The greatest cross to bear for a thespian is the realization that a career in their chosen art form, no matter how nominally successful, will forever be thankless.
Just kidding! Those suckers get praised all the damn time, and today is no different, with the announcement of the Gotham Independent Film Award nominees.
Today's nominations mark the first round of awards announcements for the season, to be followed up in the next few months with nominations for the Oscars, Golden Globes, SAG Awards, the MTV Movie Awards and the industry's other major award for independent film, the Independent Spirit Awards.
Unlike other award shows, the Gotham Awards feature only seven categories -- Best Feature, Best Documentary, Best Ensemble Performance, Breakthrough Actor, Breakthrough Director, Best Film Not Playing Near You and the Gotham Audience Award.
Nominees for Best Feature include some big-name titles, like Terrence Malick's "The Tree of Life," as well as critically acclaimed "Beginners," "Meek's Cutoff," "The Descendents" and "Take Shelter."
The latest It Girl from the Olsen clan, actress Elizabeth, has been nominated for her work in "Martha Marcy May Marlene," alongside an impressive list of individual performers that includes "Like Crazy" star Felicity Jones and newcomer Harmony Santana for her performance as an inner-city transgender teen in "Gun Hill Road."
The film's criteria for consideration are considerably less stringent than those of the Independent Spirit Awards, which denies eligibility to films with a budget greater than $20 million. The Gotham Awards require that an eligible film be an independently distributed, feature-length, American movie with a point of view and made with "an economy of means."
Check out The Wrap for the full list of nominees.
