Terrence Malick's “The Tree of Life” and the Christopher Plummer film “Beginners” shared the top prize for best feature film on Monday at the Gotham Awards, a key event for independent movies which also marks the start of the film-awards season culminating in the Oscars. The honors for “The Tree of Life,” a mystical period drama starring Brad Pitt, and “Beginners,” which stars Ewan McGregor as a man whose elderly father (Plummer) comes out of the closet, scored upset victories. Alexander Payne's “The Descendants,” a well-reviewed Oscar front-runner which stars George Clooney in a family drama set in Hawaii, was nominated in three categories but won none. Instead “Beginners,” directed by relative neophyte Mike Mills, also won best ensemble performance at the New York-based awards, co-hosted by Edie Falco and Oliver Platt. Mills lauded his cast, singling out Plummer by saying there was “no good reason for Christopher Plummer to believe in me. But he did.” Despite “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1” taking in $489.3 million at global box offices so far, the vampire flick was beaten by the latest installment of the “Mission Impossible” franchise as the most searched film of the year, with “Ghost Protocol” due for release in December. __
