How About Those Sprit Award Nominations?

I seriously dig the Film Independent Spirit Awards. I like the nonchalant, profane-laden style of its ceremony, the audacity of its choices (both in nominations and winners), but most of all, I like the Spirit Awards because they have the uncanny ability to shed light on the films that deserve more attention than they’re ever given.

Worthy films that lost the Best Picture Academy Award, including Pulp Fiction, Leaving Las Vegas, Fargo, Memento, Brokeback Mountain, and The Wrestler, were given a chance to shine by taking home the Spirit Awards’ top prize.  I don’t care about the numerous critics’ awards or the Golden Globes; aside from the Oscars, it’s all about the guilds and the Spirits.

The Oscars are far more revered, but in my world, the winners of the Spirit Awards are far more deserving.

Breaking down this year’s nominees, which were announced yesterday, is admittedly a bit premature. Like most people, I have yet to see The Artist (which, a month ago, I predicted would win the Best Picture Oscar), so my choices will undoubtedly be skewed once that film comes out next weekend.  And how about those snubs: Young Adult… We Need To Talk About Kevin… Shame… Glenn Close… W.E. (joke)… all conspicuously absent.

Regardless, here are my picks for the 2011 Spirit Awards:

Best Feature
The Artist

Beginners
The Descendants
Drive
50/50
Take Shelter

I see five great films here, and 50/50, which I still attest is less than mediocre. Drive, for the win.

Best Director
Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Mike Mills, Beginners
Jeff Nichols, Take Shelter
Alexander Payne, The Descendants
Nicolas Winding Refn, Drive

Releasing a silent, black and white film is extremely ballsy, and I give Hazanavicius his due props, but no director's style blew me away more this year than Refn's.

Best Male Lead
Demián Bichir, A Better Life
Jean Dujardin, The Artist
Ryan Gosling, Drive
Woody Harrelson, Rampart
Michael Shannon, Take Shelter

Tough. Love seeing Bichir here, Dujardin is excellent I’m sure, Harrelson will be nothing less than stellar, but for me, it’s Gosling or Shannon. Both actors did very much by saying very little, but I gotta go Gosling.

Best Supporting Male
Albert Brooks, Drive
John Hawkes, Martha Marcy May Marlene
Christopher Plummer, Beginners
John C. Reilly, Cedar Rapids
Corey Stoll, Midnight in Paris

This is exactly what I’m talking about: where the hell else are you going to see Corey Stoll, who played Ernest Hemingway miraculously in Midnight in Paris, nominated for anything? Despite my praise, I have yet to shake Albert Brooks’ terrifying Bernie Rose. “My hands are a little dirty…” “… so are mine.” That’s damn right.

Best Female Lead
Lauren Ambrose, Think of Me
Rachael Harris, Natural Selection
Adepero Oduye, Pariah
Elizabeth Olsen, Martha Marcy May Marlene
Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn

I’ve only seen Williams and Olsen, and it's Olsen by far.

Best Supporting Female
Jessica Chastain, Take Shelter
Anjelica Huston, 50/50
Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs
Harmony Santana, Gun Hill Road
Shailene Woodley, The Descendants

Another tough one. Huston was the best part about 50/50 (which isn’t saying a lot), and Chastain has had a hell of a year, but Woodley did something in The Descendants that I haven’t seen in a long while: she actually acted how teenagers act, resulting in an unforgettable performance.

Best Screenplay
Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Mike Mills, Beginners
Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash, The Descendants
Joseph Cedar, Footnote
Tom McCarthy, Win Win

The Descendants, simply because it was written how people speak, which is unfortunately extremely rare in today’s cinema.

Best First Screenplay
Mike Cahill & Brit Marling, Another Earth
Phil Johnston, Cedar Rapids
Will Reiser, 50/50
J.C. Chandor, Margin Call
Patrick deWitt, Terri

The only film I can possibly choose is Margin Call, which is the only one I haven’t seen. Didn’t like the other four at all.

Best First Feature
Another Earth
In the Family
Margin Call
Martha Marcy May Marlene
Natural Selection

MMMM.

So what about you? Who do you think should walk away with independent film’s most coveted prize?