Innovative Movie Talent Shines Once Again With The Film Independent Spirit Awards Nominations

In case you somehow missed it, the 2018 Film Independent Spirit Awards announced their nominees, presented by Lily Collins and Tessa Thompson, an event growing in stature and significance each year. Not only is the roll-out of such exceptional work from the indie film scene an integrated part of the Academy Awards build-up, it is also an exciting, essential recognition of the diverse, unique talent on show.

Oscarologists are likely to get their knickers in a twist over both the films hitting big in many categories, as well as those missing out on several, or not showing up at all. In the meantime, though, let’s continue to celebrate and embrace the innovative work of independent cinema, with these nominations and beyond. 

BEST FEATURE

Call Me By Your Name
Lady Bird
Get Out
The Florida Project
The Rider

BEST FIRST FEATURE

Columbus
Ingrid Goes West
Menashe
Oh Lucy!
Patti Cake$

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD

Dayveon
A Ghost Story
Life and nothing more
Most Beautiful Island
The Transfiguration

BEST DIRECTOR

Sean Baker (The Florida Project)
Jonas Carpignano (A Ciambra)
Luca Guadagnino (Call Me by Your Name)
Jordan Peele (Get Out)
Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie (Good Time)
Chloé Zhao (The Rider)

BEST SCREENPLAY

Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird)
Azazel Jacobs (The Lovers)
Martin McDonagh (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)
Jordan Peele (Get Out)
Mike White (Beatriz at Dinner)

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY

Kris Avedis, Kyle Espeleta, Jesse Wakeman (Donald Cried)
Emily V. Gordon, Kumail Nanjiani (The Big Sick)
Ingrid Jungermann (Women Who Kill)
Kogonada (Columbus)
David Branson Smith, Matt Spicer (Ingrid Goes West)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Thimios Bakatakis (The Killing of a Sacred Deer)
Elisha Christian (Columbus)
Hélène Louvart (Beach Rats)
Sayombhu Mukdeeprom (Call Me by Your Name)
Joshua James Richards (The Rider)

BEST EDITING

Ronald Bronstein, Benny Safdie (Good Time)
Walter Fasano (Call Me by Your Name)
Alex O’Flinn (The Rider)
Gregory Plotkin (Get Out)
Tatiana S. Riegel (I, Tonya)

BEST FEMALE LEAD

Salma Hayek (Beatriz at Dinner)
Frances McDormand (Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri)
Margot Robbie (I, Tonya)
Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird)
Shinobu Terajima (Oh Lucy!)
Regina Williams (Life and nothing more)

BEST MALE LEAD

Timothée Chalamet (Call Me by Your Name)
Harris Dickinson (Beach Rats)
James Franco (The Disaster Artist)
Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out)
Robert Pattinson (Good Time) 

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE

Holly Hunter (The Big Sick)
Allison Janney (I, Tonya)
Laurie Metcalf (Lady Bird)
Lois Smith (Marjorie Prime)
Taliah Lennice Webster (Good Time)

BEST SUPPORTING MALE

Nnamdi Asomugha (Crown Heights)
Armie Hammer (Call Me By Your Name)
Barry Keoghan (The Killing of a Sacred Deer)
Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)
Bennie Safdie (Good Time)

ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD

Mudbound (Director: Dee Rees; Casting Directors: Billy Hopkins, Ashley Ingram; Ensemble Cast: Jonathan Banks, Mary J. Blige, Jason Clarke, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Mitchell, Rob Morgan, Carey Mulligan)

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM

BPM (Beats Per Minute), France (Robin Campillo)
A Fantastic Woman, Chile (Sebastián Lelio)
I Am Not a Witch, Zambia (Rungano Nyoni)
Lady Macbeth, U.K. (William Oldroyd)
Loveless, Russia (Andrey Zvyagintsev)

BEST DOCUMENTARY

The Departure (Lana Wilson)
Faces Places (Agnés Varda, JR; Rosalie Varda)
Last Men in Aleppo (Feras Fayyad; Kareem Abeed, Søeren Steen Jespersen, Stefan Kloos)
Motherland (Ramona S. Diaz; Rey Cuerdo)
Quest (Jonathan Olshefski; Sabrina Schmidt Gordon)

BONNIE AWARD – recognizes mid-career female directors with a $50,000 unrestricted grant.

So Yong Kim
Lynn Shelton
Chloé Zhao

JEEP TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD – presented to an emerging director of non-fiction features who has not yet received significant recognition, includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant funded by the Jeep brand.

Shevaun Mizrahi (director of Distant Constellation)
Jonathan Olshefski (director of Quest)
Jeff Unay (director of The Cage Fighter)

KIEHL’S SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD – recognizes a talented filmmaker of singular vision who has not yet received appropriate recognition, includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant funded by Kiehl’s Since 1851.

Amman Abbasi (director of Dayveon)
Justin Chon (director of Gook)
Kevin Phillips (director of Super Dark Times)

PIAGET PRODUCERS AWARD – honors emerging producers who, despite highly limited resources, demonstrate the creativity, tenacity and vision required to produce quality, independent films, includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant funded by Piaget.

Giulia Caruso & Ki Jin Kim
Ben LeClair
Summer Shelton

100 Not Nominated For Oscars – Part 1

Oh how I would like to start our Oscar-less series by writing resentfully about how Forrest Gump won over more voters in AMPAS than Pulp Fiction and The Shawshank Redemption. That alone is worthy of an article, an essay, Hell, a book. Forrest Gump is not awful by any stretch of the imagination, but Pulp Fiction and The Shawshank Redemption are movies that have grown like wine, and become classics very fast. With a couple more missing nods from 1994, here are the first 5 of 100 Not Nominated For Oscars.

Foreign Language Film — Three Colors: Red (1994) — Robin Write

As you likely already know this is a personal favorite of mine, so I will try not to get too sentimental or twisted about this one. I won’t go giving too much credit either to the Academy, that they managed to sort-list this, the final color of the trilogy by Krzysztof Kieślowski, in Directing, Cinematography, and Original Screenplay – not many non-English movies achieve this kind of feat, even now, twenty years plus on. But Red did not make the Foreign Language Film nominations either. Like the first installment, Blue, which became ineligible as a Polish entry because of the French characters, Red was deemed not Swiss enough on this occasion. On a personal note I would have liked to have seen a Best Picture nod too, with Irene Jacob nominated for Best Actress (in what appeared to be a rather weak category that year), and the music by Zbigniew Preisner.

Leading Actor — Tom Hanks (Captain Phillips) 2013 — Al Robinson

Tom Hanks has been so good for so long that he’s now become underrated when it comes to the Oscars. He’s twice won and since then hasn’t seen quite the same amount of respect that he’s earned and deserved.  In 2013 he starred in Captain Phillips as the titular captain whose ship is taken captive by pirates in the open seas off the coast of Somalia, Africa.  His role is to keep everyone calm and safe. But what happens is he’s taken hostage and held captive for several days. Hanks brings such realism and humanity to this character, and makes you believe 100% that this is really happening to him.  When he breaks down in the end, you feel nothing but sympathy for this guy who’s been through a harrowing experience. The fact that Tom Hanks was passed over is ridiculous, especially since he’s better than both nominee Christian Bale (American Hustle) and winner Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club).

Film Editing — The Graduate 1967 — Steve Schweighofer

Its amazing that the film editor of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Rosemary’s Baby, and Chinatown has never won an Oscar. Even more incredulous is that Sam O’Steen wasn’t even nominated or his benchmark work on The Graduate in the 1967 race – the year that changed Hollywood. O’Steen had two films that year – Cool Hand Luke was the second one. Perhaps his imaginative cutting wasn’t noticed, but some of his splices are iconic. One particular scene, where swimming pool Benjamin hikes himself up on his air mattress and lands on top of Mrs. Robinson in bed is a classic and perhaps one of a half dozen “WOW” edits that continue to dazzle at every viewing. BAFTA recognized this, awarding him their prize for Film Editing. But Oscar…”Sam Who”?

Supporting Actress — Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street) 2013 — Matt St. Clair

In her big breakthrough role in The Wolf of Wall Street, Margot Robbie was given the task of going toe-to-toe with the biggest movie star on the planet and boy, does she knock it out of the park. As Naomi Lapaglia, the bombshell wife of sleazy Wall Street stockbroker Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio), Robbie is a commanding presence whether she gives a piercing, sensual gaze or engages in a shouting match with DiCaprio. Her star may be rising thanks to her involvement in the DC Cinematic Universe as Harley Quinn and I,Tonya for which she is expected to land a Best Actress nomination. But The Wolf of Wall Street managed to serve as a beacon that would signal her arrival.

Director — Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption) 1994 — Robin Write

Seven nominations for The Shawshank Redemption, and Frank Darabont was one of two directors with Best Picture nominations to be left out (Mike Newell also left out for Four Weddings and a Funeral – not nearly as big a surprise). Darabont would suffer the same omission again when The Green Mile was nominated for Best Picture a few years later. And they really didn’t like Tim Robbins back then did they. Forget how the movie is now in top ten lists everywhere, at that time this was still deserving of having it’s director nominated. They nominated Woody Allen for Bullets Over Broadway without a Best Picture nod, so they had some gusto. For me, not even Robert Zmeckis would have made my list, Darabont most certainly would have.

Let’s hear your comments.

I, Tonya Red Band Trailer Propels Margot Robbie & Allison Janney As Oscar Frontrunners

The Tonya Harding true story is a fascinating one, and Craig Gillespie’s directing was expected to somewhat match the harsh reality of it. By the looks of this new red band trailer for I, Tonya, we’re lead to believe this is full-throttle drama, not holding back on the punches. A perfect trailer to have the Academy Awards conversation juicier than ever at this early time in the season – especially with the biopic status.

We also get a much greater glance at the two actresses (though Sebastian Stan might earn his credit), Margot Robbie and Allison Janney. Already hot prospects in the Oscar predictors circuit, I don’t have much hesitation in declaring both top of their respective categories if all goes to plan. Robbie is the bright, breakthrough actress on the cusp of greatness, and Janney is well overdue (a notion that repels me), so many runaway roles on film behind her, hard to believe she is Oscar-less thus far. I suspect the film’s tough trek to a Best Picture slot only makes their cases stronger. Good luck ladies.