26th Annual Spirit Awards Nominations

26th Annual Spirit Awards Nominations for film in 2010 have been announced, and I always look forward to seeing this list, as year after year I know more of the films but there are always some gems to discover among the nominees. Leading the race this year is Winter’s Bone with 7 nominations including best feature, director, and very well deserved Best Female Lead nomination for Jennifer Lawrence and Best Supporting Male to John Hawkes. Winter's Bone is a truly chilling film and I just knew it would make a big awards splash this year, it's on DVD so you can certainly check it out. Also heading the game of big time noms is The Kids Are All Right with 5 nominations including film, directing and Best Female Lead for Annette Bening. Then Black Swan, Greenberg and Rabbit Hole come in with 4 nominations each and 127 Hours, Jacks Goes Boating and Tiny Furniture with 3 nominations each . First I've heard of both Rabbit Hole & Tiny Furniture - seem like it's time to find out more about them!

Some interesting and odd things I found with the nominations were things like Never Let Me Go getting 1 nomination for just the Cinematography (only 1!), or The Kings Speech only for Foreign. But loved seeing the Irish film Kisses is also up for Foreign, and it's so accent heavy it almost feels like Foreign Language, but that is one of the reasons I loved it. I was also thrilled to see Au Revoir Taipei up for Piaget Producers Award and Ashley Bell be recognized with a Best Supporting Female nomination for The Last Exorcism, I interviewed her earlier this year and she is absolutely lovely (read or listen to the interview here). I also love the spirit of the Spirit Awards, how they shine a light on films and the people who make them that can be highly under seen. If you are a fan of independent films & filmmakers - this nominations list is one to easily add to your must see list.

Best Feature
127 Hours - Christian Colson, Danny Boyle, John Smithson
Black Swan - Mike Medavoy, Arnold Messer, Brian Oliver, Scott Franklin
Greenberg - Scott Rudin, Jennifer Jason Leigh
The Kids Are All Right - Gary Gilbert, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte, Celine Rattray, Jordan Horowitz, Daniela Taplin Lundberg, Philippe Hellman
Winter’s Bone - Alix Madigan-Yorkin, Anne Rosellini

Best Director
Darren Aronosfky for Black Swan
Danny Boyle for 127 Hours
Lisa Cholodenko for The Kids Are All Right
Debra Granik for Winter's Bone
John Cameron Mitchell for Rabbit Hole

Best First Feature
Everything Strange and New - Frazer Bradshaw, Laura Techera Francia, A.D. Liano
Get Low - Aaron Schneider, Dean Zanuck, David Gundlach
The Last Exorcism - Daniel Stamm, Eric Newman, Eli Roth, Marc Abraham, Thomas A. Bliss
Night Catches Us - Tanya Hamilton, Ronald Simons, Sean Costello, Jason Orans
Tiny Furniture - Lena Dunham, Kyle Martin, Alicia Van Couvering

John Cassavetes Award
for best feature made under $500,000, awarded to the writer, director and producer
Daddy Longlegs - Josh Safdie, Benny Safdie, Casey Neistat, Tom Scott
The Exploding Girl - Bradley Rust Gray, So Yong Kim, Karin Chien, Ben Howe
Lbs. - Matthew Bonifacio, Carmine Famiglietti
Lovers of Hate - Bryan Poyser, Megan Gilbride
Obselidia - Diane Bell, Chris Byrne, Matthew Medlin

Best Screenplay
Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Blumberg for The Kids Are All Right
Debra Granik, Anne Rosellini for Winter’s Bone
Nicole Holofcener for Please Give
David Lindsay-Abaire for Rabbit Hole
Todd Solondz for Life During Wartime

Best First Screenplay
Diane Bell for Obselidia
Lena Dunham for Tiny Furniture
Nik Fackler for Lovely, Still
Robert Glaudini for Jack Goes Boating
Dana Adam Shapiro, Evan M. Wiener for Monogamy

Best Female Lead
Annette Bening in The Kids Are All Right
Greta Gerwig in Greenberg
Nicole Kidman in Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence in Winter’s Bone
Natalie Portman in Black Swan
Michelle Williams in Blue Valentine

Best Male Lead
Ronald Bronstein in Daddy Longlegs
Aaron Eckhart in Rabbit Hole
James Franco in 127 Hours
John C. Reilly in Cyrus
Ben Stiller in Greenberg

Best Supporting Female
Ashley Bell in The Last Exorcism
Dale Dickey in Winter’s Bone
Allison Janney in Life During Wartime
Daphne Rubin-Vega in Jack Goes Boating
Naomi Watts in Mother and Child

Best Supporting Male
John Hawkes in Winter’s Bone
Samuel L. Jackson in Mother and Child
Bill Murray in Get Low
John Ortiz in Jack Goes Boating
Mark Ruffalo in The Kids Are All Right

Best Foreign Film
The King's Speech - Tom Hooper
Kisses - Lance Daly
Mademoiselle Chambon - Stéphane Brize
Of Gods And Men - Xavier Beauvois
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives - Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Best Documentary
Exit Through The Gift Shop - Banksy
Marwencol - Jeff Malmberg
Restrepo - Sebastian Junger, Tim Hetherington
Sweetgrass - Ilisa Barbash, Lucien Castaing-Taylor
Thunder Soul - Mark Landsman

Best Cinematography
Adam Kimmel for Never Let Me Go
Matthew Libatique for Black Swan
Jody Lee Lipes for Tiny Furniture
Michael McDonough for Winter’s Bone
Harris Savides for Greenberg

Piaget Producers Award
honouring emerging producers who despite highly limited resources, demonstrate the creativity, tenacity and vision required to produce quality, independent films
In-Ah Lee for Au Revoir Taipei
Adele Romanski for The Myth of the American Sleepover
Anish Savjani for Meek's Cutoff

Acura Someone to Watch Award
to a filmmaker of singular vision who has not yet received appropriate recognition
Mike Ott - Littlerock
Laurel Nakadate - The Wolf Knife
Hossein Keshavar - Dog Sweat

AVEENO Truer than Fiction Award
to an emerging director or non-fiction features who has not yet received significant recognition
Ilisa Barbash, Lucien Castaing-Taylor for Sweetgrass
Jeff Malmberg for Marwencol
Lynn True, Nelson Walker for Summer Pasture

Robert Altman Award
given to one films director, casting director and ensemble cast
Nicole Holofcener, Jeanne McCarthy, Ann Guilbert, Rebecca Hall, Catherine Keener, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Lois Smith, Sarah Steele for Please Give

Jameson Find Your Audience Awards
To be announced

The Spirit Awards will air on IFC on Saturday February 26, 2011 at 10pm EST/7pm PST. I am again hoping this year we'll be able to watch live in Canada!

See more at the Spirit Awards Website