Spirit Awards 2022: My Personal Ballot

by Cláudio Alves

The Film Independent Spirit Awards are upon us! After a few years of hewing concerningly close to the Oscars, this year's slot of nominees feels more connected to the organization's purpose of celebrating independent cinema, even the obscure stuff. Indeed, exploring the many nominated pictures was one of the highlights of this awards season. I discovered some beautiful gems and have new artists to look for in the incoming years. Isn't that the most beautiful part of movie awards – the uncovering of heretofore unknown talents and voices? It seems right, seeing as the Spirit Awards are voted on by cinephiles, all those who become Film Independent members out of their love for the seventh art.

With that in mind, I thought it could be fun to share my (not so anonymous) ballot for the Spirit Awards, perchance some predictions too…

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Film Bitch Awards ~ Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, and more are up!

With the arrival of that Top Ten List you knew this was coming. The 22nd (gulp) annual Film Bitch Awards have commenced. We'll try to get all the Oscar-adjacent nominees up before Tuesday...

Page 1 - BEST PICTURE, DIRECTOR, SCREENPLAYS, ANIMATED FEATURE
Various honors for C'mon C'mon, Flee, In the Heights, Mass, Passing, Power of the Dog, West Side Story, The Worst Person in the World (finally in theaters!), and Zola

Page 2 - BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR & BEST ACTOR
You might have deduced these first five acting nominees (Colman Domingo, Mike Faist, Troy Kotsur, Anders Danielsen Lie, and Kodi Smit McPhee) given our noisy enthusiams! The lead actors are also up. Guess who!

Page 3 - CINEMATOGRAPHY, MAKEUP 
Page 4 - ORIGINAL SONG, SOUND
Honors for Annette, Cruella, Dune, Encanto, French Dispatch, Green Knight, Tragedy of Macbeth etcetera with more to come...

I Put A Link On You... and now you're mine 🎵

• The Reveal you may have heard that NEON is planning an unusual release for Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Memoria in that it will only play in one movie theater at a time for one week and continually move to new cities and never come to streaming. The internet was furious about the 'elitism' of this but Scott Tobias has a different take that's well worth reading
• Coming Soon Trailer to season 2 of Locke & Key. Not half enough Connor Jessup in this teaser!
• Vulture Bayard Rustin is FINALLY getting a biopic and Colman Domingo will be playing the gay Civil rights hero of yore. Now we can begin dreaming that Domingo will finally become an Oscar nominee a year or two from now. It usually takes a biopic (sigh)

First movie shot in space, Hocus Pocus-themed concert, Andrew Lloyd Weber on various stage-to-film adaptations, Théodore Pellerin rumors, and more after the jump...

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Review: Nia DaCosta's "Candyman"

by Matt St. Clair

When the 1992 horror classic Candyman made its way to theaters, audiences were introduced to a figure who serves as a representation of America’s original sin and a tragic monster akin to those from the classic era. The original Candyman (Tony Todd) pursuing grad student Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen) has invited comparisons to The Phantom of the Opera, another lovelorn monster.  But the latest direct sequel of the same name by director Nia DaCosta is less of a Universal Monster-esque tragedy.

Though it continues the original storyline, the new Candyman (2021) expands its racial commentary to tackle generational pain, police brutality, and gentrification...

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"Zola" is a must-see

Spend some time in batshit insane Florida this weekend. Writer/Director Janicza Bravo's stripper comedy Zola (co-written by Tony-nominated playwright Jeremy O. Harris) which was a major Sundance hit way back in January 2020 before the pandemic, is finally in theaters. It was worth the wait. Murtada raved about it last year...

Zola is the first film to get how social media interactions have shaped the way people talk to each other IRL. How many times have you said "LOL" to someone’s face? Admit it, many times. Bravo and Harris manage the find the right speech cadences for that sort of phone jargon. Then, Bravo masterfully realizes them visually so that they are seamless. [Read the full review] 

It's a great and wild time at the movies headlined by fast-rising wonder Taylour Paige (so fun as Viola's girl in Ma Rainey last season) in a nimble deadpan funny star turn. She had me in stitches with a one word line reading "...word" early on in this weekend misadventure before the gallows-humor comedy rubbernecks around its rather serious and frightening sex-trafficking elements. She and the underappreciated Riley Keough are both expert at keeping their performances both real and "in quotes" for the different points of view and emotional facades the women wear to survive.