“Everything Everywhere All at Once,” a multiverse-spanning adventure, scored at the 32nd annual Gotham Awards, capturing the prize for best feature. It also nabbed a best supporting performance honor for Ke Huy Quan, a former child star best known for his work in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” who returned to acting after a nearly 20-year hiatus.
“Oftentimes it is in independent films, where actors who otherwise wouldn’t get a chance, find their opportunities,” Quan said in an emotional speech. “I was that actor.”
Other notable winners included Danielle Deadwyler, who nabbed a best leading performance prize for her work as a grieving mother in “Till.” The Gothams’ acting prizes are gender-neutral, which meant that Deadwyler not only competed with the likes of Cate Blanchett in “Tár,” but that she also beat out contenders such as Brendan Fraser in “The Whale” and Paul Mescal in “Aftersun.”
“Tár” won an award for its screenplay, while Charlotte Wells picked up a breakthrough director prize for her work on “Aftersun,” a semi-autobiographical look at her troubled relationship with her father.
The celebration marked the official start of awards season, with many of the performers and filmmakers who are expected to be vying for major honors through the fall and winter making their first appearance on the trail. That lent an air of giddiness to the occasion, as guests table-hopped, their greetings and chatter threatening to drown out the acceptance speeches taking place a few feet away on stage.
The event, which was hosted at New York’s Cipriani Wall Street, included tributes to seasoned Hollywood veterans like Adam Sandler and Michelle Williams, as well as special distinctions given to “The Woman King” director Gina Prince-Bythewood, Focus Features and the cast of Hulu’s “Fire Island.” Sandler brought the house down reading a speech that he said had been written by his daughters, Sadie and Sunny, intoning in an exaggerated Southern drawl.
“While daddy is with you tonight, we’re doing everything we’re not allowed to do when daddy is home, like eat his Yodels or try on his Spanx or, dare we say, laugh out loud at Ben Stiller movies,” he joked. “The last time daddy caught us chuckling away at the ‘Meet the Parents’ trilogy, he immediately stormed into the room he calls ‘The Screaming Room,’ which we just call ‘the shower,’ and bellowed out the phrase, ‘only the Sandman makes people laugh. Fuck every other comedian.’”
But the night’s tributes also took on a more somber side. Sidney Poitier, known for roles in films like 1967’s “In the Heat of the Night” and 1958’s “The Defiant Ones,” was honored with the Icon Tribute award, having died earlier this year at the age of 94. “The Harder They Fall” actor Jonathan Majors, presented the award, while reading a note that he wrote to the acting legend posthumously, paying tribute to his barrier-atomizing career.
The night also included an important reminder that the pandemic that has upended the independent film landscape remains stubbornly with us. Steven Spielberg, who had intended to give the tribute prize to Williams for her work in his new film, “The Fabelmans,” had to opt out at the last minute, replaced by Paul Dano, her co-star. The director, it seems, had contracted COVID.
“At least he got it out of the way early,” one attendee muttered upon hearing the news.
See the full list of winners and nominees below.
BREAKTHROUGH TELEVISION UNDER 40 MINUTES
“Abbott Elementary” (ABC)
“As We See It” (Amazon Prime Video)
“Mo” (Netflix) – WINNER
“Rap Sh!t” (HBO Max)
“Somebody, Somewhere” (HBO)
BREAKTHROUGH TELEVISION OVER 40 MINUTES
“Pachinko” (Apple+) – WINNER
“Severance” (Apple+)
“Station Eleven” (HBO Max)
“This Is Going To Hurt” (AMC+)
“Yellowjackets” (Showtime)
TELEVISION PERFORMERS
Bilal Baig (“Sort Of”)
Ayo Edebiri (“The Bear”)
Janelle James (“Abbott Elementary”)
Matilda Lawler (“Station Eleven”)
Britt Lower (“Severance”)
Melanie Lynskey (“Yellowjackets”)
Sue Ann Pien (“As We See It”)
Minha Kim (“Pachinko”)
Zahn McClarnon (“Dark Winds”)
Ben Whishaw (“This Is Going To Hurt”) – WINNER
BREAKTHROUGH NonFICTION SERIES
“The Andy Warhol Diaries”
“The Last Movie Stars”
“Mind Over Murder”
“The Rehearsal”
“We Need to Talk about Cosby” – WINNER
BREAKTHROUGH DIRECTOR
Charlotte Wells (“Aftersun”) – WINNER
Owen Kline (“Funny Pages”)
Elegance Bratton (“The Inspection”)
Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic (“Murina”)
Beth De Araújo (“Soft & Quiet”)
Jane Schoenbrun (“We’re All Going to the World’s Fair”)
BEST SCREENPLAY
Kogonada (“After Yang”)
James Gray (“Armageddon Time”)
Lena Dunham (“Catherine Called Birdy”)
Todd Field (“Tár”) – WINNER
Sarah Polley (“Women Talking”)
BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMER
Frankie Corio (“Aftersun”)
Kali Reis (“Catch the Fair One”)
Gracija Flipovic (“Murina”) – WINNER
Anna Diop (“Nanny”)
Anna Cobb (“We’re All Going to the World’s Fair”)
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE
Mark Rylance (“Bones and All”)
Brian Tyree Henry (“Causeway”)
Ke Huy Quan (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) – WINNER
Raúl Castillo (“The Inspection”)
Gabrielle Union (“The Inspection”)
Nina Hoss (“Tár”)
Noémie Merlant (“Tár”)
Hong Chau (“The Whale”)
Ben Whishaw (“Women Talking”)
Jessie Buckley (“Women Talking”)
OUTSTANDING LEAD PERFORMANCE
Cate Blanchett (“Tár”)
Danielle Deadwyler (“Till”) – WINNER
Dale Dickey (“A Love Song”)
Colin Farrell (“After Yang”)
Brendan Fraser (“The Whale”)
Paul Mescal (“Aftersun”)
Thandiwe Newton (“God’s Country”)
Aubrey Plaza (“Emily the Criminal”)
Taylor Russell (“Bones and All”)
Michelle Yeoh(“Everything Everywhere All At Once”)
BEST INTERNATIonAL FEATURE
“Athena”
“The Banshees of Inisherin”
“Corsage”
“Decision to Leave”
“Happening” – WINNER
“Saint Omer”
BEST documentARY FEATURE
“All That Breathes” – WINNER
“All the Beauty and the Bloodshed”
“I Didn’t See You There”
“The Territory”
“What We Leave Behind”
BEST FEATURE
“Aftersun”
“The Cathedral”
“Dos Estaciones”
“Everything Everywhere All at Once” – WINNER
“Tár”
