Gotham Awards Torn Between Tree of Life and Beginners

Best Feature was a tie! But which flick grabbed an additional award?

At tonight's 21st Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards ceremony in New York City's Cipriani Wall Street, we learned one thing: When it comes to choosing whether it's best to see Sean Penn remember the innocence of his childhood, while trying to reconcile with papa Brad Pitt or seeing Ewan McGregor's character deal with the death of his father and finding out he had a young gay lover, we can't.

Or at least, the Independent Filmmaker Project couldn't.

Last year, we were surprised to see Winter's Bone best the highly buzzed-about Black Swan, and this year, we get another eye-opener as the title for Best Feature went to not just one, but two films.

The award resulted in a tie between Tree of Life and Beginners. But one of these flicks got the upper hand by snagging a different award as well.

Beginners also won Best Ensemble Performance, which gave honor to the whole cast, including McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Melanie Laurent, Goran Visnjic, Kai Lennox, Mary Page Keller and Keegan Boos.

Could that be a reason to assume this film is a possible Oscar front-runner?

Maybe. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Here's the complete list of winners from the 2011 Gotham Awards:

Best Feature: Tree of Life and Beginners
Ensemble Performance: Beginners
Breakthrough Actor: Felicity Jones, Like Crazy
Breatkthrough Director: Dee Rees, Pariah
Documentary: Better This World
Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You: Scenes of a Crime
Audience Award: Girlfriend