Gotham Independent Film Awards to be announced Monday

New York, NY (October 16, 2010) – The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP), the nation’s oldest and largest organization of independent filmmakers announced today that Elvis Mitchell will host a live webcast to reveal the nominees for the 20th Anniversary Gotham Independent Film Awards™ on Monday, October 18th.
 
Signaling the official kick-off to the film awards season, the Gotham Independent Film Awards™ nominations will be announced at 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. / PT to a global audience on UStream TV at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/gotham-independent-film-awards-2010.  There will also be a link from IFP’s website.  Mitchell, currently host of the public radio show The Treatment, as well as the newly crowned co-host of the revamped TV series Roger Ebert Presents At The Movies, set to air on PBS in January 2011, will announce the Gotham Award nominations in six competitive awards categories including Best Feature, Best Documentary,  the Alfred Dunhill Breakthrough Director and  Breakthrough Actor Awards, Best Ensemble Performance and the Royal Bank of Canada, Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You Award.   The Festival Genius Audience Award nominees will be announced early November.
 
“As a New Yorker, I’m thrilled to be part of an event that’s so important to the independent film world,” said Mitchell.
 
“We are very excited to announce this year’s 20th Anniversary Gotham Awards nominees live and streaming on line,” said Joana Vicente, executive director of IFP. “Elvis is a highly regarded film critic whose decades of reviews have cemented him as a formidable presence in the film world.”
 
IFP’s 20th Anniversary Gotham Independent Film Awards™ ceremony will be held on Monday, November 29th at Cipriani Wall Street.  In addition to the competitive awards, actors Robert Duvall and Hilary Swank, director Darren Aronofsky and Focus Features’ CEO, James Schamus will each be presented with a career tribute.
 
As the first major awards of the film season, the Gotham Independent Film Awards™ provide critical early recognition and media attention to worthy independent films. Previous winners for Best Feature and Best Documentary include THE HURT LOCKER (2009), FOOD, INC (2009), FROZEN RIVER (2008), TROUBLE THE WATER (2008), INTO THE WILD (2007), SICKO (2007), HALF NELSON (2006) and CAPOTE (2005). The awards are also unique for their ability to assist in catapulting award recipients prominently into national awards season attention, including recent winners and ultimate Oscar® contenders:  feature winners; THE HURT LOCKER (2009); Breakthrough Actors, Melissa Leo (2008), Ellen Page (2007), Rinko Kikuchi (2006) and Amy Adams (2005).