What 'Moonlight' Gotham Awards wins could mean for the Oscars
The movie became one of the big winners at the Gotham Independent Film Awards, taking prizes including best feature. Does this give it a better chance at the Oscars?
'Moonlight' stars Ashton Sanders.
A24 Films/AP
The film 鈥淢oonlight鈥� was a big winner at the Gotham Independent Film Awards, the latest prizes to be presented as the Oscars race continues and many watch to see what movies will become Academy Awards frontrunners.
鈥淢oonlight,鈥� which stars Alex R. Hibbert, Ashton Sanders, Trevante Rhodes, and Mahershala Ali, won awards including best feature and best ensemble at the Gotham Independent Film Awards.
The film tells the story of a young African-American man at various stages of his life and has received very positive reviews. Prior to the Gotham Independent Film Awards, 鈥淢oonlight鈥� had already been part of the awards season discussion.聽
What relationship do the Gotham Independent Film Awards have to the Oscars? In the past two years, those behind the Gotham Awards selected 鈥淪potlight鈥� and 鈥淏irdman鈥� for best feature, which are the two movies that went on to win the best picture Oscar that year.聽
But the match-up between Gotham best feature winner and eventual best picture winner was more rare before that, with the 2008 movie 鈥淭he Hurt Locker鈥� the only movie to take both prizes between 2005 and 2013.
Does 鈥淢oonlight鈥� winning best feature at the Gotham Awards make the film鈥檚 chances better at the Oscars? called the win 鈥減erhaps a sign of things to come this awards season.鈥� Mr. Setoodeh also pointed out the match-up with 鈥淪potlight鈥� and 鈥淏irdman,鈥� and wrote, 鈥淎t the least, the Gothams 鈥� will offer a boost of momentum for 鈥楳oonlight.鈥欌�澛�
wrote that the wins by 鈥淢oonlight鈥� aren鈥檛 a guarantee of Oscars success, but that the wins might remind the Hollywood community about the film.聽
鈥淭he handful of Gotham voters is miles away from being a scientific sample for the large pool of ultimate Academy voters,鈥� Mr. Feinberg wrote, adding 鈥淲hat the Gothams can 鈥� and may well 鈥� do is point Oscar voters' attention in certain directions.鈥�