Capote director Bennett Miller (R) solicits trophy-cleaning advice from last year's Breakthrough Director award-winner, Joshua Marston (Photos: STV)

No matter how you look at it--as a prelude to Oscar season, or the quintessential New York film event, or a high-class tax write-off, whatever--the IFP Gotham Awards are a pretty big deal. And while my invitation sadly got held up somewhere between Michelle Byrd's outgoing mail tray and Reeler HQ, I did get a chance to drop by the Kodak/Paste Magazine afterparty to inhale the triumph and come to terms with all of the night's happenings.

By now, you probably know that Capote claimed the Best Feature prize, while its helmer Bennett Miller grabbed the hardware for Breakthrough Director. Miller stayed one step ahead of me all night, and he split before The Reeler could snag a comment or two. So let me do this Page Six-style: "Bennett was thrilled to win," a spy told The Reeler. "And he was honored to be considered among such great company."

Naturally. But in leaving early, he missed an outrageous marathon of rug-cutting that culminated in Breakthrough Actor winner Amy Adams getting down with her Junebug director, Phil Morrison. Still drunk on Adams' exquisite photo spread in the Times Magazine's recent Movie Issue, I tried my best to make sense as I asked about the Gothams spotlight. " It's so surreal," Adams told me. "I'm sure tomorrow I'll think about it, but right now I'm just having fun. I'll take things one day at a time, try not to think about it too much."

You like me! You really... dude! Back off! Junebug's Gotham Award winner Amy Adams and director Phil Morrison

Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro, the co-directors whose Murderball won Best Documentary, also made a late appearance. Clearly happy with the night's results, Rubin nevertheless had qualms about trumping competition like Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man. "How are you supposed to react to that?" he asked. "He's like a God to me! It's like, 'I'm sorry.' You know?"

Oh, do I ever; I feel bad if I so much as dislike a Werner Herzog film. Alas, what is done is done, and victory is yours. Cherish it Kinski-style--Herzog be damned!

And now--onto the Oscars! In three months!