Maggie Gyllenhaal’s path through awards season just got a lot brighter. At Monday night’s Gotham Awards, Gyllenhaal’s feature directorial debut The Lost Daughter won in three key categories, including best feature, best breakthrough directing, and best screenplay. All three of which were wins for Gyllenhaal herself, who wrote, directed, and executive produced the film.

“I was so nervous coming here tonight,” Gyllenhaal said in her first of three speeches interspersed throughout the night, during which she became more and more comfortable on the Gotham stage. She took special care to shoutout her family, including brother Jake Gyllenhaal, screenwriter mother Naomi Foner, and actor-producer husband Peter Sarsgaard*.* In her second speech, Gyllenhaal noted that it took a long time for her to feel “entitled” to write her film, applauding the glut of cinematic narratives that were led by real, complicated female characters. The Lost Daughter, based on the bestselling novel by Elena Ferrante, is one such film, telling the story of a woman on holiday (Olivia Colman) who becomes obsessed with a mother-daughter duo.

If The Lost Daughter was the biggest surprise of the night, then the second—and third!—came when there were not one, but two gasp-inducing ties in two key acting categories. Though this was the Gothams’ first year not splitting up the acting categories by gender, voters were split anyway, handing the outstanding lead performance award to Olivia Colman and The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain’s Frankie Faison (who gave one of the most heartening speeches of the night).  Outstanding performance in a new series was another twi, between The Underground Railroad’s Thuso Mbedu and The Good Lord Bird’s Ethan Hawke, the latter of whom was dubbed a “veteran” actor by the category’s presenter. 

“Veteran?!” an explosively energetic Hawke declared in his speech, cheekily taking umbrage with the label. He continued, praising Gotham for not splitting the nominations by gender. “It’s a very powerful thing…I wish the women in this room had as many options as the men. Directors don’t get differentiated by gender and I never understood why actors do, so I’m so proud to share this award.”

He returned to the stage when it came time to honor close friend Peter Dinklage with a Career Tribute award. Dinklage was one of three Career Tribute honorees Monday night, an august group that included legendary director Jane Campion, on the circuit for The Power of the Dog, and Kristen Stewart. The latter was presented her award by Spencer director Pablo Larraín and Julianne Moore, and gave an endearing speech about the magic of movies after setting her award on the ground to be sure she wouldn’t drop it. (She’ll never forget.) 

“Is there less air up here than down there? Probably,” Stewart began nervously, but she quickly found her cool. “Where’s my shit?” she asked, looking back and forth at the teleprompters for her speech. She took special care to celebrate the “audacious and strange” Larraín, her partner in crime in devising the haunting portrait of Princess Diana in Spencer, which has been garnering Stewart serious Oscar buzz. Much of her speech, in fact, was devoted to him, though she eventually took a detour into the reflective, celebrating the never-ending pull to make movies. “If you make one movie, it’s to make one more…if you’re allowed to make one more, you’re so lucky,” Stewart said. She then capped her increasingly sentimental speech with a blunt sendoff: “Thank you so much! Blah! Yeah. Done.”

Stewart was among many stars at that night’s awards show, which was held at Cipriani Wall Street in downtown Manhattan. (Reservation Dogs creator Sterlin Harjo powerfully remarked upon the night’s setting, reminding attendees in his rousing acceptance speech of Wall Street’s origins and the city’s hostility toward Native Americans.) The night’s attendees included Tessa Thompson, Zazie Beetz, Questlove, Dakota Johnson, Dan Levy, and many more. Guests made entry after providing proof of vaccination and a negative COVID test result, and were encouraged to wear masks throughout the night, though many did not as the ceremony stretched on past the three-hour mark. 

The Gotham Awards are considered the unofficial kickoff to awards season on the east coast. Other titles that got a nice boost include Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s widely praised Drive My Car, which won best international feature; Flee, which won best documentary; and the heartwarming CODA, which won in two acting categories: best breakthrough performer for Emilia Jones and outstanding supporting performance for Troy Kotsur. 

The Gothams, however, are far from a perfect predictor of the Oscars. They’re smaller, for one, and more idiosyncratic and indie-leaning in their tastes, with each category getting voted on by a revolving door of five to six artists to keep things fresh and unpredictable. Still, the room is filled Academy members—many of whom will likely be taking a much closer look at The Lost Daughter after its victorious night. 

— Jennifer Lawrence Exclusive: “I Didn’t Have a Life. I Thought I Should Go Get One”
— What’s the Deal With Seinfeld?
— “It Was as If Her Breast Exposed Itself”: The People v. Janet Jackson
— Succession Stars Sarah Snook and Matthew Macfadyen on Episode Five
— After The Morning Show, Julianna Margulies Can’t Go Back to Network TV
— Lady Gaga Shines in the Curiously Drab House of Gucci
— The Day Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Ernie Hudson Became Ghostbusters Again
— In Season Four, Selling Sunset Gets Real
— Understanding the Real Richard Williams, Father and Coach to Venus and Serena
— From the Archive: The Comeback Kid
— Sign up for the “HWD Daily” newsletter for must-read industry and awards coverage—plus a special weekly edition of “Awards Insider.”