It only took 19 years for director/writer David O. Russell to return to the winners’ circle at the Film Independent Spirit Awards and he did so with an exclamation point today as his Silver Linings Playbook led the way with four statues–Best Picture, individual honors for Russell for Best Director and Best Screenplay, and Best Female Lead for Jennifer Lawrence.
Russell’s initial Spirit wins came for the 1994 release Spanking the Monkey which earned him Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay honors. Back then, Russell’s son Matthew–an inspiration for Silver Linings Playbook because of his battle with bipolar disorder–was just a year old. In accepting the Best Screenplay Spirit Award for Silver Linings Playbook, David O. Russell, said, “He gave me this movie, so I want to thank him, Matthew, for this movie.” Matthew, now a young man, was at the awards ceremony which is held in a tent on the beach in Santa Monica. (David O. Russell is repped by Wondros for commercials and branded content.)
Silver Linings Playbook fell short in only one category in which it was nominated, Best Male Lead, which went to John Hawkes in The Sessions. Hawkes topped a field that included Bradley Cooper for Silver Linings Playbook. Backstage, Hawkes said that among the homework he did for the part of a man in an iron lung hoping to lose his virginity was watching the Jessica Yu documentary Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O’Brien. A writer, O’Brien, was the man on whom The Sessions was based. Breathing Lessons won the Best Short Subject Documentary Oscar in 1997. (Yu directs commercials via Nonfiction Unlimited.)
The Sessions swept the two acting categories in which it was nominated with Helen Hunt winning the Spirit for Best Supporting Female.
Rounding out the acting honors was Matthew McConaughey who earned Best Supporting Male distinction for Magic Mike.
Best Int’l. Film, Documentary
Named Best International Film was Amour from Austria, directed by Michael Haneke.
Taking the Best Documentary Spirit Award was The Invisible War, a moving film on the epidemic of soldiers being raped in the U.S. military. In her acceptance remarks, producer Amy Ziering said that the Spirit recognition and the audience acceptance of the film tells our soldiers, “You are heard. You are not alone and you are no longer invisible.”
Cinematography; posthumous honor
Ben Richardson won for Best Cinematography on the strength of his work on Beasts of the Southern Wild. When asked backstage what inspired his lensing of that acclaimed film, Richardson cited his first meeting Quvenzhane Wallis, a non-actor who would up being a Spirit Award nominee for Best Female Lead. Richardson recalled shooting a short rehearsal video with Wallis and knowing instantly that his priority as a cinematographer was to make sure to capture her magical spirit.
Speaking of cinematography, Haris Savides, ASC, a legendary DP who passed away last year, was honored with a Special Distinction Award. Savides was nominated five times for a Best Cinematography Spirit Award. The nominations were for Greenberg, Milk, Elephant, Last Days and Gerry.
Best Firsts
The Spirit for Best First Feature went to writer/director Stephen Chbosky for The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
The Best First Screenplay honor was bestowed upon Derek Connolly for Safety Not Guaranteed.
Cassavetes, Altman recipients
The John Cassavetes Award recognizing the best feature made for less than $500,000 went to Middle of Nowhere from writer/director/producer Ava DuVernay.
And taking the Robert Altman Award–which is given to one film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast–was Starlet directed by Sean Baker, with Julia Kim having served as casting director, and a cast comprised of Dree Hemingway, Besedka Johnson, Karren Karaguilian, Stella Maeve and James Ransone.
Film Independent, the nonprofit arts organization, produces the Spirit Awards. Andy Samberg was emcee of the awards ceremony.
Jules Feiffer, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Cartoonist and Writer, Dies At 95
Jules Feiffer, a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist and writer whose prolific output ranged from a long-running comic strip to plays, screenplays and children's books, died Friday. He was 95 and, true to his seemingly tireless form, published his last book just four months ago.
Feiffer's wife, writer JZ Holden, said Tuesday that he died of congestive heart failure at their home in Richfield Springs, New York, and was surrounded by friends, the couple's two cats and his recent artwork.
Holden said her husband had been ill for a couple of years, "but he was sharp and strong up until the very end. And funny."
Artistically limber, Feiffer hopscotched among numerous forms of expression, chronicling the curiosity of childhood, urban angst and other societal currents. To each he brought a sharp wit and acute observations of the personal and political relations that defined his readers' lives.
As Feiffer explained to the Chicago Tribune in 2002, his work dealt with "communication and the breakdown thereof, between men and women, parents and children, a government and its citizens, and the individual not dealing so well with authority."
Feiffer won the United States' most prominent awards in journalism and filmmaking, taking home a 1986 Pulitzer Prize for his cartoons and "Munro," an animated short film he wrote, won a 1961 Academy Award. The Library of Congress held a retrospective of his work in 1996.
"My goal is to make people think, to make them feel and, along the way, to make them smile if not laugh," Feiffer told the South Florida Sun Sentinel in 1998. "Humor seems to me one of the best ways of espousing ideas. It gets people to listen with their guard down."
Feiffer was born on Jan. 26, 1929, in the Bronx. From... Read More