2012 Spirit Award Nominations Announced: Take Shelter and the Artist lead

My favorite award show has announced their nominations and Take Shelter and The Artist top the list. Mike Mills’ Beginners, fresh off a surprise co-win at the Gotham Awards last night is also in the running for the top prize. Here is the full list of nominees!:

The Nominees for the 2012 Spirit Awards:

Best Feature (Award given to the Producer)
50/50 – Ben Karlin, Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen

Beginners – Miranda de Pencier, Lars Knudsen, Jan Van Hoy, Leslie Urdang, Dean Vanech

Drive – Michel Litvak, John Palermo, Marc Platt, Gigi Pritzker, Adam Siegel

Take Shelter – Tyler Davidson, Sophia Lin

The Artist – Thomas Langmann, Emmanuel Montamat

The Descendants – Jim Burke, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor

Best Director
Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist

Mike Mills, Beginners

Jeff Nichols, Take Shelter

Alexander Payne, The Descendants

Nicolas Winding Refn, Drive

Best First Feature (Award given to the director and producer)
Another Earth – Director: Mike Cahill; Producers: Mike Cahill, Hunter Gray, Brit Marling, Nicholas Shumaker

In The Family – Director: Patrick Wang; Producers: Robert Tonino, Andrew van den Houten, Patrick Wang

Margin Call – Director: J.C. Chandor; Producers: Robert Ogden Barnum, Michael Benaroya, Neal Dodson, Joe Jenckes, Corey Moosa, Zachary Quinto

Martha Marcy May Marlene – Director: Sean Durkin; Producers: Antonio Campos, Patrick Cunningham, Chris Maybach, Josh Mond

Natural Selection – Director: Robbie Pickering; Producers: Brion, Hambel, Paul Jensen

John Cassavetes Award
(Given to the best feature made for under $500,000; award given to the writer, director, and producer)
Bellflower – Writer/Director: Evan Glodell; Producers: Evan Glodell, Vincent Grashaw

Circumstance – Writer/Director: Maryam Kesahavarz; Producers: Karin Chien, Maryan Keshavarz, Melissa M. Lee

Hello Lonesome – Writer/Director/Producer: Adam Reid

Pariah – Writer/Director: Dee Rees; Producer: Nekisa Cooper

The Dynamiter – Writers: Matthew Gordon, Brad Ingelsby; Director: Matthew Gordon; Producers: Kevin Abrams, Matthew Gordon, Merilee Holt, Nate Tuck, Amile Wilson

Best Screenplay
Mike Mills, Beginners

Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon & Jim Rash, The Descendants

Joseph Cedar, Footnote

Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist

Tom McCarthy, Win Win

Best First Screenplay

Mike Cahill & Brit Marling, Another Earth

Patrick deWitt, Terri

Phil Johnston, Cedar Rapids

Will Reiser, 50/50

J.C. Chandor, Margin Call

Best Female Lead
Elizabeth Olsen, Martha Marcy May Marlene

Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn

Rachael Harris, Natural Selection

Adepero Oduye, Pariah

Lauren Ambrose, Think of Me

Best Male Lead
Michael Shannon, Take Shelter

Woody Harrelson, Rampart

Ryan Gosling, Drive

Jean Dujardin, The Artist

Demian Bichir, A Better Life

Best Supporting Female
Jessica Chastain, Take Shelter

Anjelica Huston, 50/50

Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs

Harmony Santana, Gun Hill Road

Shailenne Woodley, The Descendants

Best Supporting Male
Albert Brooks, Drive

John Hawkes, Martha Marcy May Marlene

Christopher Plummer, Beginners

Corey Stoll, Midnight in Paris

John C. Reilly, Cedar Rapids

Best Cinematography
Joel Hodge, Bellflower

Darius Khondji, Midnight in Paris

Guillaume Schiffman, The Artist

Benjamin Kasulke, The Off-Hours

Jeffrey Waldron, The Dynamiter

Best Documentary (Award given to the director)
Jarreth Merz, An African Election

Richard Press, Bill Cunningham New York

Steve James, The Interrupters

David Weissman, We Were Here

Eric Strauss and Daniele Anastasion, The Redemption of General Butt Naked

Best Foreign Film (Award given to the director)
Asghar Farhadi, Separation

Lars Von Trier, Melancholia

Steve McQueen, Shame

Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, The Kid With a Bike

Paddy Considine, Tyrannosaur

Robert Altman Award
(Given to one film’s director, casting director, and its ensemble cast)
Margin Call – Director: J.C. Chandor; Casting Directors: Tiffany Little Canfield, Bernard Telsey; Cast: Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Penn Badgley, Simon Baker, Mary McDonnell, Demi Moore, Stanley Tucci, Aasif Mandvi, Ashley Williams

Piaget Producers Award
Chad Burris (Mosquito y Mari)

Sophia Lynn (Take Shelter)

Josh Bond (Martha Marcy May Marlene)

Someone to Watch Award
Simon Arthur (Silver Tongues)

Mark Jackson (Without)

Nicholas Ozeki (Mamitas)

Truer Than Fiction Award
Where Soldiers Come From

Hell and Back Again

Bombay Beach

discuss!

Surprised at 50/50, pleasantly surprised at Drive (even though I’ve yet to see it) and the awesome Bellflower

snubs include Glenn Close, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, last night’s Gotham award winner Felicity Jones and perhaps most surprisingly George Clooney

Corey Stoll’s inclusion as the only acting nom for Midnight in Paris is also surprising

Take Shelter deserves a look. Good script and well acted.

Take Shelter was good so was Martha Marcy May Marlene. I also liked Beginners quite a bit and Bellflower was awesomeness.

Another Earth had the creepiest ending in years.

I have very little interest in The Descendents

I want to see Pariah.

The Spirits seem very LGBT-friendly this year (Pariah, Beginners, Gun Hill Road, Albert Nobbs, etc)…

Or are they always and I just don’t notice it usually?

Bombay Beach is available on demand. Anyone see it? How is it?

Yeah, Film Independent loves the gays. Remember Milk won a couple years ago.

The Spirit Awards are kind of a joke though. They’re definition of “indie” is a film made for under $20 million. I mean, come on, how is the guy who shot The Dynamiter supposed to compete with Darius Khandji? It all seems sort of silly to me.

Still, it’s an entertaining show to balance out the Oscars.

Btw – Natural Selection was a pile o’ poo.

Aren’t all award shows kind of a joke? (the golden globes and even the Oscars are worse IMHO)

They are just a fun time to chill and predict and have a few cocktails and parties, etc.

None of them really matter too much in the long run IMO….

No, you are right, they don’t matter. The difference here is that Film Independent prides itself as being an org for independent filmmakers (which it is). So it’s kinda silly to me that they’ll recognize Black Swan or The Descendants just because they weren’t produced by one of the six major studios.

At least there’s the John Cassavetes Award. Those are pretty “real” independent films.

Let’s face it….

If the spirit awards were full of just indie indie films, only hardcore film fans would care (and in some cases, they are still the only ones who care) but IFC wants people to tune in.

Same with the Oscars. It would be great to see Bellflower, Absentia, Myth of the American Sleepover, Burning Palms and X competing for the best picture Oscar…. But that ain’t gonna happen.

Wasn’t The Descendants produced by 20th Century Fox? What is the criteria for films being nominated? I thought they had to be produced and financed outside of the Hollywood system.

I think the only requirements are that they have to be produced by an independent production company and cost less than $20 million. The Descendants is being distributed by Fox (or more specifically, Searchlight) but they didn’t produce the film.

The Oscars and Golden Globes are pretty up front about what they are. They are about Hollywood movies. There is very little pretense from them saying otherwise.

I’m pretty sure 20th Century Fox produced the film or had a hand in financing it. Not all Searchlight films are acquisitions.

I just saw on imdb News that the host for the Independent Spirit Awards will be… Seth Rogen?

Couldn’t they have chosen someone who’s, I don’t know, actually involved in some way with independent films? Oh well, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. This is the awards show that considers films like 50/50, Beginners and The Descendants to be “independent”, after all.

I have a feeling Drive will win Best Picture.