The Independent Spirit awards unveiled their nominees earlier today and like always they were an interesting bunch. After the usual chatter online, I decided to take another gander at the the noms and come up with some more concrete thoughts. Here’s the good, the bad, and the ugly of the Spirit Awards nominations.
The Good
1. The following acting noms made my heart warm: Melanie Diaz, Shailene Woodley, Michael B. Jordan, Oscar Isaac, and Keith Stanfield.
2. I loved the spread of the nominations. Every film seemed to get at least one nomination and for the most part really represented the year.
3. Pit Stop getting a nomination. I really loved that film at Sundance and hope it continues to pick up awards.
The Bad
1. If you are going to go gaga for 12 Years a Slave, shouldn’t it also be nominated in editing? And how did Short Term 12 manage that feat over some other films?
2. No Stories We Tell or Blackfish in documentary should make for a more exciting march to the Oscar race but I could have sworn they liked Sarah Polley.
The Ugly
1. Individually these noms look fine, but on a whole they swing really familiar, ESPECIALLY in the big categories. That Best Picture lineup, Frances Ha aside, is like an alternate Best Picture lineup.
2. Crystal Fairy being nominated for anything.
Not for nothing, I think that the Indie Spirits really need to look at the $20 million cap they have on the nominees. I feel like because it’s so high, they become a hive mind for the bigger films, evidenced by The Artist and SIlver Linnings Playbook winning these last few years over things like Beasts of the SOuthern Wild. They seem to really be going for the names and big movies, when they should be the last group doing that.
what about Jared Leto getting nominated for anything?
I haven’t seen Dallas Buyers Club yet so I don’t know if that’s particularly egregious…but there were some puzzling acting choices