It’s official. The award season is here. YAY!!! I am currently jumping up and down I’m so giddy. This is my favorite time of the year when the movies are good, the celebrities are tolerable and the classiest actors arrive on scene.
The first televised award show nominations have been announced. They are the Independent Spirit Awards, given solely to the independent filmmakers of the world, not the big budget studio productions. These are the movies that filmmakers had to work extra hard to have their vision become reality.
Criteria for the Independent Spirit Awards, in the words of Film Independent: “Original, provocative subject matter; Uniqueness of vision; Economy of means with particular attention paid to total budget and individual compensation; and Percentage of independent financing.” Films must have received a week-long commercial theatrical release or must have screened at festivals including the Los Angeles Film Festival, New Directors/New Films, New York, Sundance, Telluride, or Toronto. The group also recently announced a maximum budget cap of $20 million for nominees.
The Squid and the Whale directed by Noah Baumbach, starring Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney leads the pack with six nominations. Four other films, Capote, Brokeback Mountain, Good Night, and Good Luck, and The Three Burials of Melquiadas Estrada, received four nomination.
200 movies were presented to the Film Independent for consideration. The awards will be presented on March 4, 2006, the day before the Academy Awards.
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And the nominees are:
BEST FEATURE
Brokeback Mountain – Producers: Diana Ossana, James Schamus
Capote – Producers: Caroline Baron, William Vince, Michael Ohoven
Good Night, and Good Luck – Producer: Grant Heslov
The Squid and the Whale – Producers: Wes Anderson, Peter Newman, Charles Corwin, Clara Markowicz
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada – Producers: Michael Fitzgerald, Tommy Lee Jones
BEST DIRECTOR
Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain
George Clooney, Good Night, and Good Luck.
Gregg Araki, Mysterious Skin
Rodrigo Garcia, Nine Lives
Noah Baumbach, The Squid and the Whale
BEST FIRST FEATURE
Crash – Director: Paul Haggis, Producers: Cathy Schulman, Don Cheadle, Bob Yari, Mark R. Harris, Bobby Moresco, Paul Haggis
Lackawanna Blues – Director: George C. Wolfe, Producer: Nellie Nugiel
Me and You and Everyone We Know – Director: Miranda July, Producer: Gina Kwon
Thumbsucker – Director: Mike Mills, Producers: Anthony Bregman, Bob Stephenson
Transamerica – Director: Duncan Tucker, Producers: Rene Bastian, Sebastian Dungan, Linda Moran
JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD
(Given to the best feature made for under $500,000; Award given to the writer, director, and producer)
Brick – Director/Writer: Rian Johnson, Producers: Ram Bergman and Mark G. Mathis
Conventioneers – Director: Mora Stephens, Producer: Joel Viertel, Writers: Mora Stephens and Joel Viertel
Jellysmoke – Director/Writer/Producer: Mark Banning
The Puffy Chair – Director: Jay Duplass, Producer: Mark Duplass, Writers: Mark Duplass and Jay Duplass
Room – Director/Writer: Kyle Henry, Producers: Allen Bain, Darren Goldberg, Jesse Scolaro
BEST SCREENPLAY
Ayad Akhtar, Joseph Castelo, Tom Glynn, The War Within
Guillermo Arriaga, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
Noah Baumbach, The Squid and the Whale
Dan Futterman, Capote
Rodrigo Garcia, Nine Lives
BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
Kenneth Hanes, Fixing Frank
Miranda July, Me and You and Everyone We Know
Angus MacLachlan, Junebug
Sabina Murray, The Beautiful Country
Duncan Tucker, Transamerica
BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE
Amy Adams, Junebug
Maggie Gyllenhaal, Happy Endings
Allison Janney, Our Very Own
Michelle Williams, Brokeback Mountain
Robin Wright Penn, Nine Lives
BEST SUPPORTING MALE
Firdous Bamji, The War Within
Matt Dillon, Crash
Jesse Eisenberg, The Squid and the Whale
Barry Pepper, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
Jeffrey Wright, Broken Flowers
BEST FEMALE LEAD 
Felicity Huffman, Transamerica
Cyndi Williams, Room
Dina Korzun, Forty Shades of Blue
Laura Linney, The Squid and the Whale
S. Epatha Merkerson, Lackawanna Blues
BEST MALE LEAD
Jeff Daniels, The Squid and the Whale
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote
Terrence Howard, Hustle & Flow
Heath Ledger, Brokeback Mountain
David Strathairn, Good Night, and Good Luck.
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Robert Elswit, Good Night, and Good Luck.
John Foster, Keane
Adam Kimmel, Capote
Chris Menges, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
Harris Savides, Last Days
BEST FOREIGN FILM
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (Romania) Director: Cristi Puiu
Duck Season (Mexico) Director: Fernando Eimbcke
Head-On (Germany/Turkey) Director: Fatih Akin
Paradise Now (Palestine/Netherlands/Germany/France) Director: Hany Abu-Assad
Tony Takitani (Japan) Director: Jun Ichikawa
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Director: Alex Gibney
Grizzly Man, Director: Werner Herzog
La Sierra, Directors: Scott Dalton & Margarita Martinez
Romantico, Director: Mark Becker
Sir! No Sir!, Director: David Zeiger
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Let the games begin.
Read my reviews of Crash, Me and You and Everyone We Know, Good Night, and Good Luck and Capote.
@Cinefille 
Lackawanna Blues is the only I saw and I loved it.Good strong performance by Epatha Merkerson of Law and order fame
I will have to bow out having seen none of these movies.
Lackwanna Blues is centred around an African community and the pivotal role played by the owner of a boarding house(merkerson)The story is told by the child to whom she became the mother.Her love and interest for the wellbeing of all she comes in contact with is the dominant theme.
I’ve seen only three, “Good Night and Good Luck”, “Crash”, and “Me and You and Everyone We know”. Except for a few docs. and foreign films, I’ve heard of every film nominated. In fact, from what I’ve read none of these nominations surprise me at all.
Don’t worry about not seeing any of the films. If I were you I would go see “Good Night and Good Luck”…immediately! It is by far one of the best movies I have seen in a while.
Ever since the EMMY’s I’ve been intrigied by “Lackawanna Blues” Any info on what it is about?
sounds interesting. I’ll be sure to check it out.