Advertisement

Gold Standard: Gotham Awards’ ‘Foxcatcher’ conundrum: ‘It was a struggle’

Mark Ruffalo, Channing Tatum, director Bennett Miller and Steve Carell at the "Foxcatcher" premiere in Cannes.
(Ian Gavan / Getty Images)
Share

The Independent Filmmaker Project’s Gotham Awards are voted on by separate, five-person committees composed mostly of film critics, so today’s slate of nominees can be seen as an early indicator of what movies and performances might pop with critics groups later this year.

“Boyhood” emerged as the big winner, picking up four nominations -- picture, director Richard Linklater, leads Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette and “breakthrough actor” Eller Coltrane. Really, short of, say, an announcement that Charlie Sexton would be performing “The Dog Song” at the December ceremony, it was as good as it gets for Linklater’s celebrated film.

On the flip side, “Foxcatcher,” Bennett Miller’s account of U.S. Olympic wrestlers Mark and Dave Schultz’s relationship with eccentric billionaire John du Pont, didn’t get a Gotham nod for best feature. The nominating committee went with “Boyhood,” “Birdman,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “Love Is Strange” and the stark, sublime sci-fi thriller “Under the Skin.”

And the committee deciding the acting honors apparently found it impossible to single out any one of “Foxcatcher’s” actors -- Steve Carell, Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo. Instead, it gave the group a special jury award as an ensemble.

Advertisement

It “was more spontaneous and was more a factor of an exceptionally strong best actor field and the desire of the panel to honor these three actors in this film without choosing one over the other,” Milton Tabbot, IFP’s senior director of programming, told The Times in an email. “It was a struggle for some to make that decision, and the question was raised whether a ‘special award’ was an option. The full nominating panel was supportive of the idea.”

And while sometimes these special awards amount to make-goods, a voting body’s desire to give a movie something after falling short in various categories (example: the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn.’s special citation for “12 Years a Slave” last year), we’re hearing that wasn’t the case for “Foxcatcher” and the Gothams. It was more a Sophie’s choice situation, and one that plays into the Gothams’ history. Up until last year, IFP only nominated ensembles and not individual performances.

So don’t downgrade “Foxcather,” which will close this year’s AFI Fest on Nov. 13. But it is a challenging, chilly movie, one that will need a boost or two from the major film critics groups as it tries to find a place among the strong group of films competing for the best picture Oscar this year. The Gothams at least acknowledged it. But it will need more to prevail.

Twitter: @glennwhipp

Advertisement