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Gotham Award Nominees Include The Master And Moonrise Kingdom; Gary King’s Schermann Song Up For Audience Award

It is awards season, after all.

Kicking down the awards season door this year is the New York-based Gotham Awards, and what a way to do just that. The Independent Filmmaker Project has announced their nominees for the Gotham Independent Film Awards and have named five films as Best Picture. Up for the award are Bernie, The Loneliest Planet, The Master, Middle Of Nowhere and Moonrise Kingdom.

Among other award nominees are both How To Survive A Plague and Room 237 which are up for best documentary, and also Safety Not Guaranteed which is up for best ensemble. However, the really interesting bit of news here is that among the films up for the audience award is none other than indie director Gary King’s amazingly well received musical (and the recent winner of the top prize at London’s Raindance Film Festival) How Do You Write A Joe Schermann Song.

The film has been playing the festival circuit all year, and as a huge fan of the picture (I saw it earlier this year at the Waterfront Film Festival and absolutely flipped for it) I could not be happier. The big news here is that films like The Master and even something like Moonrise Kingdom are continuing to have a great deal of buzz and hype deep into awards season, but the fact that a gem of an indie like this is getting some buzz is really fantastic. Here are the full nominees, and you can vote for the audience award HERE.

Best Feature

Bernie,  Richard Linklater, director; Richard Linklater, Ginger Sledge, Celine Rattray, Martin Shafer, Liz Glotzer, Matt Williams, David McFadzean, Judd Payne, Dete Meserve, producers (Millennium Entertainment)

The Loneliest Planet,  Julia Loktev, director; Jay Van Hoy, Lars Knudsen, Helge Albers, Marie Therese Guirgis, producers (Sundance Selects)

The Master,  Paul Thomas Anderson, director; Joanne Sellar, Daniel Lupi, Paul Thomas Anderson, Megan Ellison, producers (The Weinstein Company)

Middle of Nowhere,  Ava DuVernay, director; Howard Barish, Ava DuVernay, Paul Garnes, producers (AFFRM and Participant Media)

Moonrise Kingdom,  Wes Anderson, director; Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales, Jeremy Dawson, producers (Focus Features)

Best Documentary

Detropia,  Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, directors; Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady, Craig Atkinson, producers (Loki Films)

How to Survive a Plague,  David France, director; Howard Gertler, David France, producers (Sundance Selects)

Marina Abramović: The Artist is Present,Matthew Akers, director; Jeff Dupre, Maro Chermayeff, producers (HBO Documentary Films and Music Box Films)

Room 237.  Rodney Ascher, director; Tim Kirk, producer (IFC Midnight)

The Waiting Room.  Peter Nicks, director; Peter Nicks, Linda Davis, William B. Hirsch, producers (International Film Circuit)

Best Ensemble Performance

Bernie,  Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, Matthew McConaughey (Millennium Entertainment)

Moonrise Kingdom,  Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward, Jason Schwartzman, Bob Balaban (Focus Features)

Safety Not Guaranteed,  Aubrey Plaza, Mark Duplass, Jake Johnson, Karan Soni, Jenica Bergere, Kristen Bell, Jeff Garlin, Mary Lynn Rajskub (Film District)

Silver Linings Playbook,  Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Jacki Weaver, Chris Tucker, Anupam Kher (The Weinstein Company)

Your Sister’s Sister,  Emily Blunt, Rosemarie Dewitt, Mark Duplass (IFC Films)

Breakthrough Director

Zal Batmanglij for  Sound of My Voice  (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky for  Francine  (Factory 25 and The Film Sales Company)

Jason Cortlund and Julia Halperin for  Now, Forager  (Argot Pictures)

Antonio Méndez Esparza for  Aquí y Allá (Here and There)  (Torch Films)

Benh Zeitlin for  Beasts of the Southern Wild  (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Breakthrough Actor

Mike Birbiglia in  Sleepwalk with Me  (IFC Films)

Emayatzy Corinealdi in  Middle of Nowhere  (AFFRM and Participant Media)

Thure Lindhardt in  Keep the Lights On  (Music Box Films)

Melanie Lynskey in  Hello, I Must Be Going  (Oscilloscope Laboratories)

Quvenzhané Wallis in  Beasts of the Southern Wild  (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You

Kid-Thing,  David Zellner, director; Nathan Zellner, Producer

An Oversimplification of Her Beauty,  Terence Nance, director; Terence Nance, Andrew Corkin, James Bartlett, producers

Red Flag,  Alex Karpovsky, director; Alex Karpovsky, Michael Bowes, producers

Sun Don’t Shine,  Amy Seimetz, director; Kim Sherman, Amy Seimetz, producers

Tiger Tail in Blue,  Frank V. Ross, director; Adam Donaghey, Drew Durepos, producers

Calvin Klein Spotlight on Women Filmmakers ‘˜Live the Dream’ Grant

Leah Meyerhoff, director,  I Believe In Unicorns

Stacie Passon, director,  Concussion

Visra Vichit Vadakan,  Karaoke Girl

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Joshua Brunsting

Josh is a critic, a member of the Online Film Critics Society, a wrestling nerd, a hip-hop head, a father, a cinephile and a man looking to make his stamp on the world, one word at a time.