2010 Spirit Award Noms: Precious and The Last Station Grab 5 Noms each

The film which received no love at the Gothams tied for 1st in total amount of noms with Telluride’s The Last Station (Michael Hoffman). Lee Daniel’s Precious received noms in the Best Feature, Director, First Screenplay, Best Femle Lead and the most logical nomination and most deserving of them all: Best Supporting Female.

The Best Feature category is filled with four Sundance titles including Sin Nombre which received three nominations, however the biggest mysteries are how A Serious Man managed to grab noms in the Best Director and Best Cinematography categories and not Best Picture, and how Ramin Bahrani’s Goodbye Solo only managed a Best Actor nod. For those who are wondering why The Hurt Locker is nowhere to be found, it’s because it was considered as part of last year’s field of films.

Among the other Sundance film successes, we find Oren Moverman’s The Messenger grabbing noms in the Best Screenplay, Best First Feature and Best Supporting Female, but not in the Best Actor category (Ben Foster deserved a mention). 500 Days of Summer potted three noms in the Best Feature, Best Screenplay and Best Male Lead (Gordon-Levitt) categories, while Cold Souls found some proper love in the Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Female and Best Cinematography – too bad Paul Giamatti wasn’t mentioned as a Best Actor nominee. Cherien Dabis’ Amreeka is proving to be a favorite among the indie community grabbing a Best Feature (that makes it two if you include the Gothams), Best First Screenplay and Best Female Lead.

I thought I’d highlight some oddball noms as well. Not that it wasn’t deserving, but James Gray received a nod for Best Director and Best Female Lead for Two Lovers, The Vicious Kind received a pair of kudos for Best Screenplay and Best Male Lead, and A Single Man (like A Serious Man) received noms in top categories but missed out on Best Feature and Best Cinematography (Peter Zeitlinger’s work in Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans was favored).

Here the complete list of noms, with the supporting actor categories adding further titles to the list of films to consider adding to your viewing list and always worth checking out with a magnifying glass are the Acura Someone to Watch Award (up-and-coming filmmakers), Truer than Fiction (Docs flying under the rader) and Piaget Producers Award (up-and-coming producers). The awards are given out the day before the Oscars.

2010 Spirit Award nominations

BEST FEATURE
“(500) Days Of Summer” – Producers: Mason Novick, Jessica Tuchinsky, Mark Waters, Steven J. Wolfe
“Amreeka” – Producers: Paul Barkin, Christina Piovesan 
“Precious” – Producers: Lee Daniels, Gary Magness, Sarah Siegel-Magness
“Sin Nombre” – Producer: Amy Kaufman 
“The Last Station” – Producers: Bonnie Arnold, Chris Curling, Jens Meuer

BEST DIRECTOR 
Ethan Coen, Joel Coen – “A Serious Man”
Lee Daniels – “Precious”
Cary Joji Fukunaga – “Sin Nombre”
James Gray – “Two Lovers”
Michael Hoffman – “The Last Station”

BEST SCREENPLAY 
Alessandro Camon, Oren Moverman – “The Messenger”
Michael Hoffman – “The Last Station”
Lee Toland Krieger – “The Vicious Kind”
Greg Mottola – “Adventureland”
Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber – “(500) Days Of Summer”

BEST FIRST FEATURE
“A Single Man” – Director: Tom Ford; Producers: Tom Ford, Andrew Miano, Robert Salerno, Chris Weitz
“Crazy Heart” – Director: Scott Cooper; Producers: T Bone Burnett, Judy Cairo, Rob Carliner, Scott Cooper, Robert Duvall
“Easier With Practice” – Director: Kyle Patrick Alvarez; Producer: Cookie Carosella
“Paranormal Activity” – Director: Oren Peli; Producer: Jason Blum, Oren Peli
“The Messenger” – Director: Oren Moverman; Producers: Mark Gordon, Lawrence Inglee, Zach Miller

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY 
Sophie Barthes – “Cold Souls”
Scott Cooper – “Crazy Heart”
Cherien Dabis – “Amreeka”
Geoffrey Fletcher – “Precious”
Tom Ford, David Scearce – “A Single Man”

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD – Given to the best feature made for under $500,000.
“Big Fan” – Writer/Director: Robert Siegel; Producers: Elan Bogarin, Jean Kouremetis
“Humpday” – Writer/Director/Producer: Lynn Shelton
“The New Year Parade” – Writer/Director: Tom Quinn; Producers: Steve Beal, Tom Quinn
“Treeless Mountain” – Writer/Director: So Yong Kim; Producers: Bradley Rust Gray, Ben Howe, So Yong Kim, Lars Knudsen, Jay Van Hoy
“Zero Bridge” – Writer/Director: Tariq Tapa; Producers: Josée Lajoie, Hilal Ahmed Langoo, Tariq Tapa

BEST FEMALE LEAD 
Maria Bello – “Downloading Nancy”
Nisreen Faour – “Amreeka”
Helen Mirren – “The Last Station”
Gwyneth Paltrow – “Two Lovers”
Gabourey Sidibe – “Precious”

BEST MALE LEAD
Jeff Bridges – “Crazy Heart”
Colin Firth – “A Single Man”
Joseph Gordon-Levitt – “(500) Days Of Summer”
Souléymane Sy Savané – “Goodbye Solo”
Adam Scott – “The Vicious Kind”

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE
Dina Korzun – “Cold Souls”
Mo’Nique – “Precious”
Samantha Morton – “The Messenger”
Natalie Press – “Fifty Dead Men Walking”
Mia Wasikowska – “That Evening Sun”

BEST SUPPORTING MALE
Jemaine Clement – “Gentlemen Broncos”
Woody Harrelson – “The Messenger”
Christian McKay – “Me and Orson Welles”
Raymond McKinnon – “That Evening Sun”
Christopher Plummer – “The Last Station”

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Roger Deakins – “A Serious Man”
Adriano Goldman – “Sin Nombre”
Anne Misawa – “Treeless Mountain”
Andrij Parekh – “Cold Souls”
Peter Zeitlinger – “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans”

BEST DOCUMENTARY
“Anvil! The Story of Anvil” – Director: Sacha Gervasi
“Food, Inc.” – Director: Robert Kenner
“More Than A Game” – Director: Kristopher Belman
“October Country” – Directors: Donal Mosher, Michael Palmieri
“Which Way Home” – Director: Rebecca Cammisa

BEST FOREIGN FILM
“A Prophet” – (France) Director: Jacques Audiard
“An Education” – (UK/France) Director: Lone Scherfig
“Everlasting Moments” – (Sweden) Director: Jan Troell
“Mother” – (South Korea) Director: Bong Joon-Ho
“The Maid” – (Chile) Director: Sebastián Silva

ACURA SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD
Kyle Patrick Alvarez – “Easier With Practice”
Asiel Norton – “Redland”
Tariq Tapa – “Zero Bridge”

TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD
Natalia Almada – “El General”
Jessica Oreck – “Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo”
Bill Ross, Turner Ross – “45365”

PIAGET PRODUCERS AWARD
Karin Chien – “The Exploding Girl,” “Santa Mesa”
Larry Fessenden – “I Sell the Dead,” “The House of the Devil”
Dia Sokol – “Beeswax,” “Nights & Weekends”

ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD – (Given to one film’s director, casting director, and its ensemble cast)
“A Serious Man”
Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Casting Directors: Ellen Chenoweth, Rachel Tenner
Ensemble Cast: Richard Kind, Sari Lennick, Jessica McManus, Fred Melamed, Michael Stuhlbarg, Aaron Wolff