The Independent Filmmaker Project announced the nominees for its Gotham Independent Film Awards. Established in 1991, the Gotham Independent Film Awards celebrate independent filmmakers.
Ira Sachs' Love Is Strangereceived a nomination for Best Feature. The film stars John Lithgow and Alfred Molina as Ben and George, newlyweds who have been together for decades. George losses his teaching job when word of their marriage reaches his boss and the couple are forced to live apart while they search for a new home they can actually afford. Also nominated in that category is Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) which follows an aging actor (Michael Keaton) famous for once playing a superhero as he tries to re-launch his career with a Broadway play. Emma Stone plays his estranged lesbian daughter, who struggles to reconnect as her father tries to recover his life, career and family.
Gay director Justin Simien is nominated in the Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award category for Dear White People. The comedy centers on four Black students (one of whom is gay) at the fictional Winchester University in the weeks leading up to an annual frat party where students use blackface, afro wigs and more. Out writer, director and producer Justin Simien examines race, class and sexual orientation on liberal arts campuses in a generation that claims to be both "post-race" and "post Glee." Finally, Bill Hader received a Best Actor nod for his role in The Skeleton Twins. The film stars Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader as her gay twin brother, Milo, who reunite after years of separation and following near death experiences.
The Gotham Independent Film Awards will be held on Monday, December 1, 2014 in New York.