Awards Season Starts … Now!

By
Jason P. Frank,
a Vulture writer covering comedy, theater, and music

Critics love them, audiences are confused but into it.
Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: Everett Collection (Niko Tavernise, A24, NEON, MGM)

The race to Oscar gold is officially on! The race has looked wide open for months now with no Oppenheimer-style populist-and-critic-approved film to stroll toward Best Picture. Then, on October 29, the Gotham Award nominations dropped. The Gothams are not necessarily perfect Oscar predictors — Charles Melton won Outstanding Supporting Performance for May December last year, then went on to be snubbed at the actual ceremony — but they are notable for being first. Nominations are decided by a panel of New York critics, and those preferences can tell us things like Challengers’ strength as Guadagnino’s awards play over Queer. Some notable snubs from this year’s ceremony include Emilia Pérez and The Brutalist, while support went to A Different Man and I Saw the TV Glow. Below, find the complete list of nominations.

Best Feature
Anora
Babygirl
Challengers
A Different Man
Nickel Boys

Best International Feature
All We Imagine As Light
Green Border
Hard Truths
Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
Vermiglio

Best Documentary Feature
Dahomey
Intercepted
No Other Land
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
Union

Best Director
Payal Kapadia — All We Imagine As Light
Sean Baker — Anora
Guan Hu — Black Dog
Jane Schoenbrun — I Saw the TV Glow
RaMell Ross — Nickel Boys

Best Screenplay
Between the Temples — Nathan Silver, C. Mason Wells
Evil Does Not Exist — Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
Femme — Sam H. Freeman, Ng Choon Ping
His Three Daughters — Azazel Jacobs
Janet Planet — Annie Baker

Breakthrough Director
Shuchi Talati — Girls Will Be Girls
India Donaldson — Good One
Alessandra Lacorazza — In the Summers
Vera Drew — The People’s Joker
Mahdi Fleifel — To a Land Unknown

Outstanding Lead Performance
Pamela Anderson — The Last Showgirl
Adrien Brody — The Brutalist
Colman Domingo — Sing Sing
Marianne Jean-Baptiste — Hard Truths
Nicole Kidman — Babygirl
Keith Kupferer — Ghostlight
Mikey Madison — Anora
Demi Moore — The Substance
Saoirse Ronan — Outrun
Justice Smith — I Saw the TV Glow

Outstanding Supporting Performance
Yura Borisov — Anora
Kieran Culkin — A Real Pain
Danielle Deadwyler — The Piano Lesson
Brigette Lundy-Paine — I Saw the TV Glow
Natasha Lyonne — His Three Daughters
Clarence Maclin — Sing Sing
Katy O’Brian — Love Lies Bleeding
Guy Pearce — The Brutalist
Adam Pearson — A Different Man
Brian Tyree Henry — The Fire Inside

Breakthrough Performer
Lily Collias — Good One
Ryan Destiny — The Fire Inside
Maisy Stella — My Old Ass
Izaac Wang — Dìdi
Brandon Wilson — Nickel Boys

Awards Season Starts … Now!