I thought the Independent Spirit Awards were supposed to be some kind of alternative to the Oscars and the Golden Globes — recognizing films that were too genuinely "independent" to be acknowledged by the mainstream groups.
But take a look at what won this year — Juno, Julian Schnabel for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Cate Blanchett in I’m Not There, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Diablo Cody — all of which have received Oscar nominations. Makes the "Spirit" awards look redundant.
The single most exciting evening I spent in a movie theater last year was at a mixed media presentation of Guy Maddin’s Brand Upon the Brain, a film which I note didn’t receive a single "Spirit" nomination. Too independent, I guess.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Do We Really Need the Independent Spirit Awards?
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4 comments:
I agree with you that Brand! was one of the more exciting films of 2007. It played at festivals all aroudn the world to sold out houses and great acclaim.
Sadly, the producer of the film was a TERRIBLE businessman, and ended up lying to participating artists, festival planners, investors and lenders. The end result was the company went many hundreds of thousands of $$$ in the hole, and distribution of the film has been difficult to lock in.
As a result of this, there was no one willing or able to mount the PR campaign that ANY awards require.
Sad. Very f*ing sad.
I find it appalling that no one even bothered to mention Adriennne Shelly (other than Firth asking if she was there, for God's sake) – at the Independent Spirit Awards yesterday.
Given that she was, at one time, the darling of indy cinema, and up for a best screenplay honor, it is more than stunning that not even the winner, Tamara Jenkins, had the good sense and class, to mention her.
At least Cate Blanchett and the cast of I’m Not There - one of Heath Ledger's last films, honored him properly. It would have been nice if Ms. Jenkins could have done the same thing for Adrienne Shelly, a truely independent spirit who had contributed much more to the independent film industry than most major movie stars ever did.
Susan S. Davis
We don't need any "Independent" awards that do not give awards to truly independent films, like Quiet City, for example. Juno is about as independent as a kept woman. The whole idea of independent is up for serious reconsideration.
After reading that what defines an independent film for the Spirit awards is a budget of less than 20 Million dollars, it's clear that the term has been pirated by Hollywood.
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