Henrick Vartanian
“Take Shelter” and “The Artist” are the front running nominees for the 2012 Film Independent Spirit Awards. Actors Anthony Mackie and Kate Beckinsale who were joined by Senior Director of film Independent, Sean McManus, made announcements on Tuesday morning.
For the top prize in Best Feature, the nominees are “50/50,” “The Descendants,” “Beginners,” “Drive,” “Take Shelter” and “The Artist.”
Top nominees in International Film category are: “A Separation”, “Melancholia”, “Shame”, “The Kid With a Bike”, “Tyrannosaur”
With its focus on low-budget films, the Spirit awards is famous for its laid back, cool awards ceremony, taking place by the beach in Santa Monica, CA, a day before that other big awards night, the Oscars. The Spirit’s team are also pretty good at picking a few who go on to win the Oscar, such as Natalie Portman for “Black Swan.”
The nominees for Indie Spirit Awards are selected in a jury process where a dozen of filmmakers and critics who actually sit down and watch the submitted movies meet to discuss them and begin to choose the nominees. A larger, main group: the American Narrative Nominating Committee calls the nominations in the majority of the categories.
The films selected must be made for less than $20 million, and basically needs to be what the jury calls an “independent” project. At last, winners are chosen by all members of Film Independent, which means the votes are also open to filmmakers and members (annual fee paid to be a member).
Watch the 2012 Film Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday, February 25, on IFC.
For a complete list of the nominees, CLICK HERE.