Gotham’s Leftward Lurch

A sexual relationship between a 15-year-old girl and her mother’s lover. A lesbian romance based on a seminal book in gay fiction. A pull-no-punches look at the journalists who revealed a massive child abuse scandal in the Boston Archdiocese. A Christmas-themed tale of a transgender prostitute seeking closure in her relationship with her pimp.

Welcome to this year’s movie awards season.

The annual event unofficially kicked off Thursday courtesy of the 25th annual Independent Filmmaker Project Gotham Awards nominations.

The transgender performers each received a “Breakthrough Actor” nomination for their work in the film.

Now, other awards groups will focus on a broader range of films including major studio fare. Still, the trend in recent years has favored indie features for major awards consideration. The choices reflected by Gotham’s nomination will likely be felt as other movie groups start tallying up their votes.

The films selected by Gotham, composed of journalists, film critics, movie curators and film festival programmers, touch on all of the aforementioned issues.

Take “Diary of a Teenage Girl,” which tells the story of a teen who starts a sexual relationship with her mother’s beau. It’s based on the 2002 graphic novel of the same name which Rolling Stone magazine ranked no. 31 in its 2015 list of the “Best 50 Non-Superhero Graphic Novels.”

[lz_ndn video= 29461916]

“Spotlight,” a star-studded film sure to catch the eye of Oscar voters, recalls how the Boston Globe broke the news of serial child sex abuse within the Boston Archdiocese. The film earned a special Gotham honor for its ensemble cast, which includes Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Liev Schreiber and Rachel McAdams, and is critical of the church above and beyond the reprehensible behavior unveiled by the newspaper.

The transgender performers each received a “Breakthrough Actor” nomination for their work in the film.

“Tangerine” follows a prostitute’s search for her ex-lover, a pimp. The film features two transgender stars in sizeable roles and was shot entirely on an iPhone. The transgender performers each received a “Breakthrough Actor” nomination for their work in the film.

“Carol” stars Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara as lesbian lovers. The film is based on Patricia Highsmith’s 1952 novel “The Price of Salt,” considered an iconic work in gay fiction. Blanchett picked up a Best Actress nomination for her work in “Carol,” as did Lily Tomlin for playing a cranky lesbian author in “Grandma.”

The group’s Best Feature nominations went to “Carol,” “The Diary of a Teenage Girl,” “Heaven Knows What,” “Spotlight” and “Tangerine.”

The IFP Gotham Awards ceremony will be held Nov. 30 at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City.