32nd Annual Gotham Awards POC Winners
Ke Huy Quan (top left), Shaunak Sen (bottom left), and Gina Prince-Bythewood (Right) - gotham awards
The 2022 Gotham Awards ceremony took place on November 28, 2022, at the Cipriani Wall Street in New York. Everything Everywhere All at Once was the big winner taking home two awards. A special tribute was given to the late-actor Sidney Poitier and acclaimed director Gina Prince-Bythewood.
The POC winners are listed alongside links of their acceptance speeches.
Outstanding Lead Performance: Danielle Deadwyler, Till
Outstanding Supporting Performance: Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Best Feature: Everything Everywhere All at Once (Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert, directors; Joe Russo, Anthony Russo, Mike Larocca, Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert, Jonathan Wang, producers)
Best Documentary Feature: All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen, director; Aman Mann, Shaunak Sen, Teddy Leifer, producers)
Breakthrough Series – Short Format: Mo (Mohammed Amer, Ramy Youssef, creators; Mohammed Amer, Ramy Youssef, Ravi Nandan, Hallie Sekoff, Solvan “Slick” Naim, Harris Danow, Luvh Rakhe, executive producers)
Breakthrough Series – Long Format (over 40 minutes): Pachinko (Soo Hugh, creator; Soo Hugh, Michael Ellenberg, Lindsey Springer, Theresa Kang-Lowe, Richard Middleton, Kogonada, Justin Cho, executive producers)
Breakthrough Nonfiction Series: We Need to Talk About Cosby (W. Kamau Bell, creator and director; W. Kamau Bell, Andrew Fried, Katie A. King, Vinnie Malhotra, Dane Lillegard, Sarina Roma, Jordan Wynn, executive producers)
Director Tribute: Gina Prince-Bythewood
Introduced by Kathryn Bigelow, the first woman to win the directing Oscar for The Hurt Locker (2009), Gina Prince-Bythewood received a career highlight by being honored with the Director Tribute at the 2022 Gotham Awards for The Woman King (2022). The veteran filmmaker praised Bigelow and then gave a moving speech in which she spoke about how female and Black directors are asked more about their struggles than their craft and her efforts to center Black women in her work. Prince-Bythewood, as a filmmaker, feels a growing need to expand her audience where the current societal climate is antagonistic towards critical race theory and Black history. Following her claim of wanting audiences to see themselves in her characters, Prince-Byethwood reveals her journey in finding her birth mother led to an emotional realization of possibly being the result of a rape. She admits to feeling humiliated by this knowledge and seldomly confided in anyone until she met Viola Davis during her pitch to direct The Woman King. Despite believing to have made the wrong decision in disclosing her discoveries to establish a connection to herself and Viola’s character, Prince-Bythewood’s display of vulnerability earned Viola’s trust, granting her the director’s role in the film. She explains how she takes pride in her work which exemplifies her desire to have a purpose in life. Prince-Bythewood closes by advising future filmmakers to “be warriors—our stories and our truths are worthy.”
Gotham Awards Icon Tribute: Sidney Poitier
The late Sidney Poitier was paid tribute at the Gotham Awards ceremony for his impact on Hollywood. Devotion actor Jonathan Majors was granted the honor of kicking off the tribute and presenting the award to the Poitier family in attendance. Before Poitier’s daughters stepped on stage, Majors praised Poitier for his craft and activism and recited a posthumous tribute he wrote to the actor after his death. In it, Majors claimed Poitier inspired him to pursue acting, push past boundaries, and take his artistry to another level. Derik Murray of the Apple TV documentary Sidney also got on stage to give a sincere speech about how Poitier was his hero and felt honored to be a part of the actor’s legacy. Poitier’s three daughters, Anika, Pamela, and Sherri, then accepted the Icon award and praised their father’s passion for cinema and how his career opened many doors for future generations. Their speech was short and heartfelt, praising Majors, Murray, Jeffrey Sharp, Oprah Winfrey, Apple Original Films, and numerous individuals. The tribute ends with Majors announcing the launch of The Gotham Sidney Poitier Initiative (SPI). Majors explains that SPI aims to expand on Poitier’s legacy to a new generation of filmmakers through mentorships, project funding, and career advancement.