Spirit Award Nominees, 2009

[OscarGuy]

And, to be honest, you just have to pay Film Independent a membership fee to be eligible to vote, so there should be little surprise that there are such diverse factions in the organization.

[Big Magilla]

I find it more surprising that The Messenger received four nominations including two for acting, but Ben Foster's acclaimed lead performance was overlooked.

These awards have always been a hybrid of the well known and little known. It seems to me that a faction within the group gravitates toward the big names while another faction will only vote for unknowns so those that are neither as huge as a Sean Penn or Mickey Rourke or Jeff Bridges nor as unknown as a Souleymane Sy Savane or Adam Scott will get lost in the middle.

The Indies have never been and never will be a barometer for gauging what Oscar voters will go for and/or conversely what they will ignore.



Edited By Big Magilla on 1259706424

[OscarGuy]

I don't find it that odd, but with so many lead actors that seem to have been left off, it shouldn't be too surprising.

[FilmFan720]

Anyone else find it odd that That Evening Sun got 2 acting nods yet Hal Holbrook was left off?

[Sabin]

Your winners...

Best Feature - Precious
Best First Feature - A Single Man
John Cassavetes Award - Big Fan
Best Actor - Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
Best Actress - Gabby Sidibe, Precious
Best Supporting Actor - Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
Best Supporting Actress - Mo'nique, Precious
Best Director - Sledge Daniels, Precious
Best Screenplay - (500) Days of Summer
Best Cinematography - A Serious Man
Best Foreign Film - An Education
Someone to Watch Award - (flip a coin) Tariq Tapa, Zero Bridge
Truer Than Fiction Award - (flip a coin) Natalia Almada, El General
Piaget Producers Award - (flip a coin) Larry Fessenden, I Sell the Dead, The House of the Devil

[Mister Tee]

The Spirit Awards are just capricious at this point -- you never know why things are omitted or included.

Even if BJ's "they're too big for this" theory on the Coens is correct, omitting A Serious Man for screenplay is ludicrous.

[The Original BJ]

Some scattered thoughts:

I think The Last Station is helped the most by these nominations. I've been feeling this movie could be a stronger candidate than many have thought -- it definitely seems like it would appeal to the old-school/historical claque of the Academy. It already seems like a contender for Mirren and (finally??) Plummer, as well as Screenplay. In a ten-wide field, Best Picture doesn't seem out of reach, especially if one of the big candidates takes a bigger hit than expected.

Thrilled for (500) Days of Summer. I'm not sure its Oscar pull goes much farther than Original Screenplay, but it's still nice to see it receiving recognition.

One question many have had this season is how much strength box-office dud The Hurt Locker will have; as it competed here last year, there's nothing we can glean from these nods that might give any kind of answer.

Of the big Oscar films, A Serious Man didn't do too well, but I wonder if that has to do with its outsize pedigree -- by this point in their careers, the Coen brothers don't exactly need Indie Spirits. (Sort of the way big Oscar-bait bio Milk wasn't fully embraced last year.)

Julianne Moore also overlooked for A Single Man.

I haven't really watched this ceremony the past couple years; partly it's from award fatigue, partly because I had no desire to watch Little Miss Sunshine dominate a few years back. As this year, it looks like this crowd will go hog-wild for Precious, maybe I'll continue this trend.

[Big Magilla]

Complete list of nominees for the 25th Film Independent Spirit Awards, from Film Independent:

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

Best director: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, "A Serious Man"; Lee Daniels, "Precious"; Cary Joji Fukunaga, "Sin Nombre"; James Gray, "Two Lovers;" Michael Hoffman, "The Last Station"

Best screenplay: Alessandro Camon, Oren Moverman, "The Messenger"; Michael Hoffman, "The Last Station"; Lee Toland Krieger, "The Vicious Kind"; Greg Mottola, "Adventureland"; Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber, "(500) Days of Summer"

Best first feature: "A Single Man," "Crazy Heart," "Easier With Practice," "Paranormal Activity," "The Messenger"

Best first screenplay: Sophie Barthes, "Cold Souls"; Scott Cooper, "Crazy Heart"; Cherien Dabis, "Amreeka"; Geoffrey Fletcher, "Precious"; Tom Ford, David Scearce, "A Single Man"

John Cassavetes Award: "Big Fan," "Humpday," "The New Year Parade," "Treeless Mountain," "Zero Bridge"

Best female lead: Maria Bello, "Downloading Nancy"; Nisreen Faour, "Amreeka"; Helen Mirren, "The Last Station"; Gwyneth Paltrow, "Two Lovers"' Gabourey Sidibe, "Precious"

Best male lead: Jeff Bridges, "Crazy Heart"; Colin Firth, "A Single Man"; Joseph Gordon-Levitt, "(500) Days of Summer"; Souleymane Sy Savane, "Goodbye Solo"; Adam Scott, "The Vicious Kind"

Best supporting female: Dina Korzun, "Cold Souls"; Mo'Nique, "Precious"; Samantha Morton, "The Messenger"; Natalie Press, "Fifty Dead Men Walking"; Mia Wasikowska, "That Evening Sun"

Best supporting male: Jemaine Clement, "Gentlemen Broncos"; Woody Harrelson, "The Messenger"; Christian McKay, "Me and Orson Welles"; Raymond McKinnon, "That Evening Sun"; Christopher Plummer, "The Last Station"

Best cinematography: Roger Deakins, "A Serious Man"; Adriano Goldman, "Sin Nombre"; Anne Misawa, "Treeless Mountain"; Andrij Parekh, "Cold Souls"; Peter Zeitlinger, "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans"

Best documentary: "Anvil! The Story of Anvil," "Food, Inc.," "More Than a Game," "October Country," "Which Way Home"

Best foreign film: "A Prophet," "An Education," "Everlasting Moments," "Mother," "The Maid"

Acura Someone to Watch Award: Kyle Patrick Alvarez, "Easier With Practice"; Asiel Norton, "Redland"; Tariq Tapa, "Zero Bridge"

Truer Than Fiction Award: Natalia Almada, "El General"; Jessica Oreck, "Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo"; Bill Ross, Turner Ross, "45365"

Piaget Producers Award: Karin Chien, ("The Exploding Girl," "Santa Mesa"); Larry Fessenden, ("I Sell the Dead," "The House of the Devil"); Dia Sokol, ("Beeswax," "Nights & Weekends")



Edited By Big Magilla on 1259688939

[OscarGuy]

I'm not Paltrow's biggest fan, but I've liked her better recently. I thought she was good in her ultra brief role in Infamous and I thought she was quite good in Iron Man.

Still having trouble with their website (so are they, apparently)

[dws1982]

I saw on another website where Gwyneth Paltrow was nominated for Two Lovers while Joaquin Phoenix wasn't. Now he may have been left off because of the whole, "I'm a musician now" thing, but I don't see how she could be nominated without him. (I could see him being nominated without her.) Two Lovers was one of the only times she's been well-cast ever--mainly because James Gray realizes that she's not very likeable and doesn't have any warmth--but based on the performance itself I don't see how she was the only one from the cast nominated, especially considering there was also great work from Isabella Rossellini and Vinessa Shaw, in addition to Phoenix.

[OscarGuy]

The full list can be found here (when their website starts working again):

Spirit Awards