In previewing the 2014 Film Independent Spirit Awards–which take place on Saturday, March 1, one day prior to the Academy Awards–12 Years a Slave and Nebraska are the two lead films that ride a parallel Oscar track in terms of nominations.
Both 12 Years a Slave and Nebraska have Spirit and Oscar noms in the Best Picture, Best Director (for Steve McQueen and Alexander Payne, respectively), Best Actor (Chiwetel Ejiofor and Bruce Dern, respectively), and Best Supporting Actress (Lupita Nyong’o and June Squibb, respectively) categories.
Furthermore John Ridley is nominated for both a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar and a Best Screenplay Spirit Award while Bob Nelson is a nominee for the Original Screenplay Oscar and the Spirit’s Best First Screenplay honor.
Also receiving dual Oscar and Spirit nominations are: Bruno Delbonnel, ASC, AFC, for Best Cinematography on the strength of Inside Llewyn Davis; The Act of Killing (director Joshua Oppenheimer, producers Joram Ten Brink, Christine Cynn, Anne Kohncke, Signe Byrge Sorensen, Michael Uwemedimo), The Square (director Jehane Noujaim, producer Karim Amer) and 20 Feet From Stardom (director Morgan Neville, producers Gil Friesen, Caitrin Rogers) for Best Documentary; and The Great Beauty (director Paolo Sorrentino), an entry from Italy which is in the running for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, and a Best International Feature Independent Spirit Award.
Tally
Topping the field of Spirit Award nominations is 12 Years a Slave with seven: Best Feature, Director, Lead Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor (Michael Fassbender), Screenplay and Cinematography (Sean Bobbitt, BSC).
Next up is Nebraska which earned six nominations: Best Feature, Director, Lead Actor, Supporting Actor (Will Forte), Supporting Actress and Best First Screenplay.
Best Feature nominations went to 12 Years a Slave, Nebraska, All is Lost, Frances Ha and Inside Llewyn Davis.
All is Lost tallied four nominations, the other three being for director J.C. Chandor, lead actor Robert Redford and cinematographer Frank G. DeMarco.
Fruitvale Station, Inside Llewyn Davis, Short Term 12 and Blue Jasmine earned three nominations apiece.
Mud was selected to receive the annual Robert Altman Award, which is bestowed upon one film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast.
Nominees for the John Cassavetes Award which is given to the best feature made for under $500,000 are: Computer Chess (writer/director Andrew Bujalski, producers Houston King and Alex Lipschultz), Crystal Fairy (writer/director Sebastian Silva, producers Juan de Dios Larrain and Pablo Larrain), Museum Hours (writer/director Jem Cohen, producers Paolo Calamita and Gabriele Kranzelbinder), Pit Stop (writer/director Yen Tan, writer David Lowery, producers Jonathan Duffy, James M. Johnston, Eric Steele, Kelly Williams) and This is Martin Bonner (writer/director Chad Hartigan, producer Cherie Saulter).
And this year marks the introduction of the Best Editing category to the Spirit Awards competition. The inaugural field of nominees consists of editors: Shane Carruth and David Lowery for Upstream Color; Jem Cohen and Marc Vives for Museum Hours; Jennifer Lame for Frances Ha; Cindy Lee for Una Noche; and Nat Sanders for Short Term 12.
Best Firsts
Nominated for the Spirit recognizing Best First Feature are: Blue Caprice (director Alexandre Moors, producers Kim Jackson, Brian O’Carroll, Isen Robbins, Will Rowbotham, Ron Simons, Aimee Schoof, Stephen Tedeschi), Concussion (director Stacie Passon, producer Rose Troche), Fruitvale Station (director Ryan Coogler, producers Nina Yang Bongiovi, Forest Whitaker), Una Noche (director Lucy Mulloy, producers Sandy Perez Agulla, Maite Artieda, Daniel Mulloy, Yunior Santiago), and Wadjda (director Haifaa Al Mansour, producers Gerhard Meixner, Roman Paul).
Best First Screenplay nominees are: Lake Bell for In A World; Joseph Gordon-Levitt for Don Jon; Nelson for Nebraska; Jill Soloway for Afternoon Delight; and Michael Starrbury for The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete.
Spot connection
There are several nominees who are experienced in commercial making or making forays into the ad/branded content discipline. The latter includes director Jeff Nichols who is a Spirit Best Director nominee for Mud, a film which has already been named winner of the Robert Altman Award.
The Altman Award is bestowed upon a film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast. Francine Masiler was casting director on Mud which featured a cast including Joe Don Baker, Jacob Lofland, Matthew McConaughey, Ray McKinnon, Sarah Paulson, Michael Shannon, Sam Shepard, Tye Sheridan, Paul Sparks, Bonnie Sturdivant and Reese Witherspoon.
Director Nichols recently signed with production house Rattling Stick for spots and branded fare (SHOOTonline, 1/24). Nichols has a Spirit Award pedigree, having been nominated for Best Director in 2012 for Take Shelter. And in 2007 his Shotgun Stories earned a nomination for the John Cassavetes Award.
Best First Screenplay nominee Lake Bell, who earned the honor on the basis of her feature directorial debut, In A World, last year secured her first career spotmaking representation, signing with Epoch Films.
A comedy about Los Angeles’ competitive voiceover business, In A World was nominated for a Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival while winning Bell the Sundance Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award.
Bell’s other directorial credits include the comedy short Worst Enemy, which premiered at Sundance in 2011, and multiple episodes of the Adult Swim series Children’s Hospital. Director Roman Coppola also selected her script El Tonto to be produced as part of Intel and the W Hotel’s Four Stories short film competition. The film now screens as part of experiential installations and events at W Hotels worldwide, in addition to being accessible online via YouTube.
SHOOT selected Bell for inclusion in its Fall 2013 Up-and-Coming Directors feature (SHOOT, 10/21/13).
Meanwhile, long handled for commercials and branded projects by Washington Square Films, director J.C. Chandor finds his All is Lost in the Spirit running for Best Feature, Director, Lead Actor and Cinematography.
Chandor is no stranger to the Film Independent Spirit Awards. Two years ago, his lauded Margin Call won both the Spirit for Best First Feature and the Robert Altman Award.
Margin Call additionally earned Chandor a Best First Screenplay nomination.
Steve McQueen
With the most Spirit nominations this year, nine Oscar noms, a DGA Award nomination, a Best Picture win at the British Film Academy Awards (BAFTA) and assorted other plaudits, 12 Years a Slave has been gratifying on many levels for director McQueen. But among those developments that he most treasures is simply making people aware of Solomon Northrop’s story.
Set in the 1840s, 12 Years a Slave is based on the memoirs of Northrop, a New York violinist who is kidnapped and sold into slavery in the South. Based on a true story told in Northrop’s memoirs, the film is a harrowing look at the physical and psychological trauma he endured during his dozen years in slavery.
In his acceptance of the DGA nomination medallion, McQueen noted that in the last six months, Northrop’s book has sold more copies than in its first 150 years. McQueen was introduced to the book by his wife who is an historian.
“Every turn of the page was a revelation,” recalled McQueen who added that he became “passionate about Solomon” and decided to fuse that passion with his passion for cinema. People, he noted, said the story was “too brutal” but it has proven to be a tale that has resonated with audiences worldwide.
Film Independent
Producing the Film Independent Spirit Awards is Film Independent, the nonprofit arts organization that also runs the Los Angeles Film Festival and the Film Independent at LACMA Film Series.
Independent Spirit Award winners will be announced at honored at the Spirit Awards on Saturday, March 1. The awards ceremony will be held as a daytime luncheon in a tent on the beach in Santa Monica, Calif., with the premiere broadcast airing later that evening at 10 pm ET/PT on IFC.
