‘Beasts’ and ‘Bernie’ earn Gotham Independent Film nominations

The movie awards season officially arrived Thursday morning with the nominations for the 22nd Gotham Independent Film Awards in New York City. Four films earned two nominations each -- “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” “Bernie,” “Middle of Nowhere” and “Moonrise Kingdom.”

Nominations were announced in seven categories:

Best feature: “Bernie,” “The Loneliest Planet,” “The Master,” “Middle of Nowhere” and “Moonrise Kingdom”

THE ENVELOPE: Awards from A to Z

Best documentary: “Detropia,” “How to Survive a Plague,” “Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present,” “Room 237” and “The Waiting Room”

Breakthrough director: Zal Batmanglij, “Sound of My Voice”; Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky, “Francine”; Jason Courtland and Julia Halperin, “Now, Forager”; Antonio Mendez Esparza, “Aqui y Alla” and Benh Zeitlin, “Beasts of the Southern Wild.”

Breakthrough actor: Mike Birbiglia, “Sleepwalk with Me”; Emayatzy Corninealdi, “Middle of Nowhere”; Thure Lindhardt, “Keep the Lights on”; Melanie Lynskey, “Hello I Must Be Going” and Quvenzhane Wallis, “Beasts of the Southern Wild.”

Best ensemble performance: “Bernie,” “Moonrise Kingdom,” “Safety Not Guaranteed,” “Silver Linings Playbook” and “Your Sister’s Sister.”

Best film not playing at a theater near you: “Kid-Thing,” “An Oversimplification of Her Beauty,” “Red Flag,” “Sun Don’t Shine” and “Tiger Tail in Blue.”

Gotham Audience Award: The independent film community can vote starting Thursday at https://gotham.ifp.org./audience for a U.S. film that must have won an audience award at one of the top 50 U.S. or Canadian film festivals from Nov. 2011 to Oct. 2012. The nominees are to be announced on Nov. 5.

The awards are sponsored by the Independent Filmmaker Project, the oldest and largest organization of independent filmmakers in the U.S.

Besides the competitive honors, actress Marion Cotillard, actor/writer Matt Damon, director David O. Russell and producer Jeff Skoll are to receive award tributes.

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