Oscars 2016: Gotham Awards Nominations: My Thoughts

Hello, Bloggers! So they just announced the nominations at the Gotham Independent Film Awards which usually are indicators of dark horse indie contenders much like the Independent Spirit Awards. But while the Spirit Awards haven't announced their nominations, the Gotham Awards lineup looks interestingly a little less Oscar friendly.

First off, about four of the five Best Film nominees are female centered. We have not just Carol, but Diary Of A Teenage Girl, which led with four nominations (Best Film, Best Actress for Bel Powley, Bingham Rey Breakthrough Director Award for Marielle Heller, and Best Screenplay) and also Tangerine, which is a dramedy filmed on an iPhone and stars two transgendered actresses. its distributor Magnolia Pictures is looking to mount some kind of awards campaign for this film, and its actresses, so I'd keep an eye on it. Its biggest hurdle is not only that its a smaller-scale film, but it also has The Danish Girl to contend with. But if Tangerine can push hard enough, we'll see where it goes. 

But one of the biggest surprises is that Room only scored one nomination for Best Actress for Brie Larson. However, Whiplash only scored one Gotham nod last year and still managed to nab a 3-2 Oscar record. I still think Room will be this year's "little movie that could" a la Whiplash and Boyhood. One thing I've also noticed is that Brie Larson will once again be up against Cate Blanchett for Best Actress like when she won for Short Term 12 against Blanchett for Blue Jasmine. Could Cate win Round 2?

We also have 6 Best Actress nominees compared to 5 in Best Actor which is neat. Best Actress not only has Cate Blanchett, Brie Larson, and Bel Powley, but Blythe Danner for I'll See You In My Dreams, Lily Tomlin for Grandma, and perhaps the announcement that made my morning, Kristen Wiig for Welcome To Me. I worry that this'll be the farthest she'll go. But I hope she can get recognition for the banner year she's having. 

Expectedly, Spotlight found plenty of love as well as Carol. So their nods gave them a boost to their already solid campaigns. It was also neat that While We're Young found some love in Best Screenplay and that none of the Best Actor contenders are Oscar frontrunners which makes that category quite interesting.

So those are my thoughts on the Gotham Awards nominations. I would love to hear what you guys think. Please feel free to write your thoughts in the comments section. Thanks for reading!

Full nominees here:

http://variety.com/2015/film/news/gotham-awards-nominations-2015-1201624034/