis and
Tom Noonan (Sony Pictures Classics); Casting Director Jeanne McCarthy

– AND –

VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA
Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall, Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz & Patricia
Clarkson (The Weinstein Company); Casting Directors Patricia Kerrigan DiCerto
& Juliet Taylor

The Best Ensemble Performance Jury included actors Olympia Dukakis, Matt
Dillon and Jennifer Esposito, filmmaker Doug Liman, and casting director Ellen
Lewis.

Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You Award presented by actors
Rosemarie DeWitt & Melissa Leo.

SITA SINGS THE BLUES
Written, Directed & Animated by Nina Paley

The recipient of The Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You‚Ñ¢ award
was determined by the editors of Filmmaker magazine, a publication of IFP,
and a curator from The Museum of Modern Art.

Here were the nominees:

Best Feature

• “Ballast” (Alluvial Film Company)
• “Frozen River” (Sony Pictures Classics)
• “Synecdoche, New York” (Sony Pictures Classics)
• “The Visitor” (Overture Films)
• “The Wrestler” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

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 and Sexy”)
• Lance Hammer (“Ballast”)
• Barry Jenkins (“Medicine for Melancholy”)
• Alex Rivera (“Sleep Dealer”)

Breakthrough Actor

• Pedro Castaneda (“August Evening”)
• Rosemary DeWitt (“Rachel Getting Married”)
• Rebecca Hall (“Vicky Cristina Barcelona”)
• Melissa Leo (“Frozen River”)
• Alejandro Polanco (“Chop Shop”)
• Micheal J. Smith Sr. (“Ballast”)

Best Documentary

• “Chris & Don: A Love Story” (Zeitgeist Films)
• “Encounters at the End of the World” (THINKFilm/Image Entertainment)
• “Man on Wire” (Magnolia Pictures)
• “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired” (THINKFilm in association with HBO Documentaries)
• “Trouble the Water” (Zeitgeist Films)

Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You

• “Afterschool”
• “Meadowlark”
• “The New Year Parade”
• “Sita Sings the Blues”
• “Wellness”