Gotham Awards 2007: Sean Penn’s drama Into the Wild named Best Feature
Held for the first time in Brooklyn, at Steiner Studios’ Stage 3, the New York-based Independent Film Project’s 2007 Gotham Awards for American independent films (despite last year’s inclusion of The Departed, Marie Antoinette, etc.) wasn’t dominated by any particular production – perhaps because there aren’t that many Gotham Awards to go around: six in all.
Sean Penn’s Into the Wild took best feature honors, but that was it for the drama about a young man (breakthrough actor nominee Emile Hirsch) who makes some seriously wrong choices while in the Alaskan wilderness.
Michael Moore’s Sicko, a semifinalist for this year’s Best Documentary Oscar, won in the non-fiction category. Sicko is Moore’s contentious look at the ultra-expensive yet inadequate healthcare system in the United States. (According to Bilge Ebiri in New York Magazine, “one could palpably sense the jovial air in the room getting sucked out when Best Documentary went to Michael Moore’s Sicko over numerous other acclaimed, lower-profile films.”)
Ellen Page was chosen breakthrough performer of 2007 for her performance as a pregnant teenager looking for the right parents for her upcoming baby, while Craig Zobel was the best breakthrough director for Great World of Sound, a comedy about a record company’s talent scouting scheme.
The best ensemble award went to two films, Sidney Lumet’s thriller Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, starring Ethan Hawke, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Albert Finney, Marisa Tomei, among others, and Talk to Me, Kasi Lemmons’ drama about an ex-con-turned-talk show host in the 1960s, with Don Cheadle, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Martin Sheen, and others.
Ronald Bronstein’s comedy Frownland, about a door-to-door salesman, took the Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You award. Earlier this year, Frownland won the Special Jury Award at the SXSW Film Festival.
Film reviewer Roger Ebert, one of the evening’s special honorees, was on hand to accept introductions by Sidney Lumet (in person) and Martin Scorsese (on video). Due to his recent cancer surgeries, Ebert was unable to talk. His wife, Chaz, spoke for him.
Another special honoree, IFC Entertainment president Jonathan Sehring, remarked that his company releases films at movie houses and on DVD simultaneously because “the rest of the country deserves what we have in New York.”
Best Feature
Great World of Sound – Dir.: Craig Zobel; Prod.: Melissa Palmer, David Gordon Green, Richard Wright & Craig Zobel
I’m Not There – Dir.: Todd Haynes; Prod.: Christine Vachon, James D. Stern, John Sloss & John Goldwyn
* Into the Wild – Dir.: Sean Penn; Prod.: Sean Penn, Art Linson & Bill Pohlad
Margot at the Wedding – Dir.: Noah Baumbach; Prod.: Scott Rudin
The Namesake – Dir.: Mira Nair; Prod.: Lydia Dean Pilcher & Mira Nair
Best Documentary
The Devil Came on Horseback – Dir.: Annie Sundberg & Ricki Stern; Prod.: Ricki Stern, Annie Sundberg, Gretchen Wallace & Jane Wells
Jimmy Carter Man from Plains – Dir.: Jonathan Demme; Prod.: Jonathan Demme & Neda Armian
My Kid Could Paint That – dir. & Prod.: Amir Bar-Lev
* Sicko – Dir.: Michael Moore; Prod.: Michael Moore & Meghan O’Hara
Taxi to the Dark Side – Dir.: Alex Gibney; Prod.: Alex Gibney, Eva Orner & Susannah Shipman
Best Ensemble Cast (tie)
* Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
Albert Finney, Rosemary Harris, Ethan Hawke, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Brian F. O’Byrne, Amy Ryan, Michael Shannon, Marisa Tomei
The Last Winter
Connie Britton, Kevin Corrigan, Zach Gilford, James LeGros, Ron Perlman
Margot at the Wedding
Jack Black, Flora Cross, Ciarán Hinds, Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Zane Pais, John Turturro
The Savages
Philip Bosco, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Laura Linney
* Talk to Me
Cedric the Entertainer, Don Cheadle, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Mike Epps, Vondie Curtis Hall, Taraji P. Henson, Martin Sheen
Breakthrough Director
Lee Isaac Chung – Munyurangabo
Stephane Gauger – Owl and the Sparrow
Julia Loktev – Day Night Day Night
David Von Ancken – Seraphim Falls
* Craig Zobel – Great World of Sound
Breakthrough Actor
Emile Hirsch – Into the Wild
Kene Holliday – Great World of Sound
* Ellen Page – Juno
Jess Weixler – Teeth
Luisa Williams – Day Night Day Night
Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You
August the First – Dir.: Lanre Olabisi; Prod.: Shawn Alexander, Gabriel “Swede” Sedgwick, Nicky Arzeu Akmal & Lanre Olabisi
* Frownland – Dir.: Ronald Bronstein; Prod.: Marc Raybin
Loren Cass – Dir.: Chris Fuller; Prod.: Chris Fuller, Frank Craft & Kayla Tabish
Mississippi Chicken – Dir.: John Fiege; Prod.: John Fiege, Anita Grabowski & Victor Moyers
Off the Grid: Life on the Mesa – Dir.: Jeremy Stulberg & Randy Stulberg; Prod.: Eric Juhola, Jeremy Stulberg & Randy Stulberg
Special Tributes
Actor Javier Bardem
Film Critic Roger Ebert
Production Designer Mark Friedberg
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg
Director Mira Nair
President of IFC Entertainment and Creator of the IFC Center Jonathan Sehring