'The Hurt Locker' Leads Gotham Awards Nominees

The first big time end-of-the-year award nominations have been announced, and the 19th annual Gotham Awards seem heavily weighted in favor of The Hurt Locker. From my perspective, that's a good thing; I still maintain it's the year's best film. And with a good showing at something like this, that could give the smaller film the kind of momentum it would otherwise need to buy (but likely could never afford) in order to stay afloat in the Oscar race. There are a few other notable additions, like Big Fan, featuring the dramatic turn by Patton Oswalt, the Coens' A Serious Man, and the performance of Ben Foster in The Messenger. The Gotham Awards have changed over the years; although the focus is still on independent film (or at worst smallish studio fare), they're not just honoring films that take place in the northeast anymore, which was the original design. In Contention had all the nominees, so we cherrypicked this list from them. Best Feature
Amreeka
Big Fan
The Hurt Locker
The Maid
A Serious Man Best Documentary
Food, Inc.
Good Hair
My Neighbor My Killer
Paradise
Tyson Best Ensemble Performance
Adventureland
Cold Souls
The Hurt Locker
A Serious Man
Sugar Breakthrough Director
Cruz Angeles for Don’t Let Me Drown
Frazer Bradshaw for Everything Strange and New
Noah Buschel for The Missing Person
Derick Martini for Lymelife
Robert Siegel for Big Fan Breakthrough Actor
Ben Foster in The Messenger
Patton Oswalt in Big Fan
Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker
Catalina Saavedra in The Maid
Soulémane Sy Savané in Goodbye Solo Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You
Everything Strange and New
Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench
October Country
You Won’t Miss Me
Zero Bridge

Comments

[W]

What are the chances The Hurt Locker gets nominated for an Oscar? Also, what about Renner? Any shot there?

[Get The Big Picture]

To me, The Hurt Locker is the real litmus test for this ten-movie Best Picture alteration. Renner has a good shot at the Oscar anyway, and very often, a performance from a small movie has better odds of being in the final five than the movie itself. It's also not a completely stacked year at Best Actor, as far as anyone can tell.

But if the movie doesn't get nominated, given that it's been so well-regarded since early summer, the expanded Best Picture race will be viewed as a failure by indie fans.