GOTHAMS TURN SIDEWAYS
Alexander Paynes’s Sideways (Fox Searchlight) took the prize for Best Feature at last night’s IFP Gotham Awards, beating out Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I Heart Huckabees, Primer and Before Sunset. (Earlier this week Sideways — which the National Board of Review yesterday named one of 2004′s Top Ten Films — also garnered six nominations for the IFP Los Angeles’s Independent Spirit Awards, which will take place in Santa Monica on February 26.)
Jonathan Demme’s The Agronomist, about the murder of the Haitian journalist and activist Jean Dominique, was awarded Best Documentary at the annual IFP New York gala. The film — which beat out Fahrenheit 9/11, Bright Leaves, Tarnation and In the Realms of the Unreal — was released by ThinkFilm and HBO.
The FineLine/HBO release Maria Full of Grace took home award kudos for both Breathrough Actor (Catalina Sandino Moreno) and Best Director (Joshua Marston).
Also feted at the ceremony hosted by Bob Balaban were the creative team behind Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (the Focus Features release was the subject of the Gotham’s inaugural Celebrate NY Tribute), along with director Michael Moore (Gotham Filmmaker Award), actor Don Cheadle (Gotham Actor Award), and New Yorker Films’ Dan Talbot and director Mike Leigh (who each received Lifetime Achievement Awards).
