The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) announced the winners of the 29th Annual IFP Gotham Awards at a ceremony held at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City.
Winning Best Feature, Best Screenplay, Best Actor and the Gotham Audience Award was Marriage Story, director Noah Baumbach's passionate dissection of a marriage's deterioration as a loving couple are torn apart by different evolving needs – and different coasts. Adam Driver was voted Best Actor for his performance as Charlie, a driven NYC theater director emotionally unmoored when his roles of husband and parent do not play out in real life according to his original concept. Baumbach's wins as writer, director and producer are his first personal Gotham Awards, having been nominated previously for his screenplay of While We're Young in 2015 and as director of Best Feature nominee Margot at the Wedding in 2007.
The award for Best Documentary went to American Factory, directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, which charts the complex and uneasy cross-cultural labor and personal dynamics that arise when a Chinese billionaire reopens a shuttered former General Motors plant in Ohio to produce auto-glass for China's Fuyao Glass manufacturer – bringing hundreds of Chinese workers to the heartland to work beside previously laid off auto workers.
Winning the award for Best Actress was Awkwafina for her delicate dramatic-comic performance at the center of director Lulu Wang's The Farewell, portraying a young woman fighting against her instinct for honesty when she is coerced by her family to return from NYC to attend a large family wedding in China – a pretext for everyone to spend time with grandmother Nai Nai (diagnosed with terminal cancer) one last time – without revealing that diagnosis.
The Gotham Award ceremony was streamed on Variety.com.
The 29th Annual Gotham Award recipients are:
For Best Feature, presented by Uma Thurman
Marriage Story
Directed by Noah Baumbach
Produced by Noah Baumbach and David Heyman
Released by Netflix
The Best Feature jury included Scott Cooper, Rachel Morrison, Josh Penn, Uma Thurman, and Aisha Tyler.
For Best Documentary, presented by Constance Wu
American Factory
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert
Produced by Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert, Jeff Reichert, and Julie Parker Benello
Released by Netflix
The Best Documentary jury included Susan Bedusa, Marshall Curry, Barbara Kopple, RaMell Ross, and Sandi Tan.
For the IFP Gotham Audience Award, presented by Natasha Lyonne
Marriage Story
Directed by Noah Baumbach
Produced by Noah Baumbach and David Heyman
Released by Netflix
The Audience Award was voted for on-line by IFP members.
For Best Actor, presented by Jennifer Lopez
Adam Driver in Marriage Story
Released by Netflix
The Best Actor jury included Daveed Diggs, Melanie Lynskey, Douglas McGrath, John Penotti, and Joel Schumacher.
For Best Actress, presented by Daveed Diggs
Awkwafina in The Farewell
Released by A24
The Best Actress jury included Wendy Finerman, Elizabeth Karlsen, Christopher Meloni, Yen Tan, and Debra Winger
For Best Screenplay, presented by Tracy Letts
Noah Baumbach for Marriage Story
Released by Netflix
The Best Screenplay jury included Lisa Cortés, Tracey Edmonds, Peter Hedges, Bill Holderman, and Susanna Styron
For Breakthrough Actor, presented by Jeremy O. Harris
Taylor Russell in Waves
Released by A24
The Breakthrough Actor jury included Mollye Asher, Chadwick Boseman, Annette Davey, Evan Hayes, and Crystal Moselle.
For Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director, presented by Willem Dafoe
Laure De Clermont-Tonnerre for The Mustang
Released by Focus Features
The Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director jury included Haifaa Al-Mansour, Scott Franklin, Regina Hall, Riva Marker, and Alexandre Moors.
For Breakthrough Series – Long Format, presented by Beanie Feldstein and Elisabeth Moss
When They See Us
Created by Ava DuVernay; Executive Produced by Jeff Skoll, Jonathan King, Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro, Berry Welsh, Oprah Winfrey, and Ava DuVernay
Netflix
The Breakthrough Series – Long Format jury included Emily V Gordon, Steven Katz, Jayme Lemons, Adrian Lester, and Vera Miao.
For Breakthrough Series – Short Format, presented by Beanie Feldstein and Elisabeth Moss
PEN15
Created by Maya Erskine, Anna Konkle, and Sam Zvibleman
Executive Produced by Anna Konkle, Sam Zvibleman, Debbie Liebling, Gabe Liedman, Marc Provissiero, Brooke Pobjoy, Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, Akiva Schaffer, Becky Sloviter, Shelley Zimmerman, Brin Lukens, and Jordan Levin
Hulu
The Breakthrough Series – Short Format jury included Ryan Cunningham, Cory Finley, Paul Sparks, Julia Stiles, and Vanessa Williams.
