celluloidnotes

The Independent Spirit Awards are all wrapped up. Not too many surprises here, though there definitely were a couple of surprises (like how terrible some of the music was). Here are your winners with selected snarky comments from the evenings festivities.

Best Picture: The Wrestler

Not too surprising. This was the film to beat, the huge number of nominations both here and at the Academy Awards made it clear that The Wrestler was a front-runner at the ISA.

Best Director: Tom McCarthy for The Visitor

This was a shocker. Deserved, but shocking.

Best First Screenplay: Dustin Lance Black for Milk

Best Screenplay: Woody Allen for Vicky Cristina Barcelona

A little surprised that Allen beat out Charlie Kaufman here. Though not surprised that Allen was not in attendance tonight.

Best Actor: Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler

Of course he won.

Best Actress: Melissa Leo for Frozen River

This was a tough field with Hathaway in there for Rachel Getting Married and Michelle Williams great performance in Wendy & Lucy. Leo definitely earned it, Frozen River has been the sleeper indie-hit of the year.

Best Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz for Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Was a tough category and she was great. Between her and Javier Bardem there was little room for anyone else to shine.

Best Supporting Actor: James Franco for Milk

Great decision; great performance.

Best Foreign Film: The Class

Film geeks thought this was the favorite, a film that has just deserved more love than it’s got. Though this was by no means a given with some other great films up for the award including Gommorah and Hunger.

Best First Feature: Charlie Kaufman for Synecdoche, New York

Another obvious one. Kaufman is an Independent Spirit darling, and it was a great film.

Best Documentary: James Marsh’s Man on Wire

This is definitely the film to beat tomorrow night at the Oscars as well.

Best Producer: Heather Rae for Frozen River

Though it may not be a popular opinion I think this was a gimme. The marketing strategy exacted by Sony and the producers on this film is the sole reason this film got as much attention as it has (including a couple of Oscar nods). If you haven’t read about how this film was developed after Sony bought it at Sundance you need to. This is how the independent film is going to survive the collapse of the film industry.

Best Cinematography: Maryse Alberti for The Wrestler

I can get behind this. It was a beautiful film and how often do you see a female cinematographer win an award? Not often enough.

The John Cassavetes Award (for a feature made for under $500,000): In Search of a Midnight Kiss

This was the clear choice for the award. Not the best film of the year by any means, but an impressive film.

The Robert Altman Award (best cast): Synecdoche, New York

Again another one I’m behind, though it may not have been a gimme. This film simply hasn’t gotten a whole lot of love from the critics, and I thought it was great.

The Acura Someone To Watch Award: Lynne Shelton for My Effortless Brilliance

The Truer Than Fiction Award: Margaret Brown for The Order of Myths

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