By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com
Not So Indie Spirit
The InDependent Spirit nominations were announced this morning. Laura Linney came in from New York and was stuck mispronouncing a wide array of names, as did her indie co-presenter Mark Ruffalo. (Guillermo Arriaga is a good one to learn, Mark… better than Rob Reiner for you.) But that’s just meaningless folderol…
The winners?
Sony Classics – 12 nominations
Magnolia – 7 nominations
Sam Goldwyn – 6 nominations
Focus Features – 6 nominations
Warner Indie – 6 nominations
The Weinstein Company – 3 nominations first month out
The losers?
Miramax – 0 nominations
Lions Gate – 4 nominations… Crash relegated to Best First Feature and a Matt Dillon nod
IFC Film – 2 nominations… Miranda July’s film was a natural lock that was locked out of the top categories.
Paramount Classics – 1 nomination… Terrence Howard and nothing else for Hustle & Flow, Mad Hot Ballroom or Asylum
Picturehouse – 1 nominations… Cinematography for the ‘shoulda been a lock” Last Days
The most telling evidence of the need for this event to split out its awards a bit more effectively between the haves and the have-nots is the nomination chart.
The Squid & The Whale – 6
Brokeback Mountain – 4
Capote – 4
Good Night, And Good Luck. – 4
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada – 4
The top number of nods… all in Best Picture… all featuring movie stars and former Oscar nominees/winners in front of or behind the camera… three studio financed… 4 released by Dependents, with a lot of Sony support for Goldwyn on the 5th.
And now, the Independent Spirit Awards, circa 2000… all under $10 million… only one with movie stars… all pick-ups.
Nine Lives – 3
Transamerica – 3
Crash – 2
Junebug – 2
Lackawanna Blues – 2 (which with due respect does not belong as a qualifier… it is a TV movie)
Me and You and Everyone We Know – 2
Room – 2
The War Within – 2
You make the call.
None of this diminishes the quality of the work in the nominated films. It just makes one wonder why this event is even needed when it’s primary beneficiaries are all chasing every other award in town with well-funded campaigns.