By Gregg Goldstein

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - When the Gotham Awards are handed out in New York Wednesday, the winners won't necessarily be independently produced movies with a local flavor.

That was the original mission of the event when it was established 16 years ago but times have changed, to the chagrin of some observers.

"I don't think the Gotham Awards are about independent film," says Michelle Byrd, executive director of the event's organizer, the Independent Feature Project. "We're celebrating almost a style of working, in all genres and budget levels."

This year's lineup of best feature contenders pits Sony's $40 million costume drama "Marie Antoinette" against indie label ThinkFilm's $1 million no-frills drama about a drug-addicted teacher, "Half Nelson." To some in the independent film community, this is a fair playing field where the best film wins.

"'Half Nelson' gains by being grouped together with bigger films and winning," IFP board member Anthony Bregman says. And one of the film's producers, Lynette Howell, says it's terrific for her film to even be nominated alongside "high-caliber films with much bigger budgets."

"It's about honoring films made with a single vision versus films made by committee," Bregman adds, agreeing with IFP board chairman Ira Deutchmann that the line between independent and nonindependent films has become hopelessly blurred. "The single most independent filmmaker is ("Star Wars" creator) George Lucas," Deutchmann says, "and there are people making $11 million movies who are making studio movies."

But others -- like Bregman's longtime producing partner and former IFP member Ted Hope -- cry foul. "I don't know what the Gotham Awards mean anymore," he says. "I'd like that defined." Hope notes that there have been three stages in the program's evolution: awarding New York filmmakers and people in New York; the addition of competitive film categories; and today's incarnation, where "anything goes."

"If the founding fathers of the IFP were choosing the nominees, they would have all independent films as representative of the best films out there," says Sony Pictures Classics co-president Tom Bernard, an early IFP member whose "Capote" won best feature at the Gothams last year. "The reason the IFP formed was to help the independent filmmaker, but it seems its priorities have changed."

Adds IFC Entertainment president Jonathan Sehring: "When the Independent Feature Project feels like they can honor (Warner Bros. Pictures') 'The Departed' and a film like (IFC Films') 'Sherrybaby' gets overlooked (for best feature), it's disheartening for anyone who doesn't work for a Hollywood studio."

A day before the Gothams were handed out, nominations were announced for the Los Angeles-based Independent Spirit Awards by Film Independent, a former sister group of IFP. The top Spirits nominees were the mainstream hit "Little Miss Sunshine" and "Half Nelson."

While Spirit Awards contenders cannot cost more than $20 million to make, no such limits are in place for the Gothams. That's why Martin Scorsese's $90 million "Departed" made the cut.

Byrd says she does not want to set limits on what qualifies.

"If I had exclusively studio classics divisions as nominees, that's better for me, frankly," laughs Byrd, referring to the awards tables, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars and are far more affordable for a specialty division like Fox Searchlight or Sony Pictures Classics than a small indie like Kino International.

The tables themselves have been the subject of some debate, though Byrd insists that all nominees are accommodated one way or another. Indeed, Kino general manager Gary Palmucci says that with "some very generous cooperation from the IFP," he'll have at least two Kino representatives and three or four producers of his best feature nominee "Old Joy" -- which had a budget of about $125,000 -- in the audience.

There's also no debate about the ceremony itself, which will be broadcast on NYC-TV, with segments presented on iFilm.com. Sehring, Hope and many other critics look forward to one of the few evenings that unites much of New York's film community.

While some bemoan the loss of a group honoring indie films, feature nominating committee member and film critic Karen Durbin isn't one of them.

"If a film can be proven to be under the control of the filmmaker, then the Gothams will accept it for submission. If it gives studios a reason to keep their hands off original projects, then I think it's fair," she says. "Besides, I hate this welfare-ish mentality of rewarding low-budget films. You don't give someone the (Man) Booker Prize just because their novel comes from a small publisher."

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

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