With the commercial and critical success of The Wrestler, director Darren Aronofsky reasoned that his next feature would “be easier” to bring to fruition. That wasn’t the case as Black Swan proved difficult to make in terms of getting the necessary funding. Why? Aronofsky conjectured that struggling to find investors who believe in a project is the occupational hazard of pursuing stories and ideas that are “outside the box.”
Aronofsky’s comments came at the backstage press tent during today’s Film Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica, shortly after Black Swan proved once again that winning accolades comes considerably easier than garnering financing. Black Swan took Spirit Awards for Best Feature, Best Director, Natalie Portman as Best Lead Actress, and DP Matthew Libatique, ASC, for Best Cinematography.
In that the spirit of the Spirit Awards is independence, Aronofsky was asked to define independent filmmaking. He responded, “When filmmakers are in control of the movie as opposed to the people who are paying for the movie.”
Shortly after winning the Cinematography Spirit Award, Libatique said, “Darren and I share the camera…I am thankful to have a relationship with a director such as Darren.” Among the challenges Libatique faced on Black Swan was learning about ballet so his cinematography could do justice to the art.
Supporting Bones
In the major category derby, next with two wins was Winter’s Bone, which garnered both supporting actors’ honors with Dale Dickey earning Best Supporting Female distinction and John Hawkes the Best Supporting Male mantle.
The King’s Speech won for Best Foreign Film. Accepting the Spirit Award on its behalf was director Tom Hooper who backstage expressed hope that the movie’s success–both critically and financially–would further boost the British government’s fiscal support of filmmaking. Hooper also noted that he is slated to see a Motion Picture Association of America cut of The King’s Speech which has deleted certain four-letter words in order to earn a PG rating. Queried about how he feels about the cut, Hooper responded, “Until I see it, I can’t tell.” He further observed that he’s discouraged that kids aren’t able to see the movie now in the U.S. Hooper related that the movie deals with addressing adversity that buds in childhood. Youngsters in Canada and the U.K.–countries where they can see the movie–have sent Hooper what he described as “wonderful letters” about how the The King’s Speech has positively inspired and motivated them.
As for other notable Spirit honorees, James Franco was named Best Male Lead for 127 Hours. Stuart Blumberg and Lisa Cholodenko won the award for Best Screenplay on the basis of the Cholodenko-directed The Kids Are All Right. Lena Dunham won the Best First Screenplay Spirit for Tiny Furniture. Best Documentary honors went to the Banksy-directed Exit Through The Gift Shop. And Get Low took the Best First Feature category for director Aaron Schneider and producers David Gundlach and Dean Zanuck.
“Making it all the way to the Spirit Awards kind of counterbalances the long time it took to get the proper financing in order to properly get this project off the ground,” Schneider told SHOOT earlier of his nomination.
Schneider made his first industry mark as a cinematographer, initially in commercials and music videos, spanning such clients as Nike, Mercedes-Benz and L’Oreal, and performers including Whitney Houston, Gwen Stefani and Michael Jackson.
The DP then diversified into TV, most notably with executive producer Steven Bochco’s legal drama Murder One. Schneider garnered an Emmy nomination for his work on that series as well as a pair of ASC Awards, respectively, for his cinematography during seasons one and two.
His lensing exploits branched out into features with Kiss The Girls and Simon Birch, as well as second unit on James Cameron’s Titanic.
Then Schneider decided to spread his wings further, looking to steer his career from cinematography to directing. “I wanted to make my own films so I took my life savings and threw it all into a short film to not only show other people what I could do but to discover for myself whether I was a director or not.”
That short film indeed provided an answer. Based on an adaptation of William Faulkner’s short story, Two Soldiers–which Schneider wrote and directed–won the Oscar for Best Live-Action Short Film.
The short became a calling card, a tool for Schneider to land an agent to represent him as a director, to gain access to studio executives, producers and scripts. He made the rounds and related, “When the dust settled, the project that just naturally felt right to me was Get Low.”
Producer Zanuck and Get Low found Schneider through Two Soldiers and wound up pursuing him.
“Dean enjoyed the short but more than that there were the obvious connections,” noted Schneider. “The short showed I could do a period piece on a budget and Dean had just struck out to work on his own so we both had something to prove.”
Little did they know that it would take five years to attain that proof–which has since been reaffirmed with not only Spirit recognition but also selections to last year’s Sundance, South by Southwest and Tribeca film festivals. Get Low is a Sony Pictures Classics release.
Cassavetes, Altman Awards
The Spirit competition bestowed its coveted John Cassavetes Award (for best feature made for less than $500,000) upon Daddy Longlegs and its writers/directors Benny and Josh Safdie, and producers Casey Neistat and Tom Scott.
Also given was the 4th annual Robert Altman Award, given to one film’s director, casting director, and ensemble cast. Nicole Holofcener’s Please Give received this award, along with casting director Jeanne McCarthy and ensemble cast members Ann Guilbert, Rebecca Hall, Catherine Keener, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Lois Smith, and Sarah Steele.
Special grants
Back on January 15, the following winners were honored at the Spirit Awards Filmmaker Grant and Nominee Brunch:
o The 17th Annual Acura Someone to Watch Award was given to Mike Ott, director of LiTTLEROCK. The $25,000 unrestricted grant, funded by Acura, recognizes a talented filmmaker of singular vision who has not received appropriate recognition.
o The 16th Annual AVEENO® Truer Than Fiction Award was given to Jeff Malmberg, director of Marwencol. The $25,000 unrestricted grant, funded by AVEENO®, is presented to an emerging director of non-fiction features who has not yet received significant recognition.
o The 14th Annual Piaget Producers Award was given to Anish Savjani, producer of Meek’s Cutoff. The $25,000 unrestricted grant, funded by Piaget, is presented to an emerging producer who, despite highly limited resources demonstrates the creativity, tenacity, and vision required to produce quality, independent films.
o And the inaugural Jameson FIND Your Audience Award was given to Marwencol. The $50,000 marketing and distribution grant, funded by Jameson Irish Whiskey, was designed to meet independent filmmakers’ biggest challenge today: How to get their films out into the marketplace.
The Film Independent Spirit Awards were held in Santa Monica on the beach, and hosted by Joel McHale.
