Gotham Awards Celebrating the Best of the Indies

“Ooh, what’s that?” Adam Sandler ogled my pasta as he breezed by our table at Cipriani Wall Street for the Gotham Awards. “I’ll eat that,” the funny man made a bee-line to his table. Later on, well fed, he brought the cavernous house down accepting the Performer Tribute Award from the Safdie brothers, his Uncut Gems directors, a thank-you monologue created, he said, by his Youtube and Lululemon loving teen daughters, delivered in a strange Southern accent. Just what you’d expect at the Gotham Awards!

Jennifer Lawrence—here to present Best Feature-- called this special night a bellwether for the film award season! This annual celebration of Indie films honors non-Hollywood fare; then again, every year the lines blur, as this gorgeous filet mignon dinner becomes more and more elegant, hmm, upscale—i.e. with sponsors including Variety and Cadillac (yes, a sedan was parked outside the restrooms), the program now printed on gloss, it is always a wonder that the downtown vibe remains: it’s industry insiders just happy to be clinking glasses, be they of Fuji water and Blue Moon beer, catching up.

Michelle Williams accepted her Performer Tribute Award from her Fabelmans co-star Paul Dano, subbing for Steven Spielberg who has Covid. She’s dazzling playing Mitzi, Spielberg’s fictional mom, but even as her clip reel showed the many stunning performances of her career to date, she wanted to say she could not be Spielberg’s mother without first being Mary Beth Peil’s granddaughter in Dawson’s Creek. Most important, she said, was her dream to become a “New Yawker.”

Others on hand for this great night included Julianne Moore, Katherine Bigelow, Baz Luhrmann, Maggie Gyllanhaal, Darren Aronofsky, Todd Haynes and many more. Awards went to Alberto Barbera, Director of the Venice International Film Festival, Gina Prince-Bythewood, director of The Woman King, Don Katz of Audible, and Focus Features Chair Peter Kujawski and Vice Chair, Jason Cassidy. Perhaps most moving, Sidney Poitier’s three daughters accepted a tribute award for their remarkable dad.

Ben Whishaw, a treasure in the James Bond movies and many more, picked up an Outstanding Performance in a New Series for This Is Going to Hurt. Nominated too for his supporting performance in Women Talking, he was here from London. Todd Fields won Best Screenplay for his controversial Tar, a major film and twist on the abusive genius theme starring Cate Blanchett, who as Lydia Tar is a monumentally talented orchestra conductor and destructive narcissist—hate to say it, a role often ascribed to men. Fields said he wanted to do away with the concept of “Best,” a word he thinks should be reserved for Christopher Guest movies. Just as well. Nominated for Best Feature, Tar lost to Everything Everywhere All at Once.