Special Report: Spirit Awards Preview/Predictions

?????The Spirit Award nominations are announced a week from today. Here's special guest and our podcast cohort Joe Reid to preview/predict the nominations.

The 2015 Film Independent Spirit Awards will announce their nominations next Tuesday, the earliest full slate of nominations (the Gothams can call me when they get supporting categories) and for many the clearest opening bell for awards season. After them, the critics awards start rolling in, then the Golden Globe nominations, and by then we're off to the races. I have always found the Spirits to be the most difficult to predict and the most fun. Partly because they happen so early in the season but also partly because the qualifications are always just a bit mysterious.

A reminder, per the Spirits' rules and regs: to qualify, a film must be an American film made for under $20 million, and have either been released in theaters in 2015 or played one of six major U.S. festivals (Sundance, Los Angeles, New Directors/New Films, New York, Telluride, Toronto). Of course, even with those rules, there are splittable hairs. 

predictions after the jump

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Moore and Haynes, Reunited At Last

Manuel here. In news that seem tailor-made for The Film Experience readership in general and Nathaniel in particular, Julianne Moore* is teaming up once again with her Far From Heaven director Todd Haynes. 

(Pause as we all gay gasp).

As you'll remember, Nat was already ecstatic about this project back when it was announced earlier in the year and while our host has been having a ball lately — in Los Angeles he overheard some Oscar whisperings, hob-knobbed with Adepero Oduye (!), Gena Rowlands (!!), Ian McKellen and The Lovely Laura Linney (!!!), and caught various films, you have to be sure that the news will surely knock him out all over again with glee.

Wonderstruck, for those of you who managed to regain consciousness after hearing "Moore" and "Haynes" in the same sentence, is Brian Selzknick's 2011 picture book/novel hybrid that follows two interconnected narratives, one set in 1927 and one in 1977 (in true Selznick fashion, one is told purely in pictures, the other purely in words) and involves a little girl obsessed with an actress and a boy intent on finding some family history that remains a mystery to him. For those of us who have already seen Carol, there is no doubt that Haynes is at the top of his game, so the fact that his next directorial project is coming together so quickly (no more waiting 8 years for another film!) is a welcome development. That it includes Moore? Well, that's just the juiciest cherry on top.

*This is your weekly reminder that Julianne Moore won an Oscar.

Curio: Art Awakens

Alexa here with your weekly arts and crafts. Last weekend Gallery1988 exhibited some amazing works of art celebrating the continuing saga of Star Wars. The exhibit, Art Awakens, showcases the work of over 60 artists; J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan were on hand for the opening.  Even better, the pieces are being auctioned on eBay for charity!  Original pieces and prints are available on eBay now to benefit UNICEF Kid Power, a program to provide food to kids in need worldwide. Bids on some of the original pieces are already at thousands of dollars!

Here are some favorite pieces from the show...

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Red Carpet Lineup: 2015 Governors Awards

 

Jose here. Judging from her gleeful expression, it seems Dame Helen Mirren got the news I chose her as the absolute best dressed at the 2015 Governors Awards. On a night when Hollywood celebrated some of its most beloved legends, most people seem to have taken the informal/cocktail route and perhaps avoided stealing the spotlight from Gena Rowlands, Debbie Reynolds and Spike Lee. Not Dame Mirren though. Unsurprisingly, she went for yet another Dolce & Gabbana look, but can you blame her when they make her look so divine?

See all the looks after the jump.

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After Room Comes The Ring

Jason from MNPP here with a bit of exciting news today - Lenny Abrahamson, the director of this year's Oscar hopeful Room, is lining up his next project and it sounds fascinating. Based on the non-fiction book A Man’s World: The Double Life Of Emile Griffith, which was just published this past September (anybody read it?), it'll tell the story of the titular boxer, described by all with words like "gentle" & "innocent," who nonetheless beat his opponent Benny “The Kid” Paret into a coma (and death 10 days later) in a televised match after Paret called him "maricón" (Spanish for approximately "faggot") during a live weigh-in.

Thing is Griffith was in fact bisexual, and Abrahamson says that "he never seemed conflicted about his sexuality; indeed he found joy in it." Until he was called out in public, apparently. (Then again, it being 1962 when all this went down I suppose he had his some good reasons for his hesitation.) Anyway this sounds like a top-notch leading role for an actor of color, as well as a stellar entryway into discussions of race and sexuality and masculinity, all mixed up, that don't usually get foregrounded like this. This quote's choice:

"You look at how closely his two worlds intersected,” Abrahamson said. “Just how different are they, when the sport is such a celebration of the male body and the beauty of its athleticism. Go one step further, and inject the tiniest sense of sexuality, and people are up in arms. Griffith himself once said a quote that just floored me. ‘They forgave me for killing a man, but they couldn’t forgive me for loving a man.’ That to me was so powerful and such a crazy contradiction. And it is still relevant today."

Sounds to me like Abrahamson already has a pretty strong grasp on the material; let's all cross our fingers that he can use his current heat to get the film together properly. Who would you cast in the lead? Any suggestions?