Tag Archives: IFP

Fernanda Valadez’s “Identifying Features” Wins Gotham Awards’ Inaugural Best International Feature Award

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Fernanda Valadez is in a New York state of mind…

The Gotham Film and Media Institute’s 30th annual Gotham Awards have been revealed virtually, with the Mexican filmmaker taking home a prize.

Fernanda Valadez

Valadez’s critically acclaimed Identifying Features (Sin Señas Particulares) picked up the inaugural award for Best International Feature.

The drama premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won the Audience Award: World Cinema Dramatic and the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Best Screenplay.

Co-written by Valadez and Astrid Rondero, the film centers on the many immigrants who often go missing or die on their journeys. Most of the main characters are mothers trying to find their children.

IFP Executive Director Jeffrey Sharp welcomed the virtual audience and the night featured a handful of in-person presenters including Renee Elise Goldsberry, Cristin Milioti, Hunter Schafer, Padma Lakshmi, Michael Shannon and Noma Dumezweni, as well as remote presenters such as Zachary Quinto, Lupita Nyong’o, Anthony Mackie, Rebecca Hall and Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre.

Here’s the full list of winners below.

BEST FEATURE: Nomadland
BEST DOCUMENTARY – TIE A Thousand Cuts & Time
BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE: Identifying Features
BINGHAM RAY BREAKTHROUGH DIRECTOR AWARD: Andrew Patterson, The Vast of Night
BEST SCREENPLAY – TIE: The Forty-Year-Old Version, Radha Blank & Fourteen, Dan Sallitt
BEST ACTOR: Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal
BEST ACTRESS: Nicole Beharie, Miss Juneteenth
BREAKTHROUGH ACTOR: Kingsley Ben-Adir, One Night in Miami…
BREAKTHROUGH SERIES – LONG FORMAT (40-PLUS MINUTES PER EPISODE): Watchmen
BREAKTHROUGH SERIES – SHORT FORMAT (LESS THAN 40 MINUTES PER EPISODE): I May Destroy You
ACTRESS TRIBUTE: Viola Davis
ACTOR TRIBUTE: Chadwick Boseman
ENSEMBLE TRIBUTE: The cast of The Trial of the Chicago 7: Sacha Baron Cohen, Eddie Redmayne, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jeremy Strong, Mark Rylance, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Keaton, Frank Langella, John Carroll Lynch, Alex Sharp, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Caitlin Fitzgerald, Alice Kremelberg, and Ben Shenkman.
DIRECTOR’S TRIBUTE: Steve McQueen
INDUSTRY TRIBUTE: Ryan Murphy
MADE IN N.Y. AWARD: Jeffrey Wright
GOTHAM AUDIENCE AWARD: Nomadland

Joan Nadal Vives, Rafael Nadal’s Teen Cousin, Makes Professional Tennis Debut

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There’s a new Nadal taking the court… And his name is Joan Nadal Vives.

The 16-year-old tennis player, the son of Toni and cousin of Rafael Nadal, has made his debut as a professional player.

Joan Nadal Vives

Joan, a left-handed player like his cousin Rafa, is one of Rafa’s uncle Toni’s two sons.

In his first professional tennis match, Joan lost 6-1, 6-3 to Turkey’s Kuzey Cekirge, who is ranked no. 1312, in the first round of a tournament ITF held in Manacor.

Joan’s registration into the Manacor event happened thanks to a wildcard. In his career as a junior, Joan had good results, but it must be remembered that Rafa, at 16, was very close to the top-200 in the ATP rankings, while 17-year-old Carlos Alcaraz, his countryman, is currently very close to entering the Top-100.

Joan has an older brother who is 17 years old, named Toni, like his father, who also plays tennis. Twenty years after his cousin Rafa did it in an F10 held in Madrid, Joan surely will never forget the day of his debut as a professional tennis player.

Curiously, Rafael Nadal started his professional career with a defeat against Spanish player Guillermo Platel in straight sets.

Méndez Esparza Receives Gotham Independent Film Awards Nod

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Antonio Méndez Esparza is having a notable year…

Antonio Méndez Esparza

The 26-year-old Spanish filmmaker has earned a Gotham Independent Film Awards nomination in the Breakthrough Director category.

Méndez Esparza was recognized for his exceptional work on his debut feature film Aquí y Allá (Here and There).

Aquí y Allá

The film, which took top honors at the Critics’ Week sidebar at the Cannes Film Festival, centers on Pedro, a Mexican man who returns home to a small mountain village in Guerrero, after years of working in the US. He finds his daughters older, and more distant than he imagined, while his wife still has the same smile. Having saved money from two trips to the U.S., he hopes to now finally make a better life with his family, and even to pursue his own dreams on the side by starting a band: the Copa Kings.

Meanwhile, Parks and Recreation’s Aubrey Plaza has been recognized for her work on the feature film Safety Not Guaranteed, a film that centers on three magazine employees who head out on an assignment to interview a guy who placed a classified ad seeking a companion for time travel.

The 28-year-old half-Puerto Rican actress/comedian and her co-stars in the film – Mark Duplass, Jake Johnson, Karan Soni, Jenica Bergere, Kristen Bell, Jeff Garlin and Mary Lynn Rajskub – received a nod in the Best Ensemble Performance category.

The Gotham Independent Film Awards are handed out by the Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP), the nation’s oldest and largest organization of independent filmmakers.

The awards signal the kick-off to Hollywood’s awards season. In all, Gotham Independent Film Award nominations were given to a total of 26 films across six competitive categories: Best Feature, Best Documentary, Breakthrough Director, Breakthrough Actor, Best Ensemble Performance, and Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You.

The Gotham Awards ceremony will be held on Monday, November 26th in Manhattan. In addition to the competitive awards, actors Marion Cotillard and Matt Damon, director David O. Russell, and Participant Media founder Jeff Skoll will each be presented with a career tribute.

Here’s a look at the categories with Latinos being recognized:

Best Ensemble Performance

– Bernie, Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, Matthew McConaughey (Millennium Entertainment)
– Moonrise Kingdom, Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward, Jason Schwartzman, Bob Balaban (Focus Features)
– Safety Not Guaranteed, Aubrey Plaza, Mark Duplass, Jake Johnson, Karan Soni, Jenica Bergere, Kristen Bell, Jeff Garlin, Mary Lynn Rajskub (Film District)
– Silver Linings Playbook, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Jacki Weaver, Chris Tucker, Anupam Kher (The Weinstein Company)
– Your Sister’s Sister, Emily Blunt, Rosemarie Dewitt, Mark Duplass (IFC Films)

Breakthrough Director

– Zal Batmanglij for Sound of My Voice (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
– Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky for Francine (Factory 25 and The Film Sales Company)
– Jason Cortlund and Julia Halperin for Now, Forager (Argot Pictures)
– Antonio Méndez Esparza for Aquí y Allá (Here and There) (Torch Films)
– Benh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild (Fox Searchlight Pictures)