Home Stretch For the Gothams

I would say I'm Gothamed out, but I think I can summon the energy for not only one last awards-show stand tonight at Chelsea Piers, but also another run around the Web for the latest Gothams-centric news flashes to while away your work day:

--No contest: Gregg Goldstein has the best Gothams preview out there, loaded with quotes from NYC insiders jawing over what's left of the event's indie cred. My top three, in no particular order (well, unless you count chronological):

IFP executive director Michelle Byrd: "I don't think the Gotham Awards are about independent film."

Producer/IFP board member Anthony Bregman: "Half Nelson gains by being grouped together with bigger films and winning."

Sony Classics co-president Tom Bernard: "If the founding fathers of the IFP were choosing the nominees, they would have all independent films as representative of the best films out there."

There's plenty more to read at the Hollywood Reporter -- and you really should read it.

--Anthony Kaufman chimes in at Variety with his own state-of-the-Gothams survey, noting this observation from Byrd:

Byrd argues that the higher-profile films don't bring any more money into IFP's bank accounts. "I need to address this idea that somehow if you have studio films in the mix, it'll translate into dollars for the organization," she says. "Quite honestly, we've consistently raised under a million dollars (with the event) for the past three to four years."

Elsewhere in the piece, the Half Nelson gang exults, Ira Deutchman spins and and unnamed insider laments: "I guess it is still all about business and media coverage." My sentiments exactly. Media pigs.

--Also in Variety: profiles of honorees Kate Winslet, Edward Norton, Tim Robbins and Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner.

--At the Filmmaker Magazine site, Jamie Stuart profiles cinematographer Ellen Kuras, another of this year's career achievement award recipients. Moreover, Stuart pries her for information about lensing Gondry's latest (hint: "VHS is not dead"), shooting the Stones alongside Martin Scorsese and Robert Richardson and extracting all kinds of fulsome New York film culture praise. Awww! We love her too.

--David Poland double takes, then analyzes the counterintuition at hand in comparing this year's Independent Spirit Awards nominations to those of the Gothams. Bottom line: "(A)s much as I want to embrace this movie back towards truer indies, I have to imagine it will not be repeated next year and I continue to wonder, 'What is the real goal here?' " Especially if it's not Oscar-related. I mean, really -- all this yawning is contagious.

Posted at November 29, 2006 1:55 PM