Spirit Awards Announced: 'Juno', 'Diving Bell,' 'I'm Not There' Clean Up

By Katey Rich

The Film Independent Spirit Awards, the funky younger cousin to the Oscars, has announced its nominees for this year. As usual there's a little overlap between these and the presumed Oscar contenders, but there are also enough offbeat, low-budget, true indies to keep things interesting. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, I'm Not There, Juno and The Savages, Oscar contenders all, led the nominees with four each, including Best Feature for the first three. A Mighty Heart and Paranoid Park rounded out the Best Feature nominees.

Kendrick played a high-strung debater in Rocket Science.

Perhaps one of the biggest black sheep nominees was Rocket Science, a quirky teen comedy about a high school debate team from first-time writer-director Jeffrey Blitz. It bowed to largely positive critical reviews in August and made pretty much no money, but it played for over two months, which is practically a hit given how fast some titles get whisked in and out of theatres. Blitz earned two nominations, for "Best First Screenplay" and "Best First DIrector," and 22-year old Anna Kendrick scored a Best Supporting Female nomination, alongside likely Oscar nominees Cate Blanchett (I'm Not There), Jennifer Jason Leigh (Margot at the Wedding) and Marisa Tomei (Before the Devil Knows You're Dead).

A few films made a surprisingly small impact. Much-beloved Waitress nabbed only a screenwriting nom for its late writer-director Adrienne Shelly, while Margot at the Wedding was noticed only for Leigh's performance (this after The Squid and the Whale earned six nominations in 2006). On the other hand, Don Cheadle and Chiwetel Ejiofor both got noticed for the largely forgotten summer release Talk To Me, and two-time Spirit Awards winner Mike White scored a nod for his screenplay for the small comedy Year of the Dog. 

A few no-brainers: I'm Not There won the Robert Altman award for ensemble cast and direction, and Great World of Sound, which led the Gotham Awards, picked up nominations for "Best First Feature" and "Best Supporting Male" for Kene Holliday. Also, if Diablo Cody doesn't clean up "Best FIrst Screenplay" for Juno, there really may be no justice in this world.

The 2008 Film Independent Spirit Awards will be handed out on Saturday, February 23, in a beachfront ceremony held the day before the Academy Awards. There's talk of a "Spirit Award curse," by which the winner of Best Feature will go on to lose the Oscar the next day-- it happened to Little Miss Sunshine, Brokeback Mountain, Sideways, and Lost in Translation. So if you're really rooting for Diving Bell and Juno, or somewhat delusionally rooting for I'm Not There, hope that Gus Van Sant's digitally-shot murder mystery about skateboarders Paranoid Park can eke its way to a win.

The full list of nominees is available after the jump, as well as at the Spirit Awards website.

BEST FEATURE (Award given to the Producer)

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Producers: Kathleen Kennedy, Jon Kilik

I'm Not There
Producers: Christine Vachon, John Sloss, John Goldwyn, James D. Stern

Juno
Producers: Lianne Halfon, John Malkovich, Mason Novick, Russell Smith

A Mighty Heart
Producers: Dede Gardner, Andrew Eaton, Brad Pitt

Paranoid Park
Producers: Neil Kopp, David Cress

BEST DIRECTOR

Todd Haynes
I'm Not There

Tamara Jenkins
The Savages

Jason Reitman
Juno

Julian Schnabel
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Gus Van Sant
Paranoid Park

BEST FIRST FEATURE (Award given to the director and producer)

2 Days in Paris
Director: Julie Delpy
Producers: Julie Delpy, Christophe Mazodier, Thierry Potok

Great World of Sound
Director: Craig Zobel
Producers: Melissa Palmer, David Gordon Green, Richard Wright, Craig Zobel

The Lookout
Director: Scott Frank
Producers: Roger Birnbaum, Gary Barber, Laurence Mark, Walter Parkes

Rocket Science
Director: Jeffrey Blitz
Producers: Effie T. Brown, Sean Welch

Vanaja
Director: Rajnesh Domalpalli
Producer: Latha R. Domalapalli

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD (Given to the best feature made for under $500,000;

award given to the writer, director, and producer)

* Executive Producers are not listed.

August Evening
Writer/Directpr: Chris Eska
Producers: Connie Hill, Jason Wehling

Owl and the Sparrow
Writer/Director: Stephane Gauger
Producers: Nguyen Van Quan, Doan Nhat Nam, Stephane Gauger

The Pool
Director: Chris Smith
Producer: Kate Noble
Writer: Chris Smith & Randy Russell

Quiet City
Director: Aaron Katz
Producers: Brendan McFadden, Ben Stambler
Writers: Aaron Katz, Erin Fisher, Cris Lankenau

Shotgun Stories
Writer/Director: Jeff Nichols
Producers: David Gordon Green, Lisa Muskat, Jeff Nichols

BEST SCREENPLAY

Ronald Harwood
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Tamara Jenkins
The Savages

Fred Parnes & Andrew Wagner
Starting Out in the Evening

Adrienne Shelly
Waitress

Mike White
Year of the Dog

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY

Jeffrey Blitz
Rocket Science

Zoe Cassavetes
Broken English

Diablo Cody
Juno

Kelly Masterson
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

John Orloff
A Mighty Heart

BEST FEMALE LEAD

Angelina Jolie
A Mighty Heart

Sienna Miller
Interview

Ellen Page
Juno

Parker Posey
Broken English

Tang Wei
Lust, Caution

BEST MALE LEAD

Pedro Castaneda
August Evening

Don Cheadle
Talk To Me

Philip Seymour Hoffman
The Savages

Frank Langella
Starting Out in the Evening

Tony Leung
Lust, Caution

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE

Cate Blanchett
I'm Not There

Anna Kendrick
Rocket Science

Jennifer Jason Leigh
Margot at the Wedding

Tamara Podemski
Four Sheets to the Wind

Marisa Tomei
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

BEST SUPPORTING MALE

Chiwetel Ejiofor
Talk To Me

Marcus Carl Franklin
I'm Not There

Kene Holliday
Great World of Sound

Irrfan Khan
The Namesake

Steve Zahn
Rescue Dawn

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Mott Hupfel
The Savages

Janusz Kaminski
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Milton Kam
Vanaja

Mihai Malaimare, Jr.
Youth Without Youth

Rodrigo Prieto
Lust, Caution

BEST DOCUMENTARY (Award given to the director)

Crazy Love
Director: Dan Klores

Lake of Fire
Director: Tony Kaye

Manufactured Landscapes
Director: Jennifer Baichwal

The Monastery
Director: Pernille Rose Gr�nkjr

The Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair
Directors: Petra Epperlein & Michael Tucker

BEST FOREIGN FILM (Award given to the director)

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
Director: Cristian Mungiu
(Romania)

The Band's Visit
Director: Eran Kolirin
(Israel)

Lady Chatterley
Director: Pascale Ferran
(France)

Once
Director: John Carney
(Ireland)

Persepolis
Directors: Vincent Paronnaud & Marjane Satrapi
(France)

ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD

(Given to one film's director, casting director and its ensemble cast)

I'm Not There
Director: Todd Haynes
Casting Director: Laura Rosenthal
Ensemble Cast: Cate Blanchett, Christian Bale, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, Ben Whishaw, Marcus Carl Franklin, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Bruce Greenwood