Oh friends. I’m not sure I can take it, another round of self-righteous speeches all aimed at the POTUS. I will try to grim up for your sake, but it’s already getting bad. Clips are going viral as we watch award season, swallowed by the people who have all of the wealth and the power, telling us all how oppressed they are. At any rate, their “awards” were handed out last night, complete with the bizarre gender-free “performance” categories. The New York Film Critics will begin announcing soon. But the Gothams went first.
They wanted to give One Battle After Another everything, but somewhere deep inside, they felt there were more important matters at hand — like Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just An Accident. The director has now announced he will return to Iran to serve a year in jail (you know, in a real dictatorship, not a cosplay one), which will certainly boost his profile in the Oscar race. The film did better than the PTA movie, though perhaps the voters did not want to be a foregone conclusion. I mean, I guess you have to give them credit for snubbing the groupthink and the awards discourse. Or maybe they’re annoyed that the movie cost $140 million. Who knows what lurks in the minds of Gotham voters?
That’s not to dump on It Was Just an Accident. It is quite good, one of the best films of the year.
Here are the winners:
The winner for Best Feature was One Battle After Another.
The winner for Best International Feature was It Was Just an Accident.
The Best Documentary Feature award was presented to My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow.
The winner for Best Director was Jafar Panahi for It Was Just an Accident.
The winner for Best Original Screenplay was Jafar Panahi for It Was Just an Accident.
The winner for Best Adapted Screenplay was Harry Lighton for Pillion.
The winner for Breakthrough Director was Akinola Davies Jr. for My Father’s Shadow.
The winner for Outstanding Lead Performance was Sopé Dìrísù in My Father’s Shadow.
The winner for Outstanding Supporting Performance was Wunmi Mosaku in Sinners.
The winner for Breakthrough Performer was Abou Sangaré in Souleymane’s Story.
