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At last night’s 21st annual Gotham Independent Film Awards Mike Mills‘ Beginners and Terrence Malick‘s The Tree of Life split the Best Feature prize, closing a night filled with shocking outcomes that included the films with the most nominations, The Descendants and Martha Marcy May Marlene, getting shut out.

Along with the eight awards handed out, see full list of winners below, there were also sightings by some of the most respected talents working today, including Tilda Swinton, Jim Jarmusch, Christopher Plummer and the co-hosts for the night Oliver Platt and Edie Falco.

In addition, career tribute awards were handed out to Charlize Theron, Gary Oldman, Tom Rothman and David Cronenberg.

Read news, features and reviews on many of the winners and nominees at our dedicated Gothams Awards page.

2011 Gotham Award winners:

Best Feature: The Tree of Life, directed by Terrence Malick and Beginners, directed by Mike Mills

Best Documentary: Better This World,...

I hate ties when it comes to handing out awards, especially if you're going to hold an actual awards show. What's the point in declaring the best of something if you can't determine what the best is? That said, I guess it can be looked at as something of a surprise when the 21st annual Gotham Independent Awards hand Best Feature to The Tree of Life and Beginners considering I think most felt The Descendants had it in the bag. And yet, that's not the end of the surprises. Beginners also scored Best Ensemble over the likes of The Descendants and Margin Call, both of which have been praised for their ensemble performances. The buzz this generates for Beginners should certainly help it on its way through Oscar season, hopefully keeping Christopher Plummer's supporting performance a front-runner for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars. Breakthrough Actor is a bit...

While the reviews for Beginners were almost all positive, very few people have had a chance to see the film. I myself watch over 100 new releases each year and it still took me a few months to catch up on the movie. I finally got around to seeing Beginners this week and called it the most overlooked film of 2011. I guess I can no longer say this. Last night, the Gotham Independent Film Awards surprised everyone with a tie for Best Feature Film with Mike Mills‘ Beginners and Terrence Malick‘s The Tree of Life taking the top prize. Who would have ever guessed?

Best Feature winners from the past several years include Frozen River, Winter’s Bone, and The Hurt Locker. Hit the jump for the full press release.

via The Collider

Gotham Independent Film Awards™

Winners Announced

New York, NY (November 28, 2011) – The Independent Filmmaker Project (Ifp), the nation...

"The Tree of Life" and "Beginners" emerged as the big winners for the 21st Gotham Independent Film Awards. "The Descendants" and "Martha Marcy May Marlene" led the pack with three nominations each but in the end, Terrence Malick's "The Tree of Life" and Mike Mills' "Beginners" ruled the night.

Related Posts:

Ewan McGregor interview for "Beginners" right here

Mike Mills interview for "Beginners right here

The Gotham Independent Film Awards officially kicks off the 2011-12 award season which of course, leads to the granddaddy of the awards season, the Academy Awards!

Hosted by Edie Falco and Oliver Platt, the Gotham Awards also gave career tributes to Charlize Theron, Gary Oldman, David Cronenberg and Tom Rothman.

"Beginners" also took home the Best Ensemble Performance Award, "Better This World" won Best Documentary, Dee Rees who gave us the wonderful "Pariah" won Breakthrough Director, Felicity Jones for "Like Crazy" won Breakthrough Actor,...

What an odd way to open this year's awards season: Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life and Mike Mills's Beginners have tied for Best Feature at Monday night's Gotham Independent Film Awards, though I suppose one could say that Beginners came out of the evening with a slight edge in that it's also taken the Best Ensemble prize. The other films nominated for Best Feature were Jeff Nichols's Take Shelter, Alexander Payne's The Descendants and Kelly Reichardt's Meek's Cutoff.

Best Ensemble Performance: Beginners (Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Mélanie Laurent, Goran Visnjic, Kai Lennox, Mary Page Keller, Keegan Boos). Also nominated: The Descendants (George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Beau Bridges, Robert Forster, Judy Greer, Matthew Lillard, Nick Krause, Amara Miller, Mary Birdsong, Rob Huebel), Margin Call (Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Penn Badgley, Simon Baker, Mary McDonnell, Demi Moore, Stanley Tucci, Aasif Mandvi), Martha Marcy May Marlene (Elizabeth Olsen,...

Mélanie Laurent, Ewan McGregor, Beginners The 2011 Gotham Awards were full of surprises: Favorites didn't win; winners' speeches were often interesting, humorous, and/or moving; and some of the jokes were quite funny. (Not every joke was funny, though. "That's a switch, the banks bailing us out," actress Judy Greer told a representative of the Royal Bank of Canada, who, following a pro-bank speech/promo, handed a check to the winning filmmaker of the Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You.) Now, despite its three nominations and all the Oscar buzz for filmmaker Alexander Payne and star George Clooney, The Descendants didn't win any awards. That was the biggest surprise of the evening. It's as if the Gotham voters this year were making a point of distancing themselves from obvious Oscar bait. Or perhaps they just didn't find Payne's movie all that great. In the Best Feature category, The Descendants...

They couldn’t choose between just two. At the 2011 Gotham Awards the jury announced they couldn’t possible choose one over the other and made the unprecedented decision to award Best Feature to Mike Mills‘ Beginners and Terrence Malick‘s The Tree of Life, the latter of which topped Sight & Sound’s year-end list. The duo beat out Alexander Payne‘s The Descendants, widely considered a frontrunner and take the prize that Debra Granik picked up last year for Winter’s Bone.

Mills’ film also picked up best ensemble, which included Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Mélanie Laurent, Goran Visnjic, Kai Lennox, Mary Page Keller and Keegan Boos. In a disappointing turn, Felicity Jones in Like Crazy beat out my personal best actress pick of Elizabeth Olsen in Martha Marcy May Marlene. Check out the full list of winners below thanks to indieWIRE.

Best Feature: Tie: The Tree of Life, directed by Terrence Malick and Beginners,...

The 21st Gotham Awards ended with a hung jury: Mike Mills' “Beginners” and Terrence Malick's “The Tree of Life” are both crowned with Best Feature film beating out fellow noms “The Descendants”, “Meek’s Cutoff” and “Take Shelter”. Best Doc went to (a film which I don't even remember having had a theatrical release) in Katie Galloway and Kelly Duane de la Vega's “Better This World”. It beat “Bill Cunningham New York” by Richard Press, “Hell and Back Again” by Danfung Dennis, “The Interrupters” by Steve James and “The Woodmans” by C Scott Willis. In the Best Ensemble Performance, it was Mike Mills' Beginners crew of Ewan McGregor, Mélanie Laurent, Goran Visnjic, Kai Lennox, Mary Page Keller, Keegan Boos and Christopher Plummer, the veteran actor who should get ready for Best Supporting Actor speeches for the Indie Spirits and Oscars. Beginners beat out several films that had stornger one,...

Brad Pitt in Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life Alexander Payne, Terrence Malick In; Woody Allen Out: Gotham Awards 2011 Best Feature (tie) * Beginners Mike Mills, director; Leslie Urdang, Dean Vanech, Miranda de Pencier, Jay Van Hoy, Lars Knudsen, producers (Focus Features) The Descendants Alexander Payne, director; Jim Burke, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor, producers (Fox Searchlight Pictures) Meek’s Cutoff Kelly Reichardt, director; Neil Kopp, Anish Savjani, Elizabeth Cuthrell, David Urrutia, producers (Oscilloscope Laboratories) Take Shelter Jeff Nichols, director; Tyler Davidson, Sophia Lin, producers (Sony Pictures Classics) * The Tree of Life Terrence Malick, director; Sarah Green, Bill Pohlad, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Grant Hill, producers (Fox Searchlight Pictures) Best Documentary * Better This World Katie Galloway and Kelly Duane de la Vega, directors; Katie Galloway, Kelly Duane de la Vega, Mike Nicholson, producers (Loteria Films, Picturebox, Motto Pictures and Passion Pictures; Itvs in association with American Documentary | Pov) Bill Cunningham New York Richard Press,...

Georg Szalai

New York -- Beginners and The Tree of Life tied for best feature at the 21st annual Gotham Independent Awards on Monday night in New York. Beginners stars Christopher Plummer and Ewan McGregor in a comedy/drama about a young man rocked by news that his elderly father has terminal cancer and a young male lover. Mike Mills directed, with Leslie Urdang, Dean Vanech, Miranda de Pencier, Jay Van Hoy and Lars Knudsen serving as producers of the Focus Features movie. Photos: Gotham Awards 2011 Red Carpet Arrivals Beginners, whose cast also includes Melanie Laurent, Goran Visnjic, Kai Lennox, Mary Page Keller and Keegan Boos, also won the

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Sure, The Oscars are what everyone pays attention to, but over the past few years, the awards known as The Gotham Awards have become more and more influential, and more and more intriguing.

With last year’s winner Winter’s Bone becoming the indie darling of last year’s awards season, it remains to be seen as to what this year’s award darling will be, but we know who it may very well end up being. The nominees for this year’s awards have been revealed, and they are not only interesting, but even have a big time Criterion connection amongst them.

Obviously the biggest winners here are the films The Descendants and Martha Marcy May Marlene, both of which walk away with the most nods respectively. Terrence Malick’s Tree Of Life is up for Best Feature, as is one of this writer’s other favorite 2011 releases, Steve James’ The Interrupters.

This morning the 21st Gotham Independent Film Award nominations were announced, giving us one of our first indicators of what to keep an eye on when it comes to considering our Oscar predictions. Personally, I really like the list they've come up with, though I'm sure some will immediately wonder what happened to Drive. Well, let's take a look at a few of the org's rules for consideration before getting too upset: Filmmaking with a point of view

Ifp believes that filmmaking is a subjective art form. Each Gotham Independent Film Award will be given to individual films or performers in films where the vision of an individual director, producer, writer or writer/director is abundantly evident, and where the film cannot be classically defined as a "work for hire." Feature-length (defined as over 60 minutes) Films made with an economy of means Films must be American

The film must be...

By Sean O’Connell

Hollywoodnews.com: Nominees for the 21st Gotham Independent Film Awards were revealed this morning, and Fox Searchlight’s bound to be pleased.

Two films the studio will be pushing through the awards season – Alexander Payne’s “The Descendants” and Sean Durkin’s “Martha March May Marlene” – lead the pack with three nominations apiece, including Best Feature (for “Descendants”) and Best Ensemble Performance (for both films).

The studio’s “The Tree of Life,” director Terrence Malick’s rumination on creation and destruction, also scored a Best Feature nomination. All told, Searchlight nabbed eight Gotham nominations. The closest competitor was Focus Features and Sony Pictures Classics, each with three nominations to their names.

The remaining Best Feature nominees were Mike Mills’ “Beginners,” Jeff Nichols’ “Take Shelter” and Kelly Reichardt’s “Meek’s Cutoff.”

The Gotham Awards’ ceremony will be held on Nov. 28 … the same day the New York...

The Ifp have announced the nominees for their 21st Gotham Independent Film Awards.

Considered the kick off to awards season, this year’s leaders in nominations are Alexander Payne‘s The Descendants and Sean Durkin‘s Martha Marcy May Marlene with three nominations each.

Along with the competitive awards, Charlize Theron, Gary Oldman, David Cronenberg and Tom Rothman will each be presented with career tributes.

The full list of nominees are below. The awards will be handed out on Monday, November 28th at Cipriani Wall Street.

And from Nov. 18-21 be sure to check out the nominees of the Best Film Not Playing At A Theater Near You (selected by us at Filmmaker) when they screen at MoMA.

The nominees for the 21st Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards are:

Best Feature

Beginners

Mike Mills, director; Leslie Urdang, Dean Vanech, Miranda de Pencier, Jay Van Hoy, Lars Knudsen, producers (Focus Features)

The Descendants

Alexander Payne,...

The heavy awards onslaught is gearing up and it is a good year to be Fox Searchlight. The 21st Gotham Independent Film Award Nominations have been announced and two of the studio’s films happen to lead the pack. Alexander Payne‘s The Descendants picked up nominations for Best Feature, Best Ensemble Performance and Best Breakthrough Actor. Their Sundance hit (and one of my personal favorites of the year) Martha Marcy May Marlene picked up Ensemble, Breakthrough Actor and Breakthrough Director for Sean Durkin.

That latter award is a great pack including Mike Cahill for Another Earth, Vera Farmiga for Higher Ground, Evan Glodell for Bellflower and Dee Rees for Pariah. It is also great to see my frontrunner for #1 film of 2011, Terrence Malick‘s The Tree of Life get a Best Feature nomination. Check out the noms below via indieWIRE.

New York, NY (October 20, 2011) – The Independent Filmmaker Project (Ifp...

Beginners, the new drama from director Mike Mills, was recently released in theaters on June 3. We are celebrating this new indie, and we're giving away an iPod Shuffle, a dropcard to download the entire Beginners soundtrack, and the book Drawings From the Film Beginners by director Mike Mills. These prizes will surely go fast, so enter this contest today.

Winners Receive:

Dropcard to download the full Beginners SoundtrackiPod ShuffleDrawings From the Film Beginners By Mike Mills book

Here's How To Win!

Just "Like" (fan) the MovieWeb Facebook page (below) and then leave a comment below telling us why these prizes must be yours!

If you already "Like" MovieWeb, just leave a comment below telling us why these prizes must be yours!

Mike Mills' films and design work have dominated the visual landscape of the past two decades, through record covers and music videos for bands like Air, Blonde Redhead and Sonic Youth,...

Ewan McGregor stars in the new romantic drama Beginners from acclaimed writer-director Mike Mills. Beginners imaginatively explores the hilarity, confusion, and surprises of love through the evolving consciousness of a man who is about to find out his dying father is gay just months before meeting his soul mate. Ryan J. Downey recently caught up with both Ewan McGregor and Mike Mills to chat with them exclusively about this wonderful new movie. To watch our interviews, click on the clips below.

Click to watch Exclusive: Ewan McGregor Interview!

Click to watch Exclusive: Mike Mills Interview!

Beginners comes to theaters June 3rd, 2011 and stars Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Mélanie Laurent, Goran Visnjic, Kai Lennox, Mary Page Keller, Keegan Boos, China Shavers. The film is directed by Mike Mills.