Eye For Film >> News >> Past Lives named best feature at Gothams

Past Lives named best feature at Gothams

Controversy on evening after De Niro alleges autocue speech was edited

by Amber Wilkinson

Past Lives Photo: Courtesy of San Sebastian Film Festival

Celine Song’s decades spanning drama Past Lives was named best feature at the 33rd Gotham Awards last night.

In the first major awards of the season, the best International Feature went to Justin Triet's ambiguous courtroom drama Anatomy Of A Fall, with Triet and Arthur Harari also receiving the Best Screenplay gong.

The gender neutral performance awards went to Lily Gladstone for her lead turn in The Unknown Country, and Charles Melton for his supporting role in May December. The documentary award went to Kaouther Ben Hania’s Four Daughters.

There was controversy on the night, however, after Killers Of The Flower Moon star Robert De Niro accused the Gothams of editing his autocue to remove comments about Donald Trump.

After seeming confused at the start of his speech - presenting Martin Scorsese’s crime drama with the Historical Icon & Creator Tribute - he told the audience: "The beginning of my speech was edited, cut out. I didn't know about it."

He added: "There was a mistake in this. I'll keep going."

After a clip from the film had been shown, he said that part of his speech had been cut and produced his phone to read from it.

"History isn't history any more," he said. "Truth is not truth. Even facts are being replaced by alternative facts and driven by conspiracy theories and ugliness. In Florida young students are taught that slaves developed skills which could be applied for their personal benefit.

“The entertainment industry isn’t immune to this festering disease. The “Duke” John Wayne famously said of Native Americans, ‘I don’t feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them. There were great numbers of people who needed new land and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.’”

He added: “Lying has become just another tool in the charlatans’ arsenal. The former president lied to us more than 30,00 times during his four years in office and he’s keeping up the pace in his current campaign of retribution. But with all his lies he can’t hide his soul: he attacks the weak, destroys the gifts of nature, and shows disrespect for example by using Pocahontas as a slur.

“Filmmakers on the other hand strive - this is where I came in and saw they edited all that, so I’m going to say these things to Apple and thank them and all that, Gotham blah blah blah, Apple - but I don’t feel like thanking them at all for what they did. How dare they do that, actually.”

Neither Apple nor the award organisers have offered comment.

The full list of winners is below