Awards season is in full swing, and after several weeks of watching movies rise and fall in the conversation, we’ve finally arrived at our first winners. The long road to the 2026 Oscars began with the Gotham Awards, which were the first to announce their nominees and held their ceremony on Monday, December 1. They don’t presage the Academy Awards as much as some precursors, given their indie focus and lack of voter overlap, but they thrust worthy winners into the spotlight early enough to perhaps keep their chances at further recognition alive.
Among their winners on Monday night were Sopé Dìrísù, who won the mixed-gender Outstanding Lead Performance category, and Wunmi Mosaku, who took home Outstanding Supporting Performance. Dìrísù did so for My Father’s Shadow, a Nigerian drama that will serve as the UK’s entry to the Best International Feature category at the Oscars. Its director, Akinola Davies Jr., also won Breakthrough Director at the Gothams, suggesting the film could be one to watch as the International Feature race progresses.
Mosaku, meanwhile, won for her performance in Sinners, which is barreling ahead as one of a small group of frontrunners for widespread Oscars contention. The movie’s full cast received the Gothams’ Ensemble Tribute, but she was the lone representative of her film in the competitive categories. Though Michael B. Jordan is firmly entrenched in the Best Actor race, which members of Sinners supporting cast will build real momentum has been a topic of debate. This win could kickstart a real push for Mosaku over co-star Hailee Steinfeld.
These two performers winning on the same night is kismet. They starred together in a great, underseen horror film that, thanks to their victories, has an easy reason to be rediscovered.
His House Is A 2020 Horror Gem Worth Revisiting
Written and directed by Remi Weekes, His House premiered at Sundance in January 2020, though it was acquired by Netflix just before the festival started. Not long after… the world came to a halt. Streaming on Netflix was good business for much of the early pandemic, but by October 30, when this film released, things had progressed past the point when everyone was watching the same movies and shows. Despite boasting a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes, this film somewhat slipped under the radar.
The movie stars Dìrísù and Mosaku as Bol and Rial, a South Sudanese refugee couple who have fled the war and arrived in England. They aren’t exactly welcomed with open arms. They’re afforded government housing in the form of a run-down building, treated with anything from dismissal to hostility by their new neighbors, and given strict rules that could put their asylum status at risk if not followed to the letter.
Among these rules: They cannot attempt to move out of the property before their case is decided. But before long, Bol and Rial perceive a presence in the house with them, one that brings the horrors of their past bubbling to the surface. As they begin to unravel, faced with the growingly impossible choice of staying or going back, they must confront the true nature of what is haunting them.
His House is most definitely in the horror-as-social-metaphor family that defined the genre’s excellent 2010s, and it does justice to both its larger themes and its scares. Sections of this film are genuinely terrifying. But its greatest value, for my money, is as a showcase for its lead actors. If you loved Sinners or My Father’s Shadow and are eager to see more from Mosaku and Dìrísù, queuing this up on Netflix is a great place to start.
- Release Date
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January 27, 2020
- Runtime
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93 minutes
- Director
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Remi Weekes
- Writers
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Felicity Evans, Toby Venables, Remi Weekes
