The first major precursor awards were announced on November 28, 2022, the Gotham Awards. Everything Everywhere All at Once was the big winner of the evening, so let’s take a dive into the winners.
Everything Everywhere All at Once wins Best Feature
A24’s highest grossing movie now has a Best Feature win under its belt, increasing its chances at an Oscar Best Picture nomination. To be fair, though, Gotham’s Best Feature winner doesn’t always translate to a Best Picture nomination. Last year’s winner, The Lost Daughter, couldn’t score an Academy Award Best Picture nomination, but it did garner three nominations: Maggie Gyllenhaal for Screenplay, Olivia Colman for Best Actress, and Jessie Buckley for Best Supporting Actress, with the former two winning in their respective Gotham categories while Jessie Buckley lost to the eventual Oscar winner Troy Kotsur. This seems to be good news for Daniels, Michelle Yeoh, and Ke Huy Quan, the latter winning the Gotham for Best Supporting Performance. However, Everything Everywhere All at Once is bigger in scale than The Lost Daughter, which can only increase its chances as a lock for a Best Picture nominee along with plenty of nominations and wins at “everything everywhere” else. Managers owning Everything Everywhere All at Once can plug it into their PIC slot and let it ride.
Even though last year’s winner, The Lost Daughter, didn’t secure an Oscar nomination for Best Picture, four of the last the Gotham winners went on to win Best Picture on Oscar night while an additional two went on to get a nomination. Below are the last ten Gotham winners:
| Year | Gotham Winner | Oscar Best Picture |
| 2013 | Inside Llewyn Davis | Not Nominated |
| 2014 | Birdman | Winner |
| 2015 | Spotlight | Winner |
| 2016 | Moonlight | Winner |
| 2017 | Call Me By Your Name | Nominated |
| 2018 | The Rider | Not Nominated |
| 2019 | Marriage Story | Nominated |
| 2020 | Nomadland | Winner |
| 2021 | The Lost Daughter | Not Nominated |
| 2022 | Everything Everywhere All at Once | TBD |
Danielle Deadwyler wins Best Lead Performance
Danielle Deadwyler has been getting lots of buzz recently for her masterful performance in Till, so this isn’t a surprise is it? Well, it is if you look at the other NINE nominees she beat out in Best Lead Performance. Every Oscar prognosticator at least admits that Cate Blanchett, Michelle Yeoh, and Brendan Fraser are locks to secure nominations, if not an Oscar win. The fact that Danielle Deadwyler got the win over these three puts her as a near lock for a well-deserved nomination. The bad news is that Danielle Deadwyler is probably not available in your league, but anyone who drafted her in later rounds has got to be feeling really good at such a value.
Might as well give Ke Huy Quan his Oscar now
Do I need to elaborate? Brendan Fraser and Ke Huy Quan are the top tier of actors. Everyone else is just lucky to be nominated, so if you don’t own these two, you need to find value and solace in nominations only and just hope you have a good rest of your roster if you find yourself facing teams with these two actors in the playoffs.
Happening looks like this year’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Happening won the Gotham Award, but (if you know anything about fantasy football), this film carries a “questionable” injury tag throughout the season. Why? Because it’s not an official submission for Best International Feature at the Oscars, which limits its upside. Neither was Portrait of a Lady on Fire, but savvy owners picked that up and were happy for the points during the regular season. So if you want a risky waiver wire pickup for only the regular season, go for it, especially if you spent a draft pick on a bad documentary. Just know that you’ll have to have a backup plan when it comes playoff time because this is when Happening suffers a season-ending injury.
Oh yeah, go pick up Charlotte Wells if she happens to be available
That’s it. Duh.
All That Breathes continues its dominance
The documentary heavy Matchup #1 is nearly over, but you can still set this in your ANI/INT/DOC slot and call it a day. Easy decision. But like I’ve said plenty of times before, you need a backup plan if you own ANY documentary.
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