Spirit Award Nominations Released

Film Independent's Spirit Awards nominations were announced today, with Ryan Fleck's "Half Nelson" and Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris' "Little Miss Sunshine" leading the 41 nominees with five nods each, including in the Best Feature category, where "American Gun," "The Dead Girl" and "Pan’s Labyrinth" were also selected.

One of the most important features of the awards nominations (no longer called the "Independent Spirit Awards") is to draw attention to smaller films still seeking distribution and wider audiences, among them Richard Wong's thoroughly entertaining, Bay Area-set "Colma: The Musical" (nominated for the $50,000 IFC/Acura Someone to Watch Award, along with "In Between Days and "Day Night Day Night"), as well as Ali Selim's self-distributed"Sweet Land"(Best First Feature, Best Female Lead).

FIND's criteria for nominee selection -- made by appointed committees -- in competitive categories:

Uniqueness of vision

Original, provocative subject matter

Economy of means (with particular attention paid to total production cost and
individual compensation)

Percentage of financing from independent sources

Running time at least 70 minutes long

Cost of the completed film, including post-production, under $20 million

Fittingly, independent writer-director David Lynch and actress Laura Dern will share a Special Distinction Award "In recognition of their unique and stunning collaborative work in the mesmerizing 'Inland Empire', as well as the influential independent classics 'Blue Velvet' and 'Wild at Heart.'"

Awards are given in the following categories: Best Feature, Best First Feature, Best First Screenplay, Best Director, Best Screenplay, John Cassavetes Award (given to the best feature made for a budget under $500,000), Best Male Lead, Best Female Lead, Best Supporting Male, Best Supporting Female, Best Cinematography, Best Foreign Film, and Best Documentary.

Last year’s Film Independent’s Spirit Award winners included Brokeback Mountain, which won Best Feature and Best Director (Ang Lee), Capote for Best Screenplay and Best Male Lead (Philip Seymour Hoffman); Crash for Best First Feature and Best Supporting Male (Matt Dillon); Transamerica for Best Female Lead (Felicity Huffman) and Best First Screenplay; and Junebug for Best Supporting Female (Amy Adams).

Film Independent's Spirit awardees will be selected by a vote of the organization's membership, along with members of the Independent Feature Project network, and conferred Feb. 24 in conjunction with a live broadcast on IFC.

A complete listing of the nominations is available on the Spirit Awards site.