Noah Baumbach's divorce drama Marriage Story was the big winner at the 2019 Gotham Awards on Monday night.
The Netflix film, starring Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson as an estranged couple going through a cross-country divorce, won four prizes, for Best Feature, Best Actor, Best Screenplay, and the Audience Award.
During his multiple trips to the stage at Cipriani Wall Street in New York, Baumbach thanked Netflix's chief content officer Ted Sarandos for financing his movie and his cast.
"My special effect is the cast," he said during his final acceptance speech, according to Deadline. "I hide behind them. When I was cutting the movie, I felt like it was not mine anymore. It was theirs. That's the greatest gift any director can get."
Another big winner was Awkwafina, who won Best Actress for her first dramatic role in The Farewell, about a young American who returns to China to tend to her ailing grandmother.
Failing to hide her surprise at the podium, she told the audience, "Holy s**t! Oh my God, I didn't write anything, and they were like, 'You should write something!' Oh my God. I never won anything. I can't even win an argument in the Instagram comments... I would like to thank grandmas everywhere for spoiling us, for loving us and for believing us."
During the ceremony, hosted by the Independent Filmmakers Project, American Factory won Best Documentary, Taylor Russell won Breakthrough Actor for his performance in Waves and Laure De Clermont-Tonnerre won the Breakthrough Director Award for The Mustang.
In the TV categories, the winners were PEN15 and When They See Us, Ava DuVernay's drama about the Central Park Five case, meaning Netflix won six of the night's 10 awards.
The full list of winners is as follows:
Best Feature - Marriage Story
Audience Award - Marriage Story
Best Screenplay - Noah Baumbach, Marriage Story
Best Actor - Adam Driver, Marriage Story
Best Actress - Awkwafina, The Farewell
Best Documentary - American Factory
Breakthrough Actor - Taylor Russell, Waves
Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award - Laure De Clermont-Tonnerre, The Mustang
Breakthrough Series (Short Form) - PEN15
Breakthrough Series (Long Form) - When They See Us
