U.S. Latinx and Latin American Talent Nominated for the Gotham Awards

Clockwise from top left: Natalie Morales; Ale Ulman and Amalia Ulman; Jessica Beshir; Colman Domingo; Oscar Isaac; and Edson Oda.

The Gotham Film & Media Institute announced this morning the nominees for the 31st edition of the Gotham Independent Film Awards, presented annually to the makers of independent films at a ceremony in New York City, which includes several U.S. Latinx and Latin American nominees.

Faya Dayi by Mexican-Ethiopian director Jessica Beshir was nominated for Best Documentary Feature. The film is a spiritual journey into the rituals of khat, a leaf that Sufi Muslims have chewed for centuries for religious meditations and Ethiopia's most lucrative cash crop.

Argentine-Swiss Azor by Andreas Fontana was nominated for Best International Feature. Set in the late 1970s Argentina, the political thriller follows a Swiss banker who arrives in Buenos Aires to replace a mysteriously missing colleague and placate their moneyed clientele. Moving through the smoke-filled lounges and lush gardens of a society under intense surveillance, he finds himself untangling a sinister web of colonialism, high finance, and a nation’s “Dirty War.”

Japanese Brazilian writer-director Edson Oda, who is based in Los Angeles received a nomination for the Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award for his debut feature film Nine Days, a fantastical drama centered on an arbiter of souls who stationed in a cozy house located in a desolate desert, and who has to interview five unborn souls to determine which one can be given life on Earth.

Argentine-Spanish director Amalia Ulman received two nominations for the acclaimed debut feature El Planeta: for Best Screenplay and for Breakthrough Performer. Set amidst the devastation of post-crisis Spain, the film follows mother and daughter who bluff and grift to keep up the lifestyle they think they deserve, bonding over common tragedy and an impending eviction.

Also nominated in the Breakthrough Performer competition is Cuban-American actor-director Natalie Morales for her role as Cariño in Language Lessons, the feature film that she directed. The American drama tells the story of a Spanish-language teacher and her student, who develop an unexpected friendship through Zoom conversations.

Afro-Guatemalan actor Colman Domingo earned a nomination for Outstanding Supporting Performance for his role as X in Zola by Panamanian-American director Janicza Bravo, while Guatemalan-American actor Oscar Isaac received a nomination for Outstanding Lead Performance for his role of William Tell in The Card Counter by Paul Schrader. Additionally, renowned Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck was nominated for his HBO series Exterminate All the Brutes for Breakthrough Nonfiction Series.

The winners of the 31st annual Gotham Awards will be announced at a ceremony that will take place on November 29 in New York City.