The film, about the Boston Globe's Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting on sex abuse by Catholic priests, also was honored for its screenplay by McCarthy and
Josh Singer, and it was given a special award for its ensemble cast that
includes Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams. The Globe reporters
who inspired the film were in attendance, too, Monday night at the dinner held
at Cipriani's Wall Street in lower Manhattan.
The Gothams aren't a regular predictor of Oscar winners, though its top film last year — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's "Birdman (or The Unexpected Virtue of
Ignorance)" — went on to win best picture at the Academy Awards. (Its 2013 pick,
the Coen brothers' "Inside Llewyn Davis" wasn't nominated.)
But in the early going, this year's Oscar race is seen as wide open, with contenders including Ridley Scott's space adventure hit "The Martian,"
Inarritu's upcoming frontier epic "The Revenant" and Todd Haynes' 1950s drama
"Carol." The strong support from the Gothams, which are presented by the
Independent Filmmaker Project, is an early validation of the front-runner status
of "Spotlight."
Awards were otherwise spread among a wide group of unconventional independent films.
Sean Baker's "Tangerine" emerged as one of the night's biggest winners, taking the audience award for best film and winning breakthrough actor for Maya
Taylor. The film, shot in Los Angeles on iPhones, is about a pair of Los Angeles
transgender prostitutes played by Taylor and Kitana Kiki Rodriguez, who are
themselves transgender actors.
"They have proven that trans talent is out there," said Baker, accepting the award for Taylor, whom he said missed her flight. "It's just up to us to look,
to cast."
Best actor went to Paul Dano for his performance as the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson in "Love & Mercy." The 23-year-old British actress Bel Powley took
best actress for the '70s San Francisco coming-of-age drama "The Diary of a
Teenage Girl."
Powley, who won over both Cate Blanchett ("Carol") and Brie Larson ("Room"), credited director Marielle Heller for her breakthrough role: "She's taught me
you don't need to settle to be someone's girlfriend in a movie."
The program included tributes to Haynes, Robert Redford, Helen Mirren and veteran producer Steve Golin, whose most recent works are "The Revenant" and
"Spotlight."
Mirren, who co-stars in "Trumbo," the tale of blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, regaled the crowd with a story about whether the sight of her in costume
as Queen Elizabeth II had diminished the amorousness of her husband, Taylor
Hackford. (It hadn't.) When the laughter subsided, Mirren paused: "This isn't on
television, is it?" (It wasn't but it was streamed online.)
Mirren struck a more somber tone in calling for release of poet Ashraf Fayadh, who was recently sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia for blasphemy.
Redford, who was introduced by Dan Rather, whom he plays in the CBS News drama "Truth," said Rather's compliments and the Gotham honor "kind of makes me
shy, believe it or not. But I'll take it."
Reflecting on his career, Redford said he was always motivated by "the work."
"I wasn't really prepared for success when success came. It felt good, obviously," said Redford. "I realized that when you have success, you want to be
a little careful because success has two sides to it. For me, success wasn't
something to embrace but to shadow box with."
Joshua Oppenheimer's "The Look of Silence," a companion piece to his award-winning "The Act of Killing," won best documentary.
This year's Gotham Awards added categories for television and digital content. Winning best long-form series was the USA series "Mr. Robot."
DAMASCUS, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Islamic State (IS) militant group claimed on Friday that an American female hostage was killed by Jordanian airstrikes
against IS positions in Syria's northern province of al-Raqqa, a monitoring
group reported.
Citing a report posted on Twitter by the IS, the SITE monitoring group said that Kayla Jean Mueller was killed when she was buried beneath the rubble of a
building, which had collapsed as a result of a Jordanian airstrikes against IS
in al-Raqqa.
The Islamic State (IS) claimed that an American female hostage was killed when a Jordanian aircraft struck the building in which she was located in
Syria's ar-Raqqah governorate.
"The failed Jordanian aircraft killed an American female hostage," the IS report was cited by SITE as stating.
The IS report added that "the criminal Crusader coalition aircraft bombarded a site outside the city of al-Raqqa today at noon while the people were
performing the Friday prayer. The air assaults were continuous on the same
location for more than an hour."
"It was confirmed to us (IS) the killing of an American female hostage by fire of the shells dropped on the site, and she is Kayla Jean Mueller," the IS
said.
Jordan has pledged that it would ramp up its attacks against the positions of the IS in Syria in retaliation to the execution of its captive pilot, who was
burned alive by the IS and his execution video went viral and stirred wide
public rage in Jordan.
Related:
Full story
EU launches new strategy for Syria, Iraq to face IS threat
BRUSSELS, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) has launched its first comprehensive strategy to tackle the crises in Syria and Iraq, the
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