Independent Spirit Nominations

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Re: Independent Spirit Nominations

Post by Big Magilla »

The show itself got off to a good start with a strong monologue by hosts Nick Kroll and John Mulaney who I've only seen once before - at last year's Independent Spirit Awards.

Most enthusiastic presenters: Salma Hayek, Spike Lee
Most enthusiastic winners: Greta Gerwig, Timothée Chalamet and JR (with Agnes Varda and her daughter)
Best acceptance speech: Frances McDormand in her pajamas and fuzzy slippers from Three Billboards

Most shameful moment: The half-empty table near the stage that couldn't be bothered standing for Agnes Varda - eventually a couple of the guys stood, but the women remained seated - couldn't tell which film it represented - just as well.
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Re: Independent Spirit Nominations

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I think a lot of people expected Get Out to sweep here, so, despite winning film/director, it felt like it had a disappointing day -- losing editing to I, Tonya and screenplay to Lady Bird (the Kaluuya loss to Chalamet was more anticipated). It's nice Greta Gerwig doesn't end the season with no chance to make a televised speech. (I was hoping Laurie Metcalf might have the same opportunity, but she wasn't there -- is she flying in on the red-eye tonight, after her play finishes?)
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Re: Independent Spirit Nominations

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So even the Spirits endorse the acting frontrunners (except when they have to replace Oldman with Chalamet). And even seeing that this group didn't much like Three Billboards (no Best Feature nomination), they still went with McDormand/Rockwell.

The most interesting outcomes were in Feature and Screenplay -- unsurprisingly the two Oscar categories that seem really up in the air -- with Lady Bird triumphing over Get Out in the writing category, then seeing the reverse result under best film.

Feature: Get Out
First Feature: Ingrid Goes West
Director: Jordan Peele
Actor: Timothée Chalamet
Actress: Frances McDormand
Supporting Actor: Sam Rockwell
Supporting Actress: Allison Janney
Screenplay: Lady Bird
First Screenplay: The Big Sick
Foreign Film: A Fantastic Woman
Documentary: Faces Places
Film Editing: I, Tonya
John Cassavetes: Life and Nothing More
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Re: Independent Spirit Nominations

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Best Feature: Lady Bird
Best Director: Jordan Peele - Get Out
Best First Feature: Columbus
Best Female Lead: Saoirse Ronan - Lady Bird
Best Male Lead: Timothee Chalamet - Call Me by Your Name
Best Supporting Female: Lois Smith - Marjorie Prime
Best Supporting Male: Armie Hammer - Call Me by Your Name (Alt: Sam Rockwell - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)
Best Screenplay: Lady Bird
Best First Screenplay: The Big Sick
Best Cinematography: Call Me by Your Name
Best Editing: Get Out
John Cassavetes Award: A Ghost Story
Best Documentary: Faces Places
Best International Film: BPM (Beats Per Minute)
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Re: Independent Spirit Nominations

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Is she really a supporting performer though?
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Re: Independent Spirit Nominations

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flipp525 wrote:
Big Magilla wrote:A two-time Tony nominee and a recent Emmy nominee (for The Americans), an Oscar nomination for her performance here would be the icing on the cake of her long career.
Lois Smith was not nominated for an Emmy for her unforgettable turn on The Americans. She absolutely should have been, but she was not.
Drat! That was a Critics choice Award nomination I mistook for an Emmy nod.

All the more reason to nominate her for Marjorie Prime.
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Re: Independent Spirit Nominations

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Big Magilla wrote:A two-time Tony nominee and a recent Emmy nominee (for The Americans), an Oscar nomination for her performance here would be the icing on the cake of her long career.
Lois Smith was not nominated for an Emmy for her unforgettable turn on The Americans. She absolutely should have been, but she was not.
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Re: Independent Spirit Nominations

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The awards are either the "Film Independent Spirit Awards" or just the "Spirit Awards." They have not been the "Independent Spirit Awards" in quite awhile.
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Re: Independent Spirit Nominations

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The Original BJ wrote:A lot of us thought Lois Smith's chances were hopeless in the stacked lead actress category...but the supporting actress category still seems to have a lot of wiggle room. Maybe she makes a run for a nomination after all? (I haven't seen this film to be able to comment on the performance, or if it even belongs in support.
Smith is the star of the film, but it's an ensemble piece in which she is absent from large portions of it. I would be shocked if she were to be nominated for Best Actress in such a competitive year, but she would be a force to be reckoned with in support. Still, a nomination would likely be it for such a low-profile film.

This is what I said in my October 24th CinemaSight review of the DVD:

Jordan Harrison’s play Marjorie Prime was a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize. The film, written and directed by Michael Almereyda, resembles nothing so much as Spike Jonze’s Her in which technology can be both a wonderful and a troublesome thing.

The film takes place sometime in the future when people of means can own holograms that simulate the presence of loved ones who have died. In this case, Marjorie, a woman in her late 80s (Lois Smith), has chosen a hologram of her late husband (Jon Hamm) when he was in his 40s and she was much younger. After her death, her daughter (Geena Davis) will choose a hologram of Marjorie in her last year. The film’s title is the name of the hologram, not the character herself.

The film is mostly people and their holograms sitting around talking, but when the people in question are played by Smith, Hamm, Davis, and Tim Robbins (as Davis’ husband) at their best, you listen to every word. Soon-to-be-87-year-old Smith is especially good here, playing a retired classical violinist, evoking memories of her classical pianist in 1970’s Five Easy Pieces. Pictures of the younger Smith evoke memories of her the first time she broke your heart as the young girl trapped in the whorehouse in 1955’s East of Eden. Her still lovely time-worn face reminds you of the many times you’ve seen her since, in films such as Twister, on TV in shows such as True Blood and The Americans, and if you were lucky enough, as Ma Joad on Broadway in The Grapes of Wrath. A two-time Tony nominee and a recent Emmy nominee (for The Americans), an Oscar nomination for her performance here would be the icing on the cake of her long career.
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Re: Independent Spirit Nominations

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CalWilliam wrote:No James Ivory in Screenplay. That seems capricious, I hope that won’t hurt his chances. I haven’t seen Call Me By Your Name yet, but I want it anxiously to win, given how wonderful the reviews and the novel are. It won’t be released in Spain til mid February, just imagine. I’m desperate and angry.
Won't have any effect at all. Year in year out one can guarantee that the Independent Spirit Awards nominations will have numerous baffling omissions and inclusions.
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Re: Independent Spirit Nominations

Post by CalWilliam »

No James Ivory in Screenplay. That seems capricious, I hope that won’t hurt his chances. I haven’t seen Call Me By Your Name yet, but I want it anxiously to win, given how wonderful the reviews and the novel are. It won’t be released in Spain til mid February, just imagine. I’m desperate and angry.
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Re: Independent Spirit Nominations

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Not sure why Get Out wasn't considered First Feature, but Greta Gerwig was co-director of Nights and Weekends, thus wouldn't be eligible there. It may be one of those things where if you get nominated in one, you can't be nominated in the other, so they opted to put Peele in the main one and not the first feature category. It's like how Robert Altman ensemble winners cannot be nominated for individual acting awards.
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Re: Independent Spirit Nominations

Post by ThePianist »

flipp525 wrote:I’m sure you’ll remind us in your next post.
Hmmm, I've actually been talking about Three Billboards as of late; not the latter you speak of. But now that you've mentioned it...
Sabin wrote:Don't be a Pollyannaish, Irvin. You know I'm not suggesting this is my opinion, and don't imagine for a second that people will turn a blind eye to the subject matter in the same way they did 'The Reader.' FOX News is looking for every opportunity to turn the subject matter away from Trump. This past week, they spent twenty minutes on a cheeseburger emoji. They will turn 'Call Me By Your Name' into a conservative rallying point.

I think this film might be in big trouble.
Precious Doll wrote:Interestingly, Call Me By Your Name opening last weekend in the U.K. on 112 screens with a pretty poor screen average. This does not bode well for it's U.S. release at least once it goes wider.
criddic3 wrote:Yeah Call Me By Your Name is not likely to win Best Picture like so many have been predicting. I thought this a while ago, because you know an issue will be made of the age difference in the characters, even though it is consensual and the younger is supposed to be 17 believe, which is legal in most U.S. states.
The Original BJ wrote:Call Me By Your Name is certain to be a Fox News whipping boy
bizarre wrote:I haven't seen Call Me by Your Name but I have a bias wrt taking the Spacey allegations' impact on its chances seriously - I wouldn't appreciate any film about this kind of intergenerational relationship that didn't treat it critically, but these particular kinds of adolescent relationships are super common for both gay men and straight women, when I was 17 I had a relationship with a 24yo guy which was magical for me in the thick of it but ultimately exploitative (read about it! - http://a-mes-amours.tumblr.com/post/935 ... name-opera). Probably a very different kind of movie but I avoided some of Gérard Blain's films as well as things like Death in Venice on principle until I gave in and watched them and loved them for their artistic qualities as well as for their commitment to critically assessing and analysing the relationships and dynamics at their core. CMBYN seems like less of a bummer than those pictures but I'm sure it's not that skeezy if so many of my other twink-avoidant gay friends love it so much. That being said, I'll admit that the straights will probably be alienated regardless of how it treats the central relationship so there probably will be a knock to its chances.
Can't blame myself, to be honest.
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Re: Independent Spirit Nominations

Post by Sabin »

Interesting. For the past two years, the film leading the nominations ended up not winning or getting nominated for Best Picture. Hmm...
The Original BJ wrote
Willem Dafoe's omission is a bit odd -- I'd thought, if anything, he'd be more a Spirits-type candidate than an Oscar-type one. (And Sabin, Sean Baker actually is a Director nominee -- there are six nominees in that category.)
I copy/pasted from Indiewire and it wasn't listed. Weird.
The Original BJ wrote
Aren't Lady Bird and Get Out first features? What's the rule there -- can you just decide whether or not you want to compete in Best Feature or First Feature?
Basically, yes. It seems to be that it's a ghetto of sorts for films that didn't quite crossover. Lady Bird and Get Out clearly did. On the other hand, it doesn't appear that there's any wiggle room in Best First Screenplay.
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Re: Independent Spirit Nominations

Post by The Original BJ »

The omission of Three Billboards feels like the kind of classic random Indie Spirits snub for a movie that otherwise seems to be headed for major awards prospects -- I, too, thought of Milk, which recovered perfectly well.

Hammer over Stuhlbarg highlights everything that is lame about category fraud -- a fine but not award-level lead performance takes a spot away from a more praise-worthy supporting co-star. I hope this doesn't become a trend this season.

Willem Dafoe's omission is a bit odd -- I'd thought, if anything, he'd be more a Spirits-type candidate than an Oscar-type one. (And Sabin, Sean Baker actually is a Director nominee -- there are six nominees in that category.)

A lot of us thought Lois Smith's chances were hopeless in the stacked lead actress category...but the supporting actress category still seems to have a lot of wiggle room. Maybe she makes a run for a nomination after all? (I haven't seen this film to be able to comment on the performance, or if it even belongs in support.)

For an actress as synonymous with independent film as Greta Gerwig, you'd think she'd really be an Indie Spirits darling. But she was omitted as an actress for Frances Ha, now as a director for Lady Bird (even though the film still performed quite solidly overall).

Aren't Lady Bird and Get Out first features? What's the rule there -- can you just decide whether or not you want to compete in Best Feature or First Feature?
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