Sony Pictures Classics and helmer Bennett Miller’s “Capote” took the top honor as best pic at the Independent Feature Project’s 15th annual Gotham Awards on Wednesday night. Miller walked away with the breakthrough director award.
“Capote” — starring Philip Seymour Hoffman as Truman Capote obsessively researching his groundbreaking work “In Cold Blood” — beat Ang Lee’s “Brokeback Mountain,” David Cronenberg’s “A History of Violence,” Lodge Kerrigan’s “Keane” and Miranda July’s “Me and You and Everyone We Know.”
Awards were hosted by Kyra Sedgwick at Gotham’s Chelsea Piers and will air Dec. 6 on NYC TV.
On the docu front, Henry-Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro’s Sundance sensation “Murderball,” distribbed earlier this year by ThinkFilm, won top honors. Pic follows the trials of the U.S. quadriplegic rugby club.
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“Murderball” rolled over Dayna Goldfine and Dan Geller’s “Ballets Russes,” Alex Gibney’s “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room,” Werner Herzog’s “Grizzly Man” and Michael Almereyda’s “William Eggleston in the Real World” to victory.
Another Sony Classics pic, “Junebug,” also struck gold at the Gothams, as pic’s star Amy Adams drew the breakthrough actor nod. Adams also won Sundance’s top acting prize when the pic, by Phil Morrison, preemed earlier this year.
Acting ensemble honors went to the cast of Noah Baumbach’s offbeat family drama “The Squid and the Whale,” which includes Jeff Daniels, Laura Linney, Jesse Eisenberg, Owen Kline, William Baldwin and Anna Paquin.
Pic, being distribbed by Samuel Goldwyn Films and Sony Pictures Releasing Intl., picked up six noms to lead all contenders for the 2006 Independent Spirit Awards earlier in the week.
Caveh Zahedi’s “I Am a Sex Addict” scored the Gothams’ Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You honor, which lauds festival pics that do not have a distribution deal.
Matt Dillon and Jim Jarmusch received tributes, and the kiddie dance docu “Mad Hot Ballroom” won the honorary Celebrate New York Award.
According to the IFP, headed by Michelle Byrd, the Gothams celebrate “authentic voices behind and in front of the camera in films made this year.” Awards ceremony has retooled itself in recent years to become more of a competitive event with an awards-season slot on the calendar rather than solely a New York-centric bash.