James Gandolfini Earns a Posthumous Tribute from Gotham Awards

James Gandolfini Julia-Louis Dreyfus
James Gandolfini and Julia-Louis Dreyfus in ‘Enough Said’ (Photo © 2013 Fox Searchlight Pictures)
James Gandolfini will be recognized and remembered with a posthumous Tribute at the 23rd Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards set to take place at Cipriani Wall Street in NYC on December 2, 2013. The Tribute will be presented by Steve Buscemi, a friend and former co-star of Gandolfini’s.

“James Gandolfini was a friend, an inspiration, and an extraordinary talent whose presence is missed by all of us who knew and loved him. It is an honor to present this tribute at the Gotham Awards recognizing his impact,” said Steve Buscemi.

“We are honored to pay tribute to a man whose life and work has inspired and moved so many who knew him personally, or through his vast body of work on the stage and screen, where he collaborated with so many independent artists to bring to life unforgettable, iconic characters,” stated Joana Vicente, Executive Director of the IFP and the Made in New York Media Center by IFP.

Forest Whitaker, Richard Linklater, and Katherine Oliver will also receive Tributes at the 2013 Gotham Film Awards.

James Gandolfini Profile [Courtesy of The Independent Filmmaker Project]

James Gandolfini was an actor and producer who made an indelible mark in a variety of motion picture and television roles, currently in Nicole Holofcener’s posthumously released romantic comedy Enough Said opposite Julia Louis-Dreyfus and in 2014, in Animal Rescue, alongside Tom Hardy. He is best known for his role as Tony Soprano in the award-winning HBO series The Sopranos. His portrayal of the crime boss brought him three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series. He also won five Screen Actors Guild Awards, including three for Outstanding Male Actor in a Drama Series and two shared with The Sopranos cast for Outstanding Ensemble Cast.

Other recent film credits included Kathryn Bigelow’s Oscar-nominated drama Zero Dark Thirty, Geoffrey Fletcher’s Violet and Daisy; David Chase’s Not Fade Away, which debuted at the 2012 New York Film Festival; Andrew Dominik’s crime thriller Killing Them Softly with Brad Pitt; Jake Scott’s Welcome to the Rileys; director Tony Scott’s The Taking of Pelham 123; and Armando Iannucci’s independent feature In the Loop.

Gandolfini’s other notable roles include the woman-beating Mob henchman Virgil in True Romance, enforcer/stuntman Bear in Get Shorty, and the impulsive Wild Thing Carol in Where the Wild Things Are.

On the small screen, Gandolfini produced the HBO Documentary Films Wartorn and the Emmy-nominated Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq in addition to the Emmy-nominated HBO Film Hemingway and Gellhorn. He also starred in the HBO Film Cinema Verite opposite Diane Lane.

Born in Westwood, New Jersey, Gandolfini graduated from Rutgers University before beginning his acting career in New York theatre. He made his Broadway debut in the 1992 revival of “A Streetcar Named Desire,” with Alec Baldwin and Jessica Lange. Returning to the stage in 2009, Gandolfini earned a Tony Award nomination for his performance in the Broadway production of Matthew Warchus’s Tony Award-winning play “God of Carnage,” starring alongside Marcia Gay Harden, Jeff Daniels and Hope Davis.