
The 17th annual Gotham Awards were held in NYC last night. The awards celebrate the latest and greatest in independent filmmaking, and award juried prizes. IFP, the nation's largest organization of independent filmmakers, hosts it and It's quickly becoming the designated kickoff to awards season. The awards are becoming a barometer of which independent features are buzz-worthy at Oscar time. For example, "Half Nelson" starring Ryan Gosling won at the Gotham Awards last year and went on to win several MORE awards and an Oscar nomination for Gosling. Many journalists around me commented on how this year was twice as large as last year. You might ask, "around you, J. Harvey? How is this possible?" Because your blogging fairy godfather was there! In the pale and pudgy flesh! It was J. Harvey's first red carpet! Ever! A virgin no more! And let me tell you, I was nervous. Compared to all the SLRs hanging around, my camera was tiny. It was a total flashback to high school at first, and we'll leave it at that.
Award winners included the adorable Ellen Page for Breakthrough Actor in "Juno"; mercurial crankcase Sean Penn's "Into The Wild" was named Best Feature; and hellion Michael Moore won Best Documentary for "Sicko".
More of J. Harvey's coverage of the 17th annual Gotham Awards, after the jump!





35 more photos from J. Harvey's trip to the Gotham Awards are after the jump, featuring Keri Russell, Laura Linney, Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Kerry Washington, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Emile Hirsch, Ellen Page, Kyra Sedgwick, Jeffrey Wright and more!
