Taylor Sheridan’s acclaimed drama claims five of the seven prizes voted by online balloting.
Can we have the envelopes, please?
No doubt about it: Wind River generated a floodtide of enthusiasm among voters in the inaugural C&I Movie Awards. When we finished totaling all the online ballots, we found the critically acclaimed drama about a homicide investigation near a snowbound Native American reservation could claim no fewer than five of the seven prizes: Best Picture; Best Actor for Jeremy Renner; Best Supporting Actress for Kelsey Asbille Chow; and Best Screenplay and Best Director for Taylor Sheridan.
Other winners: Q’Orianka Kilcher as Best Actress for Te Ata and Jim Caviezel as Best Supporting Actor for The Ballad of Lefty Brown.
Jeremy Renner stars in Wind River as Cory Lambert, a game tracker with deep community ties and a haunted past who joins forces with a rookie FBI agent (Elizabeth Olsen) and the local tribal police chief (Graham Greene) to apprehend anyone responsible for the death of a young woman whose body Lambert discovered in a remote area. Kelsey Asbille Chow (billed as Kelsey Asbille in the film) appears in extended flashbacks throughout the narrative as Natalie Hanson, the tragic victim whose death sparks Lambert’s investigation.
Q’Orianka Kilcher — who also had a role in Hostiles, another C&I Awards Best Picture nominee — plays the title role in Te Ata, Nathan Frankowski’s award-winning biographical drama about the life and achievements of Mary Frances Thompson, who danced and acted under the stage name Te Ata as she performed everywhere from Broadway to the White House while celebrating her Chickasaw Nation culture.
Jim Caviezel plays James Bierce, an ambitious and duplicitous governor who once rode with the title character in The Ballad of Lefty Brown, Jared Moshe’s rousingly old-fashioned western about a longtime sidekick (Bill Pullman) who goes gunning for justice when a Wild West hero is killed.
Here is a complete list of nominations for the C&I Movie Awards. Winners (which appear in boldface) were chosen through online balloting that ended Tuesday, February 27. Nominees were chosen by the Cowboys & Indians magazine staff.
PICTURE
The Ballad of Lefty Brown
The Hero
Hostiles
Lucky
Wind River
ACTOR
Christian Bale — Hostiles
Sam Elliott — The Hero
Bill Pullman — The Ballad of Lefty Brown
Jeremy Renner — Wind River
Harry Dean Stanton — Lucky
ACTRESS
Nicole Kidman — The Beguiled
Q’Orianka Kilcher — Te Ata
Elizabeth Olsen — Wind River
Rosamund Pike — Hostiles
Sharon Stone — Running Wild
SUPPORTING ACTOR
Gil Birmingham — Wind River
Jim Caviezel — The Ballad of Lefty Brown
Bruce Dern — Hickok
Graham Greene — Wind River
Wes Studi — Hostiles
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Kathy Baker — The Ballad of Lefty Brown
Kelsey Asbille Chow — Wind River
Kirsten Dunst — The Beguiled
Elle Fanning — The Beguiled
Laura Prepon — The Hero
DIRECTOR
Scott Cooper — Hostiles
Brett Haley — The Hero
John Carroll Lynch — Lucky
Jared Moshe — The Ballad of Lefty Brown
Taylor Sheridan — Wind River
SCREENPLAY
Scott Cooper — Hostiles
Brett Haley, Marc Basch — The Hero
Jared Moshe — The Ballad of Lefty Brown
Taylor Sheridan — Wind River
Logan Sparks, Drago Sumonja — Lucky
