2010 Gotham Independent Film Awards winners

On Monday night in New York, the Independent Feature Project (IFP) presented their 20th annual Gotham Independent Film Awards. The Gotham Awards are an East Coast version of the Independent Spirit Awards, whose nominees will be announced today Tuesday, November 30. The big winner of the night was Debra Granik's Winter’s Bone which took Best Feature and Best Ensemble Performance. Surprisingly, however, the much-lauded performance by Jennifer Lawrence did not win the Breakthrough Performance award which went to Ronald Bronstein for Daddy Longlegs.

Kevin Asch was a bit of a surprise winner of the Breakthrough Director award for Holy Rollers. Many had felt Lena Dunham (Tiny Furniture) was the favourite. The Best Documentary prize went to the excellent Laura Poitras film The Oath, while the controversial documentary Waiting For ‘Superman’ by Davis Guggenheim took the Festival Genius award which was decided by online voting. Mike Ott's Littlerock was the winner of Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You.

The evening was hosted by Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci. Anne Hathaway (who will co-host the Oscars with James Franco) presented Focus Features CEO James Schamus with an honourary award. Schamus joked about the magic of cinema using a prostitution-vs.-pornography analogy: "by putting a camera in a room, you turn something completely illegal into something legal." Tribute awards were also given throughout the evening to Hilary Swank, Darren Aronofsky and finally Robert Duvall.

The list of nominees is available here.

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Complete list of 2010 Gotham Independent Film Awards winners

Best Feature
Winter’s Bone

Best Documentary
The Oath, directed by Laura Poitras

Best Ensemble Performance
Winter’s Bone

Breakthrough Director
Kevin Asch, Holy Rollers

Breakthrough Actor
Ronald Bronstein, Daddy Longlegs

Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You
Littlerock, directed by Mike Ott

Festival Genius Audience Award
Waiting For ‘Superman’, directed by Davis Guggenheim

Honorary Awards
Darren Aronofsky, Hilary Swank, Robert Duvall, and James Schamus.