By Creative Media Times

The year’s awards season officially kicks off this week as The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) announced Thursday its full list of nominations for 2018 Gotham Awards.

Written and directed by Paul Schrader, “First Reformed” scored the most nominations with three, including Best Feature, Screenplay for Schrader, and Actor for its lead Ethan Hawke. The film follows a minister who questions his faith and morality while serving as pastor of a dwindling historical church.

Also doing well is the period film “The Favourite” with three noms, including an Special Jury Award for its cast Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, and Rachel Weisz.

The awards are given to independent features and series and are chosen by small committees of film critics and journalists.

In recent years, Gotham Awards has had great success in setting the tone for the awards season leading up to the Oscars. Last year’s big winners “Call Me by Your Name” and “Get Out” had strong showings at the Oscars, while best feature winners of the prior three years Moonlight (2016), Spotlight (2015) and Birdman (2014) eventually won the academy awards’ best picture.

The 26th annual Gotham Awards is set to be held on Nov. 26, 2018, Monday in New York City. Check out the full list of nominees below:

Best Feature
“First Reformed”
“The Favorite”
“Madeline’s Madeline”
“If Beale Street Could Talk”
“The Rider”

Best Documentary
“Bisbee ‘17”
“Hale County This Morning, This Evening”
“Minding the Gap”
“Shirkers”
“Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”

Best Actor
Adam Driver, “BlacKkKlansman”
Ben Foster, “Leave No Trace”
Richard E. Grant, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”
Ethan Hawke, “First Reformed”
Lakeith Stanfield, “Sorry to Bother You”

Best Actress
Glenn Close, “The Wife”
Toni Collette, “Hereditary”
Kathryn Hahn, “Private Life”
Regina Hall, “Support the Girls”
Michelle Pfeiffer, “Where is Kyra?”

Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award
Bo Burnham, “Eighth Grade”
Ari Aster, “Hereditary”
Boots Riley, “Sorry to Bother You”
Crystal Moselle, “Skate Kitchen”
Jennifer Fox, “The Tale”

Best Screenplay
Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara, “The Favorite”
Cory Finley, “Thoroughbreds”
Paul Schrader, “First Reformed”
Tamara Jenkins, “Private Life”
Andrew Bujalski, “Support the Girls”

Special Jury Award For Ensemble Performance
“The Favourite”: Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, and Rachel Weisz

Breakthrough Actor
Thomasin Harcourt, “Leave No Trace”
Helena Howard, “Madeline’s Madeline”
Kiki Layne, “If Beale Street Could Talk”
Elsie Fisher, “Eighth Grade”
Yalitza Aparicio, “Roma”

Breakthrough Series – Long Form
“Alias Grace”
“Big Mouth”
“The End of the F***ing World”
“Killing Eve”
“Pose”
“Sharp Objects”

Breakthrough Series – Short Form
“195 Lewis”
“Cleaner Daze”
“Distance”
“The F Word”
“She’s the Ticket”