Gotham Awards 2018 Winners Include 'The Rider', Ethan Hawke, Toni Collette, 'Eighth Grade', And More

The 28th annual Gotham Awards took place last night, offering our first glimpse at a major awards show as we barrel toward the next Academy Awards ceremony. The Gotham Awards focus on independent movies, but plenty of previous winners have gone on to take home Oscar gold (Get Out and Call Me By Your Name were big winners last year).

This year, Chloe Zhao's western drama The Rider took home the Best Feature prize in a highly competitive category, and Toni Collette and Ethan Hawke won in the lead acting categories for their stunning work in Hereditary and First Reformed, respectively. Eighth Grade also won big, earning trophies for actress Elsie Fisher and director Bo Burnham. Read the full list of winners below.

The Gotham Awards are the first major stop on the long, winding road to the Academy Awards, and in recent years they've become a good gauge for which films might end up winning Oscars. Gotham winners like Moonlight, Spotlight, and Birdman all went on to take home Best Picture.

Here's the full list of winners (via Variety):

Best Feature

"The Favourite" (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

"First Reformed" (A24)

"If Beale Street Could Talk" (Annapurna Pictures)

"Madeline's Madeline" (Oscilloscope Laboratories)

"The Rider" (Sony Pictures Classics) — WINNERBest Actor

Adam Driver in "BlacKkKlansman" (Focus Features)

Ben Foster in "Leave No Trace" (Bleecker Street)

Richard E. Grant in "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Ethan Hawke in "First Reformed" (A24) — WINNER

Lakeith Stanfield in "Sorry to Bother You" (Annapurna Pictures)

Best Actress

Glenn Close in "The Wife" (Sony Pictures Classics)

Toni Collette in "Hereditary" (A24) — WINNER

Kathryn Hahn in "Private Life" (Netflix)

Regina Hall in "Support the Girls" (Magnolia Pictures)

Michelle Pfeiffer in "Where is Kyra?" (Paladin and Great Point Media)

Breakthrough Actor

Yalitza Aparicio in "Roma" (Netflix)

Elsie Fisher in "Eighth Grade" (A24) — WINNER

Helena Howard in "Madeline's Madeline" (Oscilloscope Laboratories)

KiKi Layne in "If Beale Street Could Talk" (Annapurna Pictures)

Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie in "Leave No Trace" (Bleecker Street)

Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award

Ari Aster for "Hereditary" (A24)

Bo Burnham for "Eighth Grade" (A24) — WINNER

Jennifer Fox for "The Tale" (HBO)

Crystal Moselle for "Skate Kitchen" (Magnolia Pictures)

Boots Riley for "Sorry to Bother You" (Annapurna Pictures)

Breakthrough Series – Long Form"Alias Grace," (Netflix)

"The End of the F***ing World," (Netflix)

"Killing Eve" (BBC America) — WINNER

"Pose" (FX Networks)

"Sharp Objects," (HBO)

Breakthrough Series – Short Form"195 Lewis" — WINNER"Cleaner Daze"

"Distance"

"The F Word"

"She's the Ticket"

Best Screenplay

"The Favourite," Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

"First Reformed," Paul Schrader (A24) – WINNER

"Private Life," Tamara Jenkins (Netflix)

"Support the Girls," Andrew Bujalski (Magnolia Pictures)

"Thoroughbreds," Cory Finley (Focus Features)

Best Documentary

"Bisbee '17" (4th Row Films)

"Hale County This Morning, This Evening" (The Cinema Guild) — WINNER

"Minding the Gap" (Hulu & Magnolia Pictures)

"Shirkers" (Netflix)

"Won't You Be My Neighbor?" (Focus Features)

Jury Award for Ensemble PerformanceRachel Weisz, Olivia Colman and Emma Stone in "The Favourite" — WINNERAudience Award"Won't You Be My Neighbor?" — WINNER

Will this new crop of winners be giving even more acceptance speeches as awards season continues? I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see Won't You Be My Neighbor continue to roll, but while The Rider could get nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, let's face it: it's a long shot to win there.

Personally, I'm thrilled to see Toni Collette and Ethan Hawke be recognized for what are two of this year's top tier acting performances, and I would love to see either or both of them standing on stage at the Dolby Theater in February. Winning a Gotham Award just might be the momentum-builder they need to make it all the way through awards season to the biggest stage of the year.