Women were among the big winners at last night’s IFP Gotham Awards. Not only did Chloé Zhao’s Western, “The Rider,” take home the top prize, but women-driven and -created shows won both episodic awards and “Eighth Grade” star Elsie Fisher received the Breakthrough Actor Award.
“I am so thankful to be up here,” Fisher said as she accepted her prize, per Deadline. “Acting is something I was considering quitting. …. Me from two years ago would be really proud of me right now and I’m really thankful for that.”
“Eighth Grade” sees Fisher playing Kayla, an anxious teen trying to survive her last week of middle school. Fisher has been receiving raves for her naturalistic, heartbreaking performance since the film’s premiere at Sundance earlier this year.
“The Rider,” Zhao’s portrait of a cowboy trying to rebuild his life after a severe head injury, won Best Feature, the night’s biggest award. “Killing Eve,” Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s spy series about two women (Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer) caught in an international game of cat and mouse, nabbed Breakthrough Series – Long Form. Meanwhile, Rae Leone Allen and Yaani Supreme’s “195 Lewis” picked up Breakthrough Series – Short Form. The web series centers on a Black lesbian couple navigating their newly-polyamorous relationship.
Toni Collette won Best Actress for her turn as a mother haunted by her family — via ghosts and DNA — in horror hit “Hereditary.” TV host and chef Sandra Lee and the women of period tragicomedy “The Favourite” (Rachel Weisz, Olivia Colman, and Emma Stone) accepted previously-announced awards. The former was presented with the Made in NY Award, and the latter the ensemble acting award.
Weisz was also honored with a career tribute. The Oscar winner used her acceptance speech to highlight the importance of independent film. “[Indie films] show our humanity in all our messiness and all our glory,” she stressed, adding they “are very, very difficult to get made.” She used “The Favourite” as an example, mentioning it took 20 years to make it to theaters. It was apparently worth the wait: the film recently opened with the best opening screen average of 2018.
All of the female IFP Gotham Award winners are below. List adapted from Deadline.
BEST FEATURE
The Rider
Chloé Zhao, director; Bert Hamelinck, Sacha Ben Harroche, Mollye Asher, Chloé Zhao, producers (Sony Pictures Classics)
AUDIENCE AWARD
Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
Morgan Neville, director; Morgan Neville, Caryn Capotosto, Nicholas Ma, producers (Focus Features)
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Hale County This Morning, This Evening
RaMell Ross, director; RaMell Ross, Joslyn Barnes, Su Kim, producers (The Cinema Guild)
BEST ACTRESS
Toni Collette in Hereditary (A24)
BREAKTHROUGH ACTOR
Elsie Fisher in Eighth Grade (A24)
BREAKTHROUGH SERIES – LONG FORM
Killing Eve, Sally Woodward Gentle, Lee Morris, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, executive producers (BBC America)
BREAKTHROUGH SERIES – SHORT FORM
195 Lewis, Chanelle Aponte Pearson and Rae Leone Allen, creators
