As you might have expected (we sure did) Todd Haynes’ Dylan paean, “I’m Not There” is leading the pack of this year’s Independent Spirit Awards with five nominations (Haynes’ Douglas Sirk homage “Far From Heaven” cleaned up at the ISA awards in 2002 with five wins including best picture and director).
The film nabbed five nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress (Cate Blanchett), Best Supporting Actor (Marcus Carl Franklin) and the inaugural Robert Altman Award, which honors the ensemble cast.
Julian Schnabel’s “The Diving Bell & The Butterfly” and Jason Reitman’s “Juno” were not far behind scoring four nominations each including nods for Best Director and Best Picture.
The upcoming Tamara Jenkins film “The Savages” also earned four nominations including a Best Director for “Slums Of Beverly Hills” filmmaker that hasn’t made a feature in almost nine years. Gus Van Sant’s “Paranoid Park” also fared well with two nominations in the Best Director and Best Picture category. Rounding out the Best Picture category was Michael Winterbottom’s “A Mighty Heart” with Angelina Jolie.
You can compare and contrast with our how we felt award season was/is shaping up to be with our initial Oscar Temperature piece (which also applies much more here, since we’re so indie-film minded) and our Breakout Performances of the Year piece. Apparently over 250 films were submitted for ISA consideration. We’re personally really, really happy that Zoe Cassavetes earned nominations for her “Broken English“* script and the film’s very-excellent lead Parker Posey. That film came out pre-Playlist existence (we started in May) and we loved it and highly recommend [*ed. wrong, it came out in June, you were asleep at the wheel then].
Take the Spirit awards seriously. They’re a decent indication of what indie cream crop rises to the Oscar and secondly they’re just better quality films. The award committee don’t feel obligated to nominate shit like “Charlie Wilson’s War” or mainstream garbage that’s surely going to get nominated (or not, we’ll see, but we’re skeptical). The ISA’s are basically our Oscars and almost all of these films are ones you can get behind.
The ISAs air Saturday February 24 at 5p.m. ET on IFC.
The 2008 Spirit nominees…
FEATURE
“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” – Director: Todd Haynes
“I’m Not There” – Director: Todd Haynes
“Juno” – Director: Jason Reitman
“A Mighty Heart” – Director: Michael Winterbottom
“Paranoid Park” – Director: Gus Van Sant
FIRST FEATURE
“2 Days in Paris” – Director: Julie Delpy;
“Great World of Sound” – Director: Craig Zobel
“The Lookout” – Director: Scott Frank
“Rocket Science” – Director: Jeffrey Blitz
“Vanaja” – Director: Rajnesh Domalpalli
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”
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“
FEMALE LEAD
Angelina Jolie – “A Mighty Heart”
Sienna Miller – “Interview”
Ellen Page – “Juno”
Parker Posey – “Broken English”
Tang Wei – “Lust, Caution”
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“
More than one option
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“
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”
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”
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”
DOCUMENTARY
“Crazy Love” – Director: Dan Klores
“Lake of Fire” – Director: Tony Kaye
“Manufactured Landscapes” – Director: Jennifer Baichwal
“The Monastery” – Director: Pernille Rose Grønkjær
“The Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair” – Directors: Petra Epperlein & Michael Tucker
ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD
“I’m Not There – Director: Todd Haynes
TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD
Laura Dunn for “The Unforeseen”
Gary Hustwit for “Helvetica”
John Maringouin for “Running Stumbled”