The 23rd Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards

December 2013. New York City, Cipriani

Jared Leto arrived at the Gotham Awards podium and held his cell phone up to the microphone. Matthew McConaughey wanted to say a few words of thanks for the 2013 Best Actor Award but could not be there in person…so he spoke through Leto's cell phone. It was weird and cool like the Gotham Awards themselves.

Weird and cool and stocked with screen stars: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, John Goodman, Isaiah Washington, Amy Poehler, Chiwetel Eijiofor, Forest Whitaker, Richard Linklater, Steve Buscemi, Shailene Woodley, Rashida Jones were among the famous faces milling around Cipriani Wall Street, with New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg rounding out the bill.

This was Empire Entertainment's sixth year producing the Gotham Awards, the first show of the film awards "season", and therefore hotly anticipated. "There's a lot of pressure," says executive producer James Donahower, "because you've got 900 people jam-packed into the room, and 100 of them are A-list celebrities. And it's live. So when you say 'start the show', you'd better be ready." Empire was.