Uncut Gems and The Lighthouse come up big.
A24’s Adam Sandler thriller Uncut Gems and Robert Eggers’ spooky black-and-white movie The Lighthouse led the Film Independent Spirit Awards nominations this week with five nominations apiece, followed by Amazon’s Honey Boy scripted by Shia LeBeouf and based on his rocky childhood.
For a fourth straight year, A24 lead all Spirit nominations with 18, after counting 12 last year and 17 in 2017. Neon was second this morning with 10 nods. Amazon was third with eight, up from last fall’s six. Netflix was next with seven, up one from six a year ago. IFC Films counted six nods.
Studio classic labels came up short, with Fox Searchlight counting one for A Hidden Life, Sony Pictures Classics also one for The Climb, and Focus Features two for The Mustang.
Making a surprise entrance to this year’s Spirits was STX with Hustlers, which nabbed noms for director Lorene Scafaria, best supporting actress Jennifer Lopez and DP Todd Banhazl.
Films made for a budget of $22.5 million or lower are eligible this year, so if you don’t see certain prestige pics listed in the noms, sometimes it’s not a snub.
However, why is Fox Searchlight’s Jojo Rabbit, which won the top prize at the Toronto Film Festival, missing? That picture was reportedly made for $14M and had a shocking zero presence today. Apparently that movie was only available for international film as all the team is from New Zealand. That’s odd given the fact that international film is typically designated a foreign-language picture.
For Netflix this year, Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story is eligible while The Two Popes, Dolemite Is My Name, The Laundromat, The King and, of course, The Irishman are not. Also missing from the list of nominations is Amazon’s The Report and Seberg, Focus Features’ Harriet (made for $17.5M) and Todd Haynes’ Dark Waters. Lionsgate/Bron Studios’ Bombshell was not among the nominations, however, the Jay Roach-directed Fox News drama has a reported budget north of $35M.
Quite often the Spirits have been a predictor as to what wins Best Picture at the Oscars with AMPAS and Film Independent syncing on Moonlight in 2017, Spotlight in 2016, Birdman in 2015 and 12 Years a Slave in 2014.
However, the last two years have been off, with 2018 seeing Get Out won at the Spirits and The Shape of Water at the Oscars (the latter picture wasn’t eligible at the Spirits due to its budget). This past February, If Beale Street Could Talk won Best Feature at the Spirits while the Oscars went with Green Book, which also wasn’t eligible at the Spirits.
This year’s Best Features nominations include Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life, Chinonye Chukwu’s Sundance Jury Prize winner Clemency, Lulu Wang’s The Farewell, Marriage Story and Uncut Gems.
This week’s announcement was made by Joker actress Zazie Beetz and Ad Astra and Honey Boy actress Natasha Lyonne from The Line LA. Next year’s event is early due to the Oscars being moved up. So expect the awards on February 8.
– Courtesy: Deadline
