Ah, awards season, that magical time of year when film buffs must periodically turn off their Google alerts and power down their computers, to briefly stem the onslaught of honors coming from every organization under the sun. The boulder has already begun rolling down the hill—we’ve already reported the nominations for the Indie Spirit Awards and the list of potential animated Oscar contenders—and now the Gotham Independent Film Awards have named their 2014 winners.
Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Birdman (Or The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance) picked up the Best Feature award, beating out contenders like Boyhood, Under The Skin, and The Grand Budapest Hotel. Michael Keaton also won Best Actor for Birdman, while Julianne Moore won Best Actress for her portrayal of a woman suffering from Alzheimer’s in Still Alice. The Edward Snowden film CITIZENFOUR claimed Best Documentary, while Boyhood took the Audience Award.
The Breakthrough Director and Actor categories had some of the more interesting and unexpected choices, with Ana Lily Amirpour picking up the former for A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night and Tessa Thompson taking the latter for her role in Dear White People. Chloé Zhao won the Spotlight On Women Filmmakers “Live The Dream” Grant for her forthcoming Songs My Brothers Taught Me, thereby (hopefully) ensuring the world will actually get to see that film. You can see the complete list of nominees and winners here. Concerned movie fans can learn how to disable their Google alerts here.