Alejandro G. Inarritu’s “Birdman” was named the year’s Best Feature at the 2014 Gotham Independent Film Awards Monday evening in New York at Cipriani Wall Street, beating a field that included Richard Linklater‘s “Boyhood,” which just hours earlier had won the top prize from the New York Film Critics Circle.
The win gave Inarritu’s adventurous dark comedy a nice boost during a key period in awards season, in which Oscar voters will be catching up with screeners and films must grab attention to make sure they’re at the top of the stack.
Other contenders for Gotham’s top award included “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “Love Is Strange” and “Under the Skin.”
The best actor and actress awards went to two presumed Oscar frontrunners, Michael Keaton for “Birdman” and Julianne Moore for “Still Alice.”
Laura Poitras’ film about Edward Snowden, “Citizenfour,” was named Best Documentary.
In the show’s first awards, Tessa Thompson was named Breakthrough Actor for her role in “Dear White People,” while Ana Lily Amirpour won the award as Breakthrough Director for “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night.”
“Boyhood” won the audience award, which was selected by audience vote from among the 15 films nominated in the Best Feature, Best Documentary and Breakthrough Director categories.
The Gotham Awards typically stake out a distinctive turf and do not overlap much with other awards groups. The Gothams winner has only gone on to win the Oscar for Best Picture once, when Kathryn Bigelow‘s “The Hurt Locker” turned the trick five years ago. “Inside Llewyn Davis” won last year and was not nominated for the Best Picture Oscar.
Uma Thurman hosted the show, which was livestreamed online. Special tributes were handed out to actress Tilda Swinton, “Foxcatcher” director Bennett Miller and Netflix chief Ted Sarandos.
Here is the list of nominees, with winners indicated with *WINNER:
Best Feature
“Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)” *WINNER
“Love Is Strange”
Best Documentary
“Actress”
“Citizenfour” *WINNER
“Manakamana”
“Point and Shoot”
Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award
Ana Lily Amirpour for “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night)” *WINNER
James Ward Byrkit for “Coherence”
Dan Gilroy for “Nightcrawler”
Eliza Hittman for “It Felt Like Love”
Justin Simien for “Dear White People”
Best Actor
Bill Hader in “The Skeleton Twins”
Oscar Isaac in “A Most Violent Year”
Michael Keaton in “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)” *WINNER
Miles Teller in “Whiplash”
Special Gotham Jury Award
Best Actress
Patricia Arquette in
Gugu Mbatha-Raw in “Beyond the Lights”
Julianne Moore in “Still Alice” *WINNER
Scarlett Johansson in
Mia Wasikowska in “Tracks”
Breakthrough Actor
Riz Ahmed in “Nightcrawler”
Macon Blair in “Blue Ruin”
Ellar Coltrane in
Joey King in “Wish I Was Here”
Jenny Slate in
Tessa Thompson in “Dear White People” * WINNER
Spotlight on Women Filmmakers ‘Live the Dream’ Grant
Garrett Bradley, director, “Below Dreams”
Claire Carré, director, “Embers”
Chloé Zhao, director, “Songs My Brothers Taught Me” *WINNER
“Actress”
“Birdman”
“Boyhood” *WINNER
“Citizenfour”
“Coherence”
“Dear White People”
“A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night”
“The Grand Budapest Hotel”
“It Felt Like Love”
“Life Itself”
“Love Is Strange”
“Manakamana”
“Nightcrawler”
“Point and Shoot”
“Under the Skin”