2013 Independent Film Spirit Award Nominees

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Scene from "Beasts of the Southern Wild"
courtesy of slate.com

Below are the 2013 Independent Spirit Award nominees - one of the major kick off points for awards season. More and my thoughts after the cut.

BEST FEATURE
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Bernie
Keep the Lights On
Moonrise Kingdom
Silver Linings Playbook

BEST DIRECTOR
Wes Anderson, Moonrise Kingdom
Julia Loktev, The Loneliest Planet
David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
Ira Sachs, Keep the Lights On
Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild

BEST SCREENPLAY
Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola, Moonrise Kingdom
Zoe Kazan, Ruby Sparks
Martin McDonagh, Seven Psychopaths
David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
Ira Sachs, Keep the Lights On



BEST FIRST FEATURE
Fill the Void
Gimme the Loot
Safety Not Guaranteed
Sound of My Voice
The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Jack Black in "Bernie" courtesy of
indiewire.com

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
Rama Burshtein, Fill the Void
Derek Connolly, Safety Not Guaranteed
Christopher Ford, Robot & Frank
Rashida Jones & Will McCormack, Celeste and Jesse Forever
Jonathan Lisecki, Gayby

BEST FEMALE LEAD
Linda Cardellini, Return
Emayatzy Corinealdi, Middle of Nowhere
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Smashed

BEST MALE LEAD
Jack Black, Bernie
Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
John Hawkes, The Sessions
Thure Lindhardt, Keep the Lights On
Matthew McConaughey, Killer Joe
Wendell Pierce, Four

Ann Dowd in "Compliance" courtesy
of awardscircuit.com

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE
Rosemarie DeWitt, Your Sister’s Sister
Ann Dowd, Compliance
Helen Hunt, The Sessions
Brit Marling, Sound of My Voice
Lorraine Toussaint, Middle of Nowhere

BEST SUPPORTING MALE
Matthew McConaughey, Magic Mike
David Oyelowo, Middle of Nowhere
Michael Péna, End of Watch
Sam Rockwell, Seven Psychopaths
Bruce Willis, Moonrise Kingdom

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Yoni Brook, Valley of Saints
Lol Crawley, Here
Ben Richardson, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Roman Vasyanov, End of Watch
Robert Yeoman, Moonrise Kingdom

BEST DOCUMENTARY
How to Survive a Plague
Marina Abramoviæ: The Artist is Present
The Central Park Five
The Invisible War
The Waiting Room


BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM
Amour
Once Upon A Time in Anatolia
Rust And Bone
Sister
War Witch

My Thoughts

• These are independent awards. They have very little effect on the bigger Oscar picture, but do help to turn the key in the engines of some awareness for some of these actors and films.
• Fresh off the Gotham Awards win, Moonrise Kingdom racks up a number of other nominations here. Hopefully it build steam and grabs a Best Picture nomination.
• Matthew McConaughey's brilliant year continues, with both a nomination for lead (Killer Joe) and supporting actor (Magic Mike).
• My secret hope: Jack Black wins this award, which begins a push to grab him a Best Actor Oscar nomination. He is so good in Bernie.
• The supporting female category is interesting. I can only see Helen Hunt out of this group grabbing an Oscar nod, but it's still a fascinating collection of performances.
• Once Upon a Time in Anatolia is a beautiful film, but every international film award is Amour's to lose, at this point. It may even be loved enough to pull out a Best Picture nod.
• Of the best feature nominees, Silver Linings Playbook is the only one all but assured an Oscar nod, but Beasts of the Southern Wild should get in, too. Only Moonrise Kingdom has a true shot outside of those two.