Spirit Awards. What They Do and Don't Say About Oscar.

Now that I've had a day to think over the Spirit Awards (nominee discussion) and what they reveal and obscure about the Oscar race, here's a deeper look for my Tribeca Film column.

Eligible "Best Feature" Snubs
Blue Valentine, Get Low, Somewhere, Rabbit Hole
Not eligible for "Best Feature" or Acting Prizes
The King's Speech, I Am Love, Another Year, Animal KingdomNot eligible for anything
Toy Story 3, The Social Network, True Grit, The Town, Etc...

Remember last year when Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire swept the Oscars, becoming the first... oh, no, wait, that didn't happen at all. That was the Film Independent Spirit Awards. They take place the day before the Oscars each year. And they take place in a tent. We don't know the square footage, but it’s safe to say that it’s got nothing on the Kodak Theater. 

Generally speaking, the Spirit Awards are a looser, rowdier event. You can even wear jeans. As a group, they’re much more likely to honor African-American abuse dramas (Precious) or intimate character studies of "broken down pieces of meat" (The Wrestler) or teen pregnancy comedies (Juno) than the mainstream Academy is. In fact, in their entire 25-year shared history with the Oscars, the “Best Feature” and “Best Picture” prizes have only gone to the same film once.

...read the rest in my weekly Tribeca Film column.
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Spirit Awards: "Winter's Bone" and "The Kids Are All Right" Lead.

Historically the Spirit Awards tend to honor a few of the major Oscar players each year but a win at the Spirits can sometimesLe be the last hurrah, a consolation prize as some would say, if the work is too "edgy" for lack of a less exhaustively employed word. Last year's big winner was Precious (refresh your memory?) It took home Picture, Director, Actress, Supporting Actress and Adapted Screenplay. There were only three crossover winners from Spirits to Oscars last year : Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart), Mo'Nique (Precious) and the screenplay for Precious. (The Hurt Locker was considered a 2008 film.)

So what fared well this year? Black Swan got four nods including Best Actress for "sweet girl" Natalie Portman. But it could peak at the right time. Full list after the jump with Winter's Bone (7) and The Kids Are All Right (5) leading the pack.




Eva Mendes and Jeremy Renner announced the nominees. And wow, it went by fast. My transcription speed, 75 wpm bitches, was not as fast as the larynxes of Eva & Jeremy... except when it came to Apichatpong "Joe" Weerasethakul and Uncle Boonmee. But now I've caught up.

BEST FEATURE
You could very well see 80% of the list in Oscar's expanded Best Picture field. Only Greenberg would be a hard Academy sell.

• 127 Hours 
• Black Swan
• Greenberg
• The Kids Are All Right
• Winter's Bone

BEST DIRECTOR
It will be interesting to see who takes this prize. Winter's Bone probably has a leg up but will they really pass over someone visionary like Darren Aronofsky? Black Swan could well peak at the right time. Or will Kids supporters rally around Lisa Cholodenko who has been in that Spirit tent plenty of times.

• Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan)
• Danny Boyle (127 Hours)
• Lisa Cholodenko (The Kids Are All Right)
• Debra Granik (Winter's Bone)
• John Cameron Mitchell (Rabbit Hole)

FIRST FEATURE

• Everything Strange and New (Frazer Bradshaw, Laura Techera Francia, A.D. Liano)
• Get Low (Aaron Schneider, Dean Zanuck, David Gundlach)
• Night Catches Us (Tanya Hamilton, Ronald Simon, Sean Costello, Jason Orans)
• The Last Exorcism (Daniel Stamm, Eric Newman, Eli Roth, Marc Abraham, Thomas A Bliss)
• Tiny Furniture (Lena Dunham, Kyle Martin, Alicia Van Couvering)

JOHN CASSAVETTES AWARD
This is for the real indies. The super low- budget films.

• Daddy Long Legs (Josh Safdie, Benny Safdie, Casey Neistat, Tom Scott)
• lbs. (Matthew Bonifacio, Carmine Famigletti)
• Lovers of Hate (Bryan Poyser, Megan Gilbride)
• Obsiledia (Diane Bell, Chris Byrne, Matthew Medlin)
• The Exploding Girl (Bradley Rust Gray, So Yong Kim, Karen Chien, Ben Howe)

ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD (ENSEMBLE CAST)

Hall, Guibert, Peet and Keener are lovely & amazing.

• To the director, casting director and cast of Please Give. That's a fine choice actually. Just watched it again this week and it's quite a funny collection of characters with plenty of actor interaction. That interaction is sadly missing in many films which are honored for ensemble work simply by having large or starry casts. Does Please Give have any hope of a SAG Ensemble nod or is it just too small and unheralded in a category that always (wrongly) pretends it's a "best picture" award. This can't hurt at the very least.  

BEST ACTRESS

An unprecedented six nominees this year which must mean there was some sort of tie and no tie-breaker system. But all six are good choices, so we won't bitch too much. 

• Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right)
• Greta Gerwig (Greenberg)
• Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole)
• Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone)
• Natalie Portman (Black Swan)
• Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine)

LEAD ACTOR

The Ryan Gosling snub for Blue Valentine smarts. He's just so terrific in it... and worthier than any of the performances selected save Bronstein (who I haven't yet seen so who knows.)

• Ronald Bronstein (Daddy Longlegs)
• Aaron Eckhart (Rabbit Hole)
• James Franco (127 Hours)
• John C Reilly (Cyrus)
• Ben Stiller (Greenberg)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
"Mimi" got a nomination. Take her ou-ooooot tonight. This lineup is very indie. Sometimes it's hard to tell the Spirits apart from more mainstream prizes but in the supporting categories, they're often true to their roots.

• Ashley Bell (The Last Exorcism)
• Dale Dickey (Winter's Bone)
• Alison Janney (Life During Wartime)
• Daphne Rubin-Vega (Jack Goes Boating)
• Naomi Watts (Mother and Child)

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Interesting that Philip Seymour Hoffman did not get a nomination for Jack Goes Boating, a vanity project since he directed and starred, but the supporting cast did.

• John Hawkes (Winter's Bone)
• Samuel L Jackson (Mother and Child)
• Bill Murray (Get Low)
• John Ortiz (Jack Goes Boating)
• Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right)

CINEMATOGRAPHY

• Adam Kimmel (Never Let Me Go)
• Matthew Libatique (Black Swan)
• (Tiny Furniture)
• (Winter's Bone)
• Harris Savides (Greenberg)

DOCUMENTARY

• Exit Through The Gift Shop
• Marwencal
• Restrepo
• Sweet Grass
• Thunder Soul

SCREENPLAY

• The Kids Are All Right (Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg)
• Life During Wartime (Todd Solondz)
• Please Give (Nicole Holofcener)
• Rabbit Hole (David Lindsey-Abaire)
• Winter's Bone (Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini)

FIRST SCREENPLAY

• Jack Goes Boating (Robert Glaudini)
• Lovely Still (Nik Fackler)
• Monogamy (Dana Adam Shapiro and Evan M Wiener)
• Obselidia (Diane Bell)
• Tiny Furniture (Lena Dunham)

FOREIGN FILM

I wish they'd stop including British films in this category. They have such an unfair advantage. Sad that I Am Love didn't make this list. So much more worthy of respect paid than The King's Speech, you know?

• Kisses
• Mademoiselle Chambon
• Of Gods and Men (Apichatpong Weerasethasakul
• The King's Speech (Tom Hooper)
• Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)

SOMEONE TO WATCH

Someone should do a study of how many of these nominees each year ever get another crack at the movies. It's such a brutal business.

• Mike Ott (Littlerock)
• Laurel Nakadate (The Wolf Knife)
• Hossein Keshavarz (Dog Sweat)

TRUER THAN FICTION

Another documentary prize.

• Sweetgrass (Ilisa Barbarsh, Lucien Castaing-Taylor)
• Marwencol (Jeff Malmberg)
• Summer Pasture (Lynn True, Nelson Walker)

PRODUCERS AWARDS

Does this mean Meek's Cutoff will not be eligible next year when it's released? The Spirits have different eligibility rules than Oscar but it seemed like such a likely Spirit Awards contender.

• In-Ah Lee (Au Revoir Tapei)
• Adele Romanski (The Myth of the American Sleepover)
• Anish Savjani (Meek's Cutoff)

Gotham Award Winners

If you'd like running commentary IndieWire provided. If you're short for time here are the winners.

Best Documentary The Oath
Breakthrough Director Kevin Asch for Holy Rollers
Breakthrough Performance Ronald Bronstein from Daddy Longlegs 
Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You Littlerock (Mike Ott)
Festival Genius Award Waiting For 'Superman'
Best Ensemble Performance Winter's Bone
Best Feature Winter's Bone
Tributes: Hilary Swank, James Schamus, Darren Aronofsky, Robert Duvall


The most interesting detail was that, despite a strong night for Winter's Bone, Jennifer Lawrence did not win Breakthrough Performance. I now kick myself for missing Daddy Longlegs which was on my Sundance schedule at least twice and I kept having to rearrange and missed it.  The other immediately noticeable development was in the Documentary field. The field was entirely composed of films that did not make the Academy's Finalist List, Inside Job excepted. The terrorism doc The Oath won.

(Speaking of those Oscar finalist documentaries, I'm only seen a handful but Restrepo, detailing one deployment for US soldiers in Afghanistan is my personal favorite of the lot thus far. Still, none of them compare to Last Train Home, which gets shunned awards-wise.)

What's next for Winter's Bone? Tomorrow will undoubtedly be another good day for the scary Ozark-set drama. The Spirit Award nominees, the big deal for indies, will be announced at 11 AM EST. Expect it to lead the nominations, or thereabouts. From there the awards path for Debra Granik's well loved minor hit gets trickier. Will the critical enthusiasm translate to mainstream movie prizes like the The Globes and Oscar? Stay tuned.

This Link Goes to 11

Live Feed Glee inspired political attack ad. Who knew an attack ad could be cute?
Kenneth in the (212) my friend Kenneth will be seen briefly in the new Mindy Cohn gay flick Violet Tendencies. When was the last time you heard "new Mindy Cohn flick"... let alone a gay one?
Pop Justice "Bad Romance" is one year old today. Kinda. Still love it.

This Leonardo TotallyLooksLike double got
saved on my computer months ago. Every time I
notice it I start giggling. So I must finally share.

Vulture worries that Thor's Frost Giants will battle for the home tree in Avatar. Please. Thor should be so lucky to be (favorably) compared to Avatar. I'm guessing. I am just sensing a terrible terrible movie coming our way.
IndieWire assures us that the Spirit Awards are returning to their Saturday afternoon by the beach tradition.
ArtsBeat Broadway cools down its celebrity lust... for the current moment at least.
Popbytes Speaking of... can you believe that The King's Speech is already planning its Broadway bow? It hasn't even opened in movie theaters yet!
MTV Ang Lee's Life of Pi gets one step closer to production by casting its lead actor 17 year-old Suraj Sharma
Just Jared Tom Hardy for Snow White and the Hunstman? I'm in. Just please let some of these new fairy tale movies NOT view Tim Burton's hideous Alice as something to emulate.

...and some artwork for you
Y'all don't comment on the art related posts but you're going to keep getting them because Nathaniel likes to draw and he loves the artists out there making the internet a more beautiful / whimsical / imaginative place. Deal!
Becky Cloonan "Sluts of Dracula" omg love these sketches. And the title is to undie for.
Austin Translation "Bitter Moments with Count Chocula" a wee Twilight dig.

Angelic Visitations

I was just working on tonight's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" (we'll be posting about 10 or 11 PM so get yer post up before then for linkage!) Had to pause my skimming for much laughter about this post funeral scene. So I figured I'd share it. In the sequence Prior is telling his best friend Belize (Jeffrey Wright) about the heavenly visitor (Emma Thompson) who had recently come calling. Belize thinks it's just a fever dream. But Prior tells him all about their sexual progress.

She had eight vaginas.

Wright's two beat silent reaction shot just slays me.


A shrug, then a mouthed "eight". So so funny. Little moments like this are why I've been obsessed with actors forever. And Jeffrey Wright is such a great one. He's 'Best in Show' in Angels in America (maybe) and that's like being the best holiday in a year. The other ones are merry, too!

Speaking of "Best in Show"... I hope you've enjoyed the first three installments of my new column at Tribeca Film where I've covered Winter's Bone, The Kids Are All Right and Inception thus far. I was going to cover Jacki Weaver in Animal Kingdom next Monday or Tuesday (the film opens Friday) but I ended up interviewing its new Aussie director instead. His name is David Michôd ... remember the name. You may have already read my seven word review or picked up on Glenn's enthusiasm for it. I fully expect Animal Kingdom to win awards attention come year's end. At least of the Independent Spirit variety. You can read the interview here.
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Spirit Awards Live And Possibly Spirited (Or Dispirited) Blogging

10:52 The unwieldy title is accurate because my mood is inscrutable at the moment. Even to myself. What's yours like?

11:01 Eddie Izzard is so great. Smart choice of host. Have you ever seen his concerts? Brilliance. Eddie talks so fast and in so many circles (His show CIRCLE you must rent) that I can't even comment on this opening monologue but he's the best. "We're going to have shame and fear tonight... " haha. He's now telling the winners that they haven't really won if they win. The other nominees can still win instead if they kill the winner. Hee. Is this what Adam Shankman actually wanted when he started talking about the Oscars as reality tv, a sudden death round?

11:09 Best Supporting Actor winner Woody Harrelson (The Messenger) to his fellow nominees "I think you're all better." Is that so they won't try to take him out?


11:15 Regina King and Emile Hirsch are announcing Best First Feature. I like Regina King. Does anyone reading watch Southland? I like her perpetually sour mood in that, there's depth under it and you wonder why her character can't smile more... and you love it whenever her wall drops a little. Anyway, I think she's an underrated actor. She was so good in Ray and The Year of the Dog, too. Crazy Heart wins Chris Coo Scott Cooper this prize.

Writer/director Scott Cooper is quite attractive but uh... "If I see 20 or 25 films a year, you can bet that 22 or 23 of them are independent films" In an acceptance speech. You're a filmmaker and that's all you see? And you're saying it out loud?

11:26 Vera Farmiga is smoking hot. Those pupils are crazy light and she's smart enough to always surround them with the smoky eye. If you stare at them too long she will possess your very soul. And you might like it, too. Maggie Gyllenhaal is also looking sensational if a little more reality based... and favoring assymetrical decolletage. Yay, Geoffrey Fletcher wins Screenplay for Precious.

11:31 There's no commercials in this thing? That's when I do my photo editing! And pee. I need to pee. If there's no commercials soon I'll have to pull a Bad Blake. Where's the plastic jug? Speaking of... Jeff Bridges is singing one of Crazy Heart's numbers. I can't believe Oscar didn't want Jeff up there strumming and warbling. I'm not crazy about this "Funny How Falling Feels Like Flying" song though. Give me the Oscar nominated one or the "Somebody Else"


11:39 Mo'Nique wins Supporting Actress for Precious looking as polished and beautiful as ever. She talked about bringing your A game to a low budget movie and that the wardrobe for Mary Jones came from producer Lisa Cortes's closet. 'What that says about Lisa Cortes, I don't know' hahaha. This is such a great acceptance speech. To a beaming Gabby "You are a special gift to the universe"

11:45 Mariah Carey arrives... uh, expanded... to present Best Cinematography. Roger Deakins wins for A Serious Man. Eddie Izzard returns and the microphone keeps rising up from the floor and then falling back down. He calls it a "strange penis thing". The crowd doesn't seem to think he's funny but he is brilliantly funny. It's just his kind of cerebral chain of thought rapid fire cumulative laughs (funnier the more they sink in) is not the type of humor that maybe translates best to showing up in between acceptance speeches.

11:57 The John Cassavettes Award (for a super low budget movie) goes to Humpday. That was a good one.

12:03 The Robert Altman Award (for ensemble) goes to A Serious Man. For a second I thought they said A Single Man and I was like "Colin Firth and Julianne Moore are an ensemble??? Where I come from we call that a duo!" And in case you've always wanted to know what Ellen Chenoweth (Casting Director) looks like, here she is!

I've been seeing her name on movie screens my whole life and I did always wonder. Lately I pretend that she's actually Kristin Chenoweth's older sister and that they do not get along. Hence Kristin's trouble finding worthy film roles.

12:12 We so want to see Son of Precious. John Waters just pitched it. Someone to Watch Award goes to Easier With Practice.

12:16 This night is all about the blacktresses! Now it's Taraji P Henson's turn to come out looking fan-tas-tic. Oh, it's a tribute to Roger Ebert. Taraji is so cute, giggling, 'You always had great things to say about me so I love you!' Well, at least she's honest about it! I always wonder when filmmakers and actors honor critics. Like, do they do it through gritted teeth? It must be an odd relationship. Ebert and his wife are sponsoring this award "Truer Than Fiction" for documentary filmmakers. The Ross Brothers from Ohio win. They thank their mom "she's our producer... literally." Hee.

12:23 Carey Mulligan, like Marisa Tomei before her tonight, is wearing some sort of crushed jewelry superglued to a tight black bodice. This is another Best Screenplay category. I'm confused. We already had one. Maybe that was a "first screenplay" and this is for old pros? (500) Days of Summer wins. I bet this feels good for these guys after the Oscar snub.

12:31 ANVIL! THE PERFORMANCE OF ANVIL. You know, I'm glad people discovered this movie (rent it!) but the music is not why the movie is good ;) And Anvil! The Story of Anvil wins Best Documentary.

Incidentally, Maria Bello & Lenny Kravitz presented this award. I am so hot for Bello (I know I know blonde 40something actresses. they kill me) and I wish she'd get better jobs. There was a very weird moment when she seemed to be trying to welcoming Lenny to acting (via Precious) only she's like really talented. And he's like a musician who acted once. I kept wanting him to bust out "American Woman" with Maria Bello in the Heather Graham role.

12:47 Why do I hate David Spade? I always have. It's a weird personal reaction but ewww. I can't even look at the screen. Foreign Film goes to An Education.


Lone Scherfig fawns all over Carey Mulligan verbally just like she does visually in the movie! Surprisingly she reserves even crazier praise for Peter Sarsgaard 'best actor she's ever worked with' or some such. He looks adorable bald.

Stella Artois has sponsored tonight's event. But you might say they have hijacked the night's event because every time someone wins the logo comes up and blocks out the delighted winner. Bad form sponsor, bad form.


12:53 Best Actress goes to GABOUREY SIDIBE. Woooooot. I am gonna transcribe the whole thing (insert your own giggles) because she's just too delightful for words. Or rather... more delightful with words. Gimme a sec.

[huge applause] Stop! I'm getting nervous.

Thank you. [looking at statue] It's got wings on it, yay!

I'm so excited. Okay, I'm kind of a dork. My mom used to pay me $2 a day to go to school and I used to ride by an independent movie theater. I saved up my money for a week so I could see Welcome to the Dollhouse. And that's the first film I saw where I thought... I could do that. So to be corny I'll say that is perhaps when my independent spirit was born. Now I am officially corny.

I'd like to thank our casting directors Billy Hopkins and Jessica Kelly. I'd like to thank all of our producers who worked tirelessly, our awesome awesome director, our screenwriter. They all collaborated to make me look good. Or too look bad because there was no makeup on set at all. No makeup. We all looked bad. I'd like to thank my fellow actors who... taught me how to act. Really I showed up not knowing anything. I still hardly know anything. I'm going to call all those tricks up for my next role!

And I'd like to thank everyone here with independent spirit and our studio Lionsgate. Thank you so much!

Delightful.

12:59 I think this is the end. Eddie Izzard never takes a breath and he just makes me laaaaaaauuugh. Wait, what? THREE more awards to go. No fair. I'm ready for the triple Z

1:05 Maggie Gyllenhaal, her right breast, and Ryan Reynolds present Best Actor to Jeff Bridges. Weird but very affectionate moment(s) between Jeff & Maggie during the intro, presentation and acceptance speech.


Weird partially because they played lovers in the movie and their energy in person is ALL daddy and daddy's little girl. So, uh, yeah. Kinda creepy when juxtaposed with scenes from the movie. But I love them both. Jeff's speech is filled with lots of "man"s and "baby"s. He and Mo'Nique should have a conversation. The Dude keeps looking up and talking to dearly departed people. Three of them.

1:11 Jodie Foster and Jeremy Renner look right together. Hmmmmm. J&J rave about Jeff and then they announce Best Director which goes to Lee Daniels for Precious. After a very lengthy giddy trip to the stage (he stops and hugs each Precious star) Jodie gives him a backpat and Jeremy kisses him. Lee Daniels is having a very good night.

He says "Kathryn Bigelow is not here tonight but I am' He is overcome with emotion. He literally says nothing after saying Mo'Nique's name but just tears up. I understand. I saw the performance, too.

1:20 PRECIOUS = BEST PICTURE. The Hurt Locker is probably so glad it held its release a year. Not that I want other movies to follow suit. It avoided the fate of being that Indie Spirit darling which rules over Oscar weekend until the actual Oscars. Of course there are much worse fates than to have a glitzy party with influential peers in your industry celebrating you. Congratulations to Precious! Lee Daniels to his producer (the one with the Mary Jones wardrobe) "Tell all these white people what you gotta say!"

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Who Would You Vote For at The Spirit Awards?

The Spirit Awards are nearly upon us. I will live blog haphazardly tonight whilst cleaning my apartment and fine tuning Oscar Party Plans. In the meantime, while you wait for the festivities to begin, I thought you should hear from a Spirit voter. So I'll let him take it from here.

Hello everybody! Michael B here, writing my first (and hopefully not last) guest post. Let me tell you a few things about myself before I begin. I’m 19 years old, from Los Angeles, but reside in New York City during the fall and spring. I attend NYU and major in Dramatic Writing, or also known as, Film, Play and Television Writing. I’m a huge Oscar buff—I live five blocks away from the Academy Building—and have been an avid reader and “chatty moviegoer” at The Film Experience for over five years. And I do too love the actresses. I’m here to talk about this year’s Independent Spirit Award’s and which nominees will (literally) get my vote.

Best Feature: (500) Days of Summer, Amreeka, Precious, Sin Nombre and The Last Station

When these set of nominees came out in early December I had only seen Precious, which I absolutely loved. Now after viewing the other four (very) worthy nominees, my preference hasn’t changed. What I do wish was that Crazy Heart had replaced The Last Station. And for those of you who have not yet seen Amreeka or Sin Nombre, do so immediately.

Precious is also my favorite from this crowd as you may have ascertained. But will the Spirit awards do that "it's nominated for an Oscar, so it deserves our win thing... or will they think more independently? But I don't mean to interrupt. Back to Michael

Best Director: The Coen Brothers-A Serious Man, Lee Daniels -Precious, Cary Fukunaga-Sin Nombre , James Grey-Two Lovers and Michael Hoffman-The Last Station

Daniels. He gets a lot of flack (especially from my fellow dramatic writers) but had Daniel’s not had helmed this it would have been an entirely different movie. There’s a reason why all his actors are in love with him. Yet, I’m saddened that Marc Webb wasn’t nominated in his fabulous directorial debut for (500) Days Of Summer.

Best Female Lead: Maria Bello-Downloading Nancy, Helen Mirren-The Last Station, Gwyneth Paltrow-Two Lovers, Gabby Sidibe -Precious and Nisreen Faour, Amreeka

Gabby Sidibe, in a sublime performance that should win the Oscar. The other four ladies are remarkable, especially Paltrow and Faour.

The continued love for Gabourey Sidibe from so many quarters is essentially why I think Meryl Streep is losing to Sandra Bullock on Sunday night. One potential beloved spoiler can sometimes disrupt the awards momentum of a "favorite". But when two to three of the other nominees have major support, the frontrunner is going to win (see Hilary Swank's Million Dollar Baby triumph. Too many people were pulling votes and siphoning them from each other to put up a real fight against that lady boxer. That's a famous example of the situation). Anyway... Michael was saying...

Best Male Lead: Jeff Bridges -Crazy Heart, Colin Firth-A Single Man, Joseph Gordon Levitt-(500) Days of Summer, Souleymane SySavane-Goodbye Solo, Adam Scott-The Vicious Kind.

How or why Joaquin Phoenix and Michael Stuhlbarg were snubbed for Two Lovers and A Serious Man, I’ll never know, but what I do know is that Jeff Bridges gives the best male lead performance of the year.

Best Supporting Female: Dina Korzun-Cold Souls, Mo’Nique-Precious, Samantha Morton-The Messenger, Natalie Press-Fifty Dead Men, Mia Wasikowska-That Evening Sun

Mo’Nique. I don’t think it’s even debatable. Wasikowska is the next big thing and should have won an Emmy for In Treatment, but we’ll leave that for another time.

Best Supporting Male: Jemaine Clements -Gentleman Broncos, Woody Harrelson-The Messenger, Christian McKay-Me and Orson Welles, Raymond McKinnon -That Evening Sun, Christopher Plummer-The Last Station

I’ve been going back and forth between Harrelson and Plummer for ages. Then I realized I was putting Plummer on equal footing with Harrelson because it was not only just a good performance but also because he’s been around for ages. I told myself I would not be one of those voters!

But it's so hard NOT to be one of those voters. We're all human. I suppose McKay is my favorite from this bunch but I also sometimes love it when the true tiny indies win something and I thought McKinnon was fantastic in That Evening Sun.

Best First Feature:A Single Man, Crazy Heart, Easier With Practice, The Mesenger, Paranormal Activity

This category was a toss-up between A Single Man, Crazy Heart, and The Messenger—all movies that I loved and all movies that I thought were well directed, acted, written and produced. But after viewing Crazy Heart for the second time I had a winner.

You could sit through it a second time? I kid I kid. I am firmly in the "don't get it" camp in regards to everything outside of Jeff Bridges (and the songs).

Best Screenplay:The Messenger, The Last Station, The Vicious Kind, Adventureland and (500) Days of Summer

Summer was the best written script, refreshing and new. Saddened by it’s Oscar snub.

Best First Screenplay: Cold Souls, Crazy Heart, Precious, Amreeka and A Single Man

Precious. No surprise here. A great screenplay based on a great novel. Sad that it will be Geoffrey Fletcher’s only win of the awards season.

Best Cinematograpy: Roger Deakins-A Serious Man, Adriano Goldman-Sin Nombre, Anne Misawa-Treeless Mountain, Andrij Parekh- Could Souls, Peter Zeitlinger-Bad Lieutenant

Sin Nombre. No question about it.

Best Foreign Film:A Prophet, An Education, Everlasting Moments, Mother and The Maid

The Maid is a must-see. Felt as if I was watching a documentary and Catalina Saavedra’s performance is the best by an actress this year. I do think that lazy voters will check off An Education without having seen any of the other nominees. Sigh.

End Notes: I don’t vote for categories that I haven’t seen the majority of the films or if I haven’t seen any—which is why I didn’t vote for Documentary or The John Cassavetes Award. And finally, my track record with the Spirit Awards hasn’t been the greatest. Last year I voted for Rachel Getting Married in every single category and guess what happened? It went home empty handed. (And for Rachel fans…I voted for DeWitt, not Winger). Yet I suspect I’ll do better this year. How bout you ? Who do you think will and should win at this year’s Spirit Awards?

Awww, I knew I liked Michael B for a reason. Rachel Getting Married fans are always welcome chez moi.

Come back later for that SPIRITed live-blogging.

Indie Spirits ~ Live Blogging

5:00 PM Mickey Rourke (a lot more on him if you scroll down), Kerry Washington, Taraji P Henson, John Malkovich, Darren Aronofsky, Debra Winger, Rosemarie DeWitt... lots of famous faces flashing at us, some of them probably trying desperately not to think about the Oscars tomorrow. Ben Stiller is talking at us to introduce our host Steve Coogan (Tropic Thunder, Hamlet 2). Why is it that I think Stiller is so funny when he's playing himself and not so funny in actual movie roles? Jokes about "most of us haven't seen these films"... why do I get so much flak for suggesting Hollywood types don't watch all the nominated movies and yet, they themselves joke about it constantly. (sigh) He's joking about how the Oscars are orgies of backpatting for beautiful people. At the indie spirits they're beautiful on the inside instead. People don't seem to think this joke is funny. Neither does the cameraman because they cut to Aaron Eckhart and Jenny Lumet (both classically beautiful, neither apparently amused)


...and then he's on to talking about Penélope Cruz and making lesbian jokes. Weird segueway.

5:10 Jonathan Demme is wearing an orange t-shirt. For a second I thought it had Obama's face stencilled on it. The face being inescapable. Even when we're celebrating movies.

5:20 Best Supporting Actor goes to James Franco for Milk. Haaz Sleiman does not win but you can't really types "loses" when the subject looks like this...

<--- (yeah, like that)
5:25 Best First Screenplay goes to Dustin Lance Black for Milk, beating Jenny Lumet for Rachel Getting Married (it's going to be a Milk day obviously. But then the Indie Spirits usually end up sucking up to one of the main Oscar nominees. Last year it was Juno for everything). Black gets political and says we can't wait 30 more years for equal civil rights for gay and lesbian citizens. It'll be awesome at the Oscars to hear this spoken aloud (since he'll win there, too).

5:30 First Feature goes to Charlie Kauffman for Synecdoche New York. He thinks "best" is "crap"... I think that's a nod to his competitors but the speech is kind of jumbled so who knows. The speech is not circular or full of allusions or depressing or, in short, anything like his movies.


5:32 Best Supporting Actress goes to Penélope Cruz for Vicky Cristina Barcelona. She's the only Oscar nominee in this lineup so winning the Oscar isn't the same battle at all. But her speech (she hasn't prepared one is really fun) and I love the story about Woody Allen actually leaving the set to see his dermatologist (new freckle discovery) on the day she was making out with Scarlett Johansson. Debra Winger loves this story too. It's nice to see her laugh. I love that Misty Upham (Frozen River) is all dressed up. At the Spirits!

5:45 John Cassavetes Award goes to ??? I forgot already. This is the type of movie one senses the Indie Spirits exist for. But if they didn't include all the Hollywood stuff nobody would watch the show.

5:55 No fair. No song to introduce Rachel Getting Married. Just a song from the movie.

6:00 Documentary goes to Man on Wire. Shortest speech of the night. Basically 'thanks'. It was presented by Batman and a fake Joaquin Phoenix. Kinda funny but I have to admit --you miss a lot when you live blog. I don't even know who that was making the Bale "we're done professionally" jokes. How fresh!


6:05 Melissa Leo wins Best Actress for Frozen River. Rachel Getting Married is going to lose everything but great films are their own reward. I'm watching this show with two friends one says "She made her dress from the Golden Girls couch!" The other says "She looks like a Relief Society President" You'll get that if you're Mormon but otherwise you're out of luck. But maybe you know enough about Mormons to know. They're taking over. Mormon raised at least: Amy Adams, Aaron Eckhart, Eliza Dushku, Dustin Lance Black. They're everywhere! When I was a wee tyke the only celebrities who were "a little bit" Mormon (past or present) were Donnie & Marie.

at some point in this presentation Teri Hatcher did a really disturbing "Bitch is Back" number celebrating Wendy & Lucy. I don't think Michelle Williams knew what to make of it but since she isn't exactly a "loud" actor or a "loud" personality it's anyone's guess what she was feeling.

6:11 Some woman won some award. That's all I know. See what I mean about missing things while live-blogging. She's from Seattle. There's some specificity for you!

6:15 I want this to be over.

6:something or other Rosie Perez is presenting something and says 'I hate Penélope Cruz.' I love Rosie Perez. Why doesn't Hollywood?

6:29 The Class won foreign film. Yay! So I got to see my silver medal director Laurent Cantet.

6:30 Cinematography goes to Maryse Alberti for The Wrestler. Director Darren Aronofsky accepts. I love that he always says "I'm Darren". For a brilliant auteur he sure doesn't waste a lot of time selling himself. Could you imagine M Night Shyamalan's trademark intro being "Hi, I'm M"?

6:32 Cameron Diaz gives the Robert Altman Award for to Synecdoche New York. Great cast that movie had. I just wish someone else had directed it. I love Kauffman's writing but I feel like his writing is too self-devouring for the same person who dreamt it up and wrenched it out of its creative womb to also try and visualize it. Just my take. Obviously, others disagree.

6:38 Rainn Wilson does a musical number for The Wrestler. I shan't torture you with a photo but Darren Aronofsky and Rachel Weisz find it amusing.

6:42 Laura Dern THE FACE presents Best Actor which goes to Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler. I don't know if y'all checked that link the other day about "hair" and Oscar winners but if he wins tomorrow he'll be only the second Best Actor winner ever to win for a long haired role (the only other one was Jon Voight in Coming Home. His speech is on fire and it's spreading. It starts with a tribute to another 80s up and comer who never quite became what he was supposed to become (Eric Roberts -- Julia's brother, yes -- last seen in The Dark Knight) and I have to agree with him there. Someone give Eric another great role. If you've seen Bob Fosse's Star 80 you'll understand Mickey's shout out.


This might be the craziest longest most train-of-thought speech since Ally Sheedy won for High Art.

Update: Here is the whole thing...



To Darren Aronofsky ,who is worried about actors being scared away from working with him because of Mickey's story about how "tough" Darren is:

If they aint got the balls to bring it, then fuck 'em

He's crazy. He totally gets the room going. He cracks Laura Dern and Philip Seymour Hoffman up. He scandalizes Anne Hathaway with a story about wrestler's "banging chicks in the ass in the bathroom". Well done Mickey. This is what the Indie Spirits live for.

6:53 John Waters and quirk queen Zooey Deschanel make jokes about inflated budgets on these so called "indies". It's mildly amusing.

6:54 Tom McCarthy wins Best Director of The Visitor. He's worried about following Mickey Rourke. No kidding. I love this guy although I wish the beard would go. He thanks "Dickie Jenkins" Hee. Richard seems very happy for him. And this also means more shots of Haaz.

6:59 Best Picture goes to The Wrestler. I'm happy for them. Darren... Just "Darren" please ... gets a full kiss from Mickey and the cheek kiss from his partner Rachel Weisz. Thank you. Darren calls The Wrestler a "Passion piece. We all bled to get here" It shows. Damn what a movie it is. I hope you've seen it by now. Twice. I'm not even that mad that Rachel Getting Married lost everything tonight. Because at least the awards went to fine films.

7:02 The End.

Indie Spirit Nominations

Wheeeee. Precursor Oscar season. As you may have noticed from all the "B"s in the sidebar I've mostly enjoyed the intended Best Picture hopefuls but haven't been blown away. That is to say I think the eventual Oscar lineup will be solid (there don't seem to be any embarrassments being treated like godsends) but I still really hope Oscar looks back further than December if they feel similarly underwhelmed. I mean let's get real: The Visitor --which I don't even love as much as most people-- is just as good as many of them. It's just not as anointed as Future Oscar Player. It lacks the scale they like. There's also Rachel Getting Married, WALL•E, Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Happy-Go-Lucky which are also better than some of the big ticket entries not to mention that one superhero movie people went crazy for. Why must precursor bodies and the media accept the studio release decisions as proof of worth? But wait. I'm getting way ahead of myself.

I ramble and I worry about the destination but I'm so glad we've begun the journey. Aren't you?

Independent Spirit Award Nominations

Best Feature Ballast, Frozen River, Rachel Getting Married, Wendy & Lucy and The Wrestler
Best First Feature Campos -Afterschool, Jenkins - Medicine for Melancholy, Zalla -Sangre de Mi Sangre, Rivera -Sleep Dealer, Charlie Kauffman -Synechdoche New York
Best Director Ramin Barani -Chop Shop, Jonathan Demme -Rachel Getting Married, Courtney Hunt -Frozen River, Thomas McCarthy -The Visitor

This is the second time already (following The Satellites) that Frozen River beat The Visitor to a Best Picture citation while McCarthy was nominated for director. Isn't that quirky? I thought The Visitor would have more awards oomph than Frozen River. Also: I really must see this Ballast movie. It leads the nominations, tied with Rachel Getting Married and Frozen River, all with six nominations each but I expect The Wrestler might win the top prize despite the odd omission of Darren Aronofsky in the director shortlist.

Lead Male Javier Bardem -Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Richard Jenkins -The Visitor, Sean Penn -Milk, Jeremy Renner -Hurt Locker, Mickey Rourke -The Wrestler
Supporting Male James Franco -Milk, Anthony Mackie -Hurt Locker, Charlie McDermott -Frozen River, Jim Myron Ross -Ballast, Haaz Sleiman -The Visitor

It's worth noting that Hurt Locker, the long awaited (well, by me) return of director Kathryn Bigelow is not eligible for the Oscars. Indie Spirits have different eligibility requirements. Hurt Locker will be distributed by Summit Entertainment but we don't know quite when. I expect Mickey Rourke wins this without breaking a sweat. The Oscar will be a tougher get.

Lead Female Summer Bishil -Towelhead, Anne Hathaway -Rachel Getting Married, Melissa Leo -Frozen River, Tarra Riggs -Ballast, Michelle Williams -Wendy & Lucy
Supporting Female Penélope Cruz -Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Rosemarie DeWitt -Rachel Getting Married, Rosie Perez -The Take, Misty Upham -Frozen River, Debra Winger -Rachel Getting Married

Big big love for Rachel Getting Married with all three of its main ladies up for prizes. Who wants to bet that Debra Winger shows up to the ceremony. Nobody? Yeah, y'all are too smart.


Depending on whether you think AMPAS voters take the Indie Spirits as "reward enough" for smaller films or as a rowdy youthful "suggestion" or just ignore them altogether today's announcements are either bad news, good news, or indifferent news.

Which do you think they are?

P.S. my Oscar prediction pages are being updated (right this second) to reflect precursor citations that have already started rolling in.
P.S. 2 For a complete list of the ISA nominations, you can click here.

Melissa Leo and Frozen River

I can't recall whether the first shot of Frozen River is a wide shot of an actual frozen river or a tight closeup of actress Melissa Leo, inhaling nicotine outside a battered trailer... but both images are equally frosty and unforgiving. Combined in quick succession as they are, they neatly forecast both what's pedestrian and what's impressive about writer/director Courtney Hunt's debut feature which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. The movie isn't always surprising and it's not visually expressive in the way one wishes cinema to be but it is unusually intimate and perceptive as a character study about women in the inclement climates of hard living.

Melissa Leo is really very good in the demanding lead role but I'm not sure how far her future rave reviews will take her (they're coming --just wait) on the road to a coveted Oscar nomination. It's a small film and she isn't famous enough to win huge points for that beloved "deglam" trick (she's far more attractive in person than she ever lets her character "Ray Eddy" be) but an Independent Spirit nomination seems very likely once awards season hits late in the year.

I had a chance to meet Melissa and the film's director recently and I've written about the film over @ the Tribeca Film Festival site. Enjoy.
*

Naked Gold Man: And We're Off! Are We?

Restoring the Sunday Oscar series (or: season 2. episode 1) in which we pen the the Oscar focused topics into Sundays so as to prevent Oscar fatigue before the pre season madness begins...

Where are the future Oscar nominees?

Last year by this time -- 4 months and one week into the year-- we had seen three of our eventual Oscar nominees, and two of them were biggies: Adapted Screenplay and Best Actress candidates (Away From Her) and [gulp] a Make Up nod (Norbit). Apart from Iron Man's visual f/x (you can probably ink that down) and maybe sound... is there anything out there that AMPAS could remember by year's end? Will Iron Man's jet-pack ignite the very earliest of the early bird nods? What else is there?

Best Picture, Director, Screenplays? Zilch. The Academy has previously shown a liking for the great playwright Martin McDonagh who wrote and directed the crime comedy In Bruges but despite winning somewhat surprised fans, it didn't make enough waves. Stop-Loss (my review) had the heavy-weight topic you need for awardage but not the reviews or audiences. That's a no go, too.

Performances? There's two leads playing (or about to) that we could conceivably see as eventual Oscar ...um... Indie Spirit nominees? Richard Jenkins for The Visitor and Famke Janssen for Turn the River (see previous post) will have their fans but Oscar bids remain far fetched. Even to make it all the way until the Spirits, they'll need a committed team and a heap of luck. We'll see.

Otherwise
Young @ Heart is a real crowd pleasing documentary but it's always risky to assume that any particular film will show up in the documentary race... it's not always even clear which films will prove eligible. I suppose Horton Hears a Who could land itself in the animated feature three-spot but the year is young and much ballyhooed contestants are still to come.

Finally, there's the off chance that an early contender could score in Costume Design. That branch of the Academy isn't as beholden to the rest of the competitive Oscar field as some others. To paraphrase Fleetwood Mac 'they can go their own way... go their own waay--ayy-aay'... The candidates thus far: Louise Frogley did 20s work on Leatherheads. George Clooney loves her --she's provided his threads in five films already. On the other hand, the Academy has yet to notice her strengths; There's period gowns and even a lingerie fashion show from Michael O'Connor (never nominated) in Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day; Most likely given previous track records, AMPAS could opt for the great Sandy Powell's royal and elaborate gowns from The Other Boleyn Girl...Best Most Costume Design!

Slave driving two-time Oscar winner Sandy Powell forces ScarJo to mend her
own gowns on the set of The Other Boleyn Girl.

Do you see any early birds within Oscar's eventual nominees or do you think Iron Man's cocky "oh yeah. I can fly" visual and/or sound effects will be the only contender from 2008's releases to date?