Spirit Awards — The Best in Independent Films

Home

Entertainment

Movie Mom

Spirit Awards — The Best in Independent Films

I admit that the awards show I enjoy most each year is the “Spirit Awards,” and not just because I am lucky enough to get to vote for them. They truly reflect their name in paying tribute to films that are made more for love than for money. And they honor and support the small, the new, the passionate, and the struggle. This year’s winners are:

Best Feature: Silver Linings Playbook (The Weinstein Company)
Producers: Bruce Cohen, Donna Gigliotti, Jonathan Gordon

Best Director: David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook (The Weinstein Company)

Best Screenplay: David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook (The Weinstein Company)

Best First Feature: The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Summit Entertainment)
Writer/Director: Stephen Chbosky / Producers: Lianne Halfon, John Malkovich, Russell Smith

Best First Screenplay: Derek Connolly, Safety Not Guaranteed (FilmDistrict)

John Cassavetes Award (For best feature made under $500,000): Middle of Nowhere (AFFRM in partnership with Participant Media)
Writer/Director/Producer: Ava DuVernay / Producers: Howard Barish, Paul Garnes

Best Supporting Female: Helen Hunt, The Sessions (Fox Searchlight)

Best Supporting Male: Matthew McConaughey, Magic Mike (Warner Bros.Pictures)

Best Female Lead: Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook (The Weinstein Company)

Best Male Lead: John Hawkes, The Sessions (Fox Searchlight)

Robert Altman Award: Starlet (Music Box Films)
Director: Sean Baker / Casting Director: Julia Kim / Ensemble Cast: Dree Hemingway, Besedka Johnson, Karren Karagulian, Stella Maeve, James Ransone

Best Cinematography: Ben Richardson, Beasts of the Southern Wild (Fox Searchlight)

Best International Film: Amour (France – Sony Pictures Classics) Director: Michael Haneke

Best Documentary: The Invisible War (Cinedigm Entertainment Group)
Director: Kirby Dick / Producers: Amy Ziering, Tanner King Barklow

Special Distinction: Harris Savides

You Might Also Like...

New DVD Giveaway: Word Girl vs. The Energy Monster
One of my favorite television series for kids is the wonderful PBS show "Word Girl," and this new release is one of the best: Wordgirl vs the Energy Monster. WORDGIRL and her sidekick CAPTAIN HUGGY FACE fight the good fight against dastardly villains and bad vocabulary in this thrilling collection!

posted 8:00:22am May. 19, 2013 | read full post »

Disney Lets Merida Be Merida After All
Did the folks at Disney even watch "Brave?" One of the great strengths of Pixar's first movie starring a female character (and its first originally written by a woman, Brenda Chapman, though she was replaced by a male director) was that its feisty heroine, Merida, looked like a real girl and not a

posted 8:00:52am May. 18, 2013 | read full post »

Want to Know What James Franco Thinks of "The Great Gatsby?"
I'm interested in James Franco's take on "The Great Gatsby" because of what this polymath who attended two grad schools at once has to say about the challenges of adapting great writing to the screen and the differing goals and audience expectations of a book now viewed as a classic and a movie. Th

posted 8:00:42am May. 17, 2013 | read full post »

Interview: Directors/Writer/Star of "Desperate Acts of Magic"
Magic is in the air. And on the screen. Two big-budget films with some of Hollywood's biggest stars playing magicians are being released within a few months of each other. In March, we had the silly comedy The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, with Steve Carell and Jim Carrey. Coming up is the en

posted 8:00:21am May. 17, 2013 | read full post »

Star Trek: Into Darkness
This time, there's crying in "Star Trek." And some very significant time on Earth as well. This story is in the most literal sense, close to home. Writer-director J.J. Abrams, who rebooted Gene Roddenberry's original "Star Trek" saga with a rousing 2009 origin story prequel now takes us clos

posted 9:36:25am May. 16, 2013 | read full post »

read all»