Nominations for Independent Spirit Awards heat up award season

Now that the Gotham Awards have come and gone, it's time to look at the Independent Spirit Award nominations, which were announced yesterday. Of course, what's great about the Spirit Awards is that they tend to reward movies that won't have a big play in the Oscar race. However, many of the nominees for the Spirit Awards have also been angling for statuettes at the Oscars.

Of the five nominees for Best Feature, both Moonrise Kingdom and Silver Linings Playbook received four other nominations for five in total, making them the most-nominated features. When it comes to the Oscars, Silver Linings Playbook is a shoo-in for the Best Picture category, while Moonrise is an outlier. Beasts of the Southern Wild grabbed four nominations, as did Keep the Lights On. However, at least according to the odds posted by GoldDerby, Beasts has a better chance for receiving the coveted Best Picture nomination come Oscar time. Rounding out the group is Bernie, which received only one other nomination, for the performance of Jack Black.

Safety Not Guaranteed, an indie comedy that parlayed word-of-mouth into a $4 million theatrical box office, received two nominations, for Best First Screenplay and Best First Feature. Whether they win or not, it seems like the screenwriters already have launched their career. Today, Variety reported that the movie's director/producer Colin Trevorrow and writer/producer Derek Connolly have been hired to write Disney's remake of the sci-fi picture Flight of the Navigator. Trevorrow may also direct. They also sold yet another project to Disney that Trevorrow is attached to direct, but it sounds like Flight of the Navigator will be up to bat first.

So while the Spirit nominations reinforce the Oscar prospects for Silver Linings Playbook, Moonrise Kingdom, and Beasts of the Southern Wild, their biggest impact may be to recognize the work of independent filmmakers and give others the exposure they need to start plying their craft at major studios.

Spirit Awards in a downbeat mood

By Sarah Sluis

The Independent Spirit Awards announced their nominees this morning.  Unlike last year, which was swept by crossover blockbuster Juno both in terms of nominations and awards, three films tied for most
nominations, with Rachel Getting Married, Ballast, and Frozen River each receiving six nominations, including the Best Feature nod.

The two other Best Feature nominees, Wendy and Lucy and The Wrestler, have only been seen on the festival circuit.(Could these movies' late releases have impacted the volume of their nominations?)  Wendy and Lucy will play at NYC's Film Forum December 10th-23rd, and The Wrestler, angling for a Best Actor nomination for Mickey Rourke, will release on December 19th.  While narrowing down the top five Independent films can be a trial each year, The Visitor and Milk, each nominated in other categories besides Best Feature, could easily have held their own among the top features, at least if FJI's Executive Editor Kevin Lally had anything to do the selections.

Of the five nominees for Best Feature, I can only speak to Rachel Getting Married and Wendy and Lucy (at least until I see The Wrestler next week).  Depending on your taste, "meandering" can either compliment or insult Rachel Getting Married and its long musical and dance sequences.  The quiet spiral of despair and destitution of Wendy and Lucy can be painful to watch, though director Kelly Reichardt wisely gives the audience moments to rest.  Frozen River, the story of two trapped women smuggling immigrants to make ends meet, boasts a "grasp of time, place and state of mind and economy [that] is firm and unforgettable."  Ballast also focuses on a rural landscape where "poverty seems to be endemic, drug dealing rampant, and possibilities extremely limited."  Indeed, of the five films, Rachel Getting Married is the black sheep, its addict a product of an upper-middle-class, suburban home, and the
general mood far from hopeless.

While not nominated for Best Feature, I particularly liked Chop Shop, which received nominations for Best Director and Best Cinematography.  There's nothing worse than an earnest low-budget film marred by terrible image quality, but Chop Shop plays like a collection of photographs, its depiction of an urban slum a bleaker and more static version of Slumdog Millionaire's.

The full list of nominations for the Independent Spirit Awards can be found here, but the awards ceremony won't take place for almost three months-- February 21st.