Movie Blog: Awards Season Is Here

The arrival of December means the onset of the holidays for most people, but especially for movie buffs.

That's because the end of the year signals the beginning of that seemingly endless march toward Oscar night, which is littered with the announcements of countless movie awards reiterating the same titles over and over and over again.

I may sound a bit like Scrooge here, but it's only because every year, more inconsequential critics and guild awards seem bent on gumming up the entire works.
In the olden days (i.e. before my birth), it was just the New York Film Critics Circle, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the National Society of Film Critics and the less-esteemed but longer-running National Board of Review. That was it for critics awards.

Now everywhere from Texas to South Florida to Toledo, Ohio seems to have their own critics' organization. (Everywhere but, hmmm, the Twin Cities, oddly enough.) Given the state of film distribution outside of the cultural Meccae of N.Y. and L.A., is it any wonder that most of the other ancillary groups end up parroting the same titles over and over? That's how movies like Slumdog Millionaire and The Hurt Locker gain the sort of momentum that turns them into inevitable Oscar winners.

But I digress.

Right now is the best time of the awards season, when it still holds the promise (however slight) of surprising us with what emerges from the pack. Sure, going into the next few weeks, it seems like The Social Network and Colin Firth from The King's Speech (as of yet unopened in the Cities) are out in front, but who knows who will emerge in some of the other heats?

With that in mind, here are the nominees for the Independent Spirit Awards, which are called the "indie Oscars." While they don't guarantee Best Picture nominations for the likes of Winter's Bone and The Kids Are All Right (which both lead this pack in overall mentions), they certainly bode well. If nothing else, they indicate the Best Actress field this year is particularly crowded. (They expanded to six nominations and still didn't find room for Annette Benning's Kids co-star Julianne Moore.)

Stay tuned for the National Board of Review citations. Those come down this Thursday.

2010 Independent Spirit Award Nominations

Best Feature
127 Hours
Black Swan
Greenberg
The Kids Are All Right
Winter's Bone

Best Director
Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
Danny Boyle, 127 Hours
Lisa Cholodenko, The Kids Are All Right
Debra Granik, Winter's Bone
John Cameron Mitchell, Rabbit Hole

Best Female Lead
Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right
Greta Gerwig, Greenberg
Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence, Winter's Bone
Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine

Best Male Lead
Ronald Bronstein, Daddy Longlegs
Aaron Eckhart, Rabbit Hole
James Franco, 127 Hours
John C. Reilly, Cyrus
Ben Stiller, Greenberg

Best Supporting Female
Ashley Bell, The Last Exorcism
Dale Dickey, Winter's Bone
Allison Janney, Life During Wartime
Daphne Rubin-Vega, Jack Goes Boating
Naomi Watts, Mother and Child

Best Supporting Male
John Hawkes, Winter's Bone
Samuel L. Jackson, Mother and Child
Bill Murray, Get Low
John Ortiz, Jack Goes Boating
Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right

Best Screenplay
Stuart Blumberg, Lisa Cholodenko, The Kids Are All Right
Debra Granik, Anne Rosellini, Winter's Bone
Nicole Holofcener, Please Give
David Lindsay-Abaire, Rabbit Hole
Todd Solondz, Life During Wartime

Best First Screenplay
Diane Bell, Obselidia
Lena Dunham, Tiny Furniture
Nik Fackler, Lovely, Still
Bob Glaudini, Jack Goes Boating
Dana Adam Shapiro, Evan M. Wiener, Monogamy

Best Cinematography
Adam Kimmel, Never Let Me Go
Matthew Libatique, Black Swan
Jody Lee Lipes, Tiny Furniture
Michael McDonough, Winter's Bone
Harris Savides, Greenberg

Best Foreign Film
Kisses (Ireland)
Mademoiselle Chambon (France)
Of Gods and Men (Morocco)
The King's Speech (United Kingdom)
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Thailand)

Best Documentary
Exit Through the Gift Shop (Director: Banksy)
Marwencol (Director: Jeff Malmberg)
Restrepo (Directors: Tim Hetherington, Sebastian Junger)
Sweetgrass (Directors: Ilisa Barbash, Lucien Castaing-Taylor)
Thunder Soul (Director: Mark Landsman)

Best First Feature
Everything Strange and New (Director: Frazer Bradshaw)
Get Low (Director: Aaron Schneider)
Night Catches Us (Director: Tanya Hamilton)
The Last Exorcism (Director: Daniel Stamm)
Tiny Furniture (Director: Lena Dunham)

John Cassavetes Award (Movie Made For Under $500,000)
Daddy Longlegs (Directors: Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie)
Lbs. (Director: Matthew Bonifacio)
Lovers of Hate (Director: Bryan Poyser)
Obselidia (Director: Diane Bell)
The Exploding Girl (Director: Bradley Rust Gray)

Eric Henderson is a web producer and film blogger for WCCO.COM.