>> 'The Artist,' 'Take Shelter' Dominate Indie Spirit Award Nominations
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Submitted by Peter Oberth on Tuesday, November 29, 2011 - 12:51PM
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
 With five nominations each, the silent movie The Artist and the apocalyptic drama Take Shelter dominated the nominations for Film Independent's Spirit Awards, which were announced Tuesday. They will compete for the best feature award with the father-son drama Beginners, the noir thriller Drive and the Hawaii-set family drama The Descendants. The Wall Street thiller Margin Call also earned some love since it was selected to receive the annual Robert Altman Award, given to a film's director, casting director and ensemble of actors. While it's been a critical favorite on the festival scene, the presence of The Artist is sure to raise eyebrows. Film Independent earmarks its awards for American-made features produced for $20 million or less. According to the group's submission guidelines, an eligible feature must have been made by a U.S. citizen or permanent resident in at least two of the following categories: director, writer or producer. It must be set in the U.S. and at least partially financed by a U.S.-based company. While The Artist is set in Hollywood and filmed in Los Angeles, employed American actors like John Goodman and many local crew and was acquired for U.S. distribution by the Weinstein Co., its writer-director and two principal stars all hail from France. According to a Film Independent spokesperson, the movie qualfied since in addition to filming in the U.S., Michel Hazanavicius, who scored writing and directing nominations, is actually a permanent U.S. resident. Along with Hazanavicius, the nominated directors are Beginners' Mike Mills, Shelter's Jeff Nichols, Descendants' Alexander Payne and Drive's Nicolas Winding Refn. Hazanavicius and Mills also earned best screenplay noms. Payne joined that group as well with his fellow Descendants writers Nat Faxon and Jim Rash. Rounding out the category are Footnote's Joseph Cedar and Win Win's Tom McCarthy. Despite the strong showing by Descendants, its star George Clooney was not among the best actor nominees. Instead, the actors singled out for noms were A Better Life's Demian Bichir, Artist's Jean Dujardin, Drive's Ryan Gosling, Rampart's Woody Harrelson and Shelter's Michael Shannon. On the female side of the equation, the lead nominees are Think of Me's Lauren Ambrose, Natural Selection's Rachael Harris, Pariah's Adepero Oduye, Martha's Elizabeth Olsen and My Week With Marilyn's Michelle Williams. Jessica Chastain, who also picked up a New York Film Critics Circle award Tuesday, was nominated in the supporting female category for her work in Shelter. She will compete with established actresses like Angelica Huston for 50/50 and Janet McTeer for Albert Nobbs along with newcomers like Gun Hill Road's Harmony Santana and Descendants' Shailene Woodley. Albert Brooks made it into the best supporting male line-up for his gangster in Drive. That category also includes Martha's John Hawkes, Beginners' Christopher Plummer, Cedar Rapids' John C. Reilly and Midnight in Paris' Corey Stoll. Margin and Martha also both made appearances among the best first feature nominees, along with Another Earth, In the Family and Natural Selection. The best first screenplay nominees were Earth's Mike Cahill and Brit Marling, Margin's J.C. Chandor, Terri's Patrick deWitt, Cedar Rapids' Phil Johnston and 50/50's Will Reiser. Looking abroad, the Spirits reserved best international film nominations for Iran's A Separation, the U.K.'s Tyrannosaur and Shame (although the later film was shot in New York) and Melancholia, which has Danish, Swedish, French and German backing, and The Kid With the Bike, financed through Belgian, French and Italian sources. In the documentary category, noms went to An African Selection, Bill Cunningham New York, The Interrupters, The Redemption of General Butt Naked and We Were Here. The nominees for best cinematography were Bellflower's Joel Hodge, The Off Hours' Benjamin Kasulke, Midnight in Paris' Darius Khondji, The Artist's Guillaume Schiffman and The Dynamiter's Jeffrey Waldron. On the low-budget end of the scale, the nominees for the John Cassevetes Award, given to a feature made for less than $500,000 were Bellflower, Circumstance, Hello Lonesome, Pariah and The Dynamiter. With movies like Descendants and Martha, Fox Searchlight took the distributor's crown with 14 nominations, followed by Sony Pictures Classics with nine and Focus Features and the Weinstein Co., both with six. The nominations, chosen from among 277 submissions, were announced Tuesday morning by Anthony Mackie and Kate Beckinsale. The 27th annual awards ceremony will be held Feb. 25 at the beach in Santa Monica and broadcast by IFC. The full list of nominees: Best Feature Best Director Best Screenplay Best First Feature Best First Screenplay John Cassavetes Award Best Female Lead Best Male Lead Best Supporting Female Best Supporting Male Best Cinematography Best Documentary Best International Film Piaget Producers Award Someone to Watch Award Truer Than Fiction Award Robert Altman Award |
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