Comments (22)

• Was at the Spirits show. Many things can be said about the show (dreadfully long, to many random awards), but Steven Coogan certainly did NOT bomb.

  Either Nikki wasn’t at the actual show and is just reporting what some haters passed along or she hasn’t much sense for comedy. But the room was laughing continuously with Coogan.

  In fact, there should have been a lot more of Coogan. Instead of all that lame singing and dancing.

  Now, Teri Hatcher? Unfortunately, THAT was a bomb.

  Comment by Linus — Saturday February 21, 2009 @ 5:34pm PST  Reply to this post

• i was just there, steve coogan got a lot of laughs then sort of disappeared but he did a good job

  Comment by damian — Saturday February 21, 2009 @ 6:07pm PST  Reply to this post

• My fear is that independent film has become the playground of mainstream Hollywood folks looking for their equivalent of “street cred” by having their specialty divisions make “indie” features. And the target audience of many of these movies, aren’t even the art-house crowd in the major cities, but the folks who hand out the awards, who are also mainstream Hollywood folks.

  It’s becoming like the Canadian film industry, except instead of government money getting these films made, it’s from the investors in the big media companies. And Canada’s film award show only get a highlight reel on a cable channel, because even the people at the awards show haven’t seen the movies.

  Comment by Furious D — Saturday February 21, 2009 @ 6:15pm PST  Reply to this post

• The Bale-Phoenix skit was hilarious. Too bad Synecdoche won First Feature. That movie was a nightmare. Afterschool should’ve won.

  Comment by The InSneider — Saturday February 21, 2009 @ 6:35pm PST  Reply to this post

• Speaking of Synecdoche, Cameron Diaz attempting to handle the teleprompter like a six year old with dyslexia was brutal. Screwing up the title is one thing, even a new yorker can screw it up occasionally, but screwing up Diane Weist and Tom Noonan’s names?Were the camera cutaways supposed to make us think Catherine Keener and Charlie Kaufman were mocking her? No form of editing was needed however, to show the deer in headlights look Phillip Seymour seemed to have the longer Cameron spoke.

  Comment by mike — Saturday February 21, 2009 @ 8:38pm PST  Reply to this post

• Who played Joaquin Phoenix in the skit with Coogan as Batman/Bale?

  Comment by ileen — Saturday February 21, 2009 @ 8:52pm PST  Reply to this post

• Nothing for Medicine for Melancholy???

  What a crock. Oscars 2.0

  Comment by Blackout — Saturday February 21, 2009 @ 10:11pm PST  Reply to this post

• What I want spelled out is “what is the purpose of the Independent Spirit Awards”. and, moreover, what constitutes “success” in the indy world at this point. i.e. are we looking for excellence in a (*cough* *cough*) niche world or are we backslapping those in the (*cough* *cough*) niche world who have elbowed their films into the mainstream.

  I say this because the “indy” films being celebrated (and I’m intentionally using quotations around the word indy) are those which involve (1) actors whose names are, most of the time, known outside the indy world; (2) films which have “broken out” of the independent film undercurrent (if it even exists any more).

  Don’t get me wrong…I’m not trying to be a Debbie Downer…i’m just saying if the purpose of the “Independent Spirit Awards” is to celebrate independent spirit, is that fulfilled by acknowledging the work of Penelope Cruz, Darren Aronofksy, Charlie Kaufman, and James Franco?

  As an additional comment…I’m being a total brat right now (and will be accepting if you all decide to flame me)…but I will just be blunt and say that on the planet that i am currently inhabiting, Charlie Kaufman and Aronfsky’s cred as “indy artists” was revoked sometime in the late 90s (and that’s probably being generous).

  that is all.

  Comment by Charlotte A. Cavatica — Saturday February 21, 2009 @ 10:27pm PST  Reply to this post

• I’d just like to offer Charlotte a lozenge.

  Comment by Take a Luden's — Saturday February 21, 2009 @ 11:50pm PST  Reply to this post

• Phoenix was played by Frank Coraci. He’s a big director. Did wedding singer, waterboy, click, and worked w/ Coogan in around the world in 80 days. Nikki’s right, best & funniest moment of the whole show.

  Comment by SpuzNyce — Sunday February 22, 2009 @ 12:07am PST  Reply to this post

• Nicky why don’t you do a story on why IFC wouldn’t let freedom of the press include your comments via a technical difficulty, live on their show of the so called free spirit awards.

  Secondly why they started banning chatters who didn’t like staring at a mike on their live feed of the back stage show.

  Third why IFC had a robot camera that kept turning off their live feed of a tv screen.

  Fourth why IFC couldn’t show the Spirit awards live on their online feed.

  Fifth why the chatters were allowed to talk about sex but not IFC or the movies.

  Sixth, why if this continues, people will stop watching any award show.

  And finally I’ve cancelled anything to do with IFC, don’t email me ever again.

  Comment by 8moviesfiveplays — Sunday February 22, 2009 @ 1:58am PST  Reply to this post

• Steve Coogan got off to a wobbly start – and the Ben Stiller intro did not help – but he recovered somewhat. She probably means that the show wasn’t as funny as years past – remember the pretaped opening segment last year when Dennis Hopper took Rainn Wilson around L.A. to get beaten up? Or when John Waters hosted a few times? Production credits were very, uh, indie. Ballast, with six nominatioons, got blanked. That shows you where things are with the Spirits.

  Comment by Dean — Sunday February 22, 2009 @ 2:20am PST  Reply to this post

• Terri Hatcher’s dancing was great? Waddya talking about?

  I am SO GLAD Melissa Leo won. Boy would I love it if she pulled an upset and won the Academy Award.

  Comment by Victoria — Sunday February 22, 2009 @ 3:29am PST  Reply to this post

• spirit awards is a lot of fun, much more entertaining than other awards shows. the mock theme songs are great as usual, but teri hatcher’s oversexed number (about a movie about a girl and a dog?) was clearly creeping michelle williams out, loved that awkward expression on her face. the bale & phoenix skit was just brilliant.
  it is weird that so many so-called indie fairs are being taken over by these specialty shops of these big studios and mainstream stars are taking away moments meant for those indie nobodies. i think the purpose of this kudos fest, at least for me, is to check out some of these lesser known micro-budget films that i’d otherwise not noticed.

  Comment by DB — Sunday February 22, 2009 @ 6:16am PST  Reply to this post

• Established actors and directors, studio financed films, corporate sponsorship out the @$$.

  On top of that most studios have dumped their so-called specialty divisions.

  Whole thing is weird.

  Comment by Anonymous — Sunday February 22, 2009 @ 7:11am PST  Reply to this post

• I thought the Spirits were a blast! Fun, irreverent and bold. Leave Terri alone, she can dance for me any time.

  It’s a good guestion Nicki. What constitutes an independent film these days? I would think it’s any movie not funded initially by the major companies… although in the end, the higher profile indies are often snatched up and distributed by the majors, which in turn turns them into… majors.

  The big guys can outspend and out promote the smaller guys usually just due to their control of the media and their deep pockets. That makes it tougher and tougher for little guys like us to compete on any level that generates the kind of return that will encourage new investors. That’s a problem for the indie filmmaker, if he or she is not in it only for love, but also for the opportunity to make a fair profit on their picture. We have to be better, and far more focused at marketing to just break even.

  We just finished a documentary called “FILM HUSTLE” about how we marketed one of our independent movies. It’s a primer on what truly independent filmmakers are going to have to do in in this marketplace in order to get their pictures out there with any hope of a reasonable profit. The festival circuit and most indie distributors, of necessity, are only benefiting a small amount of the indie films out there. The returns from most are minimal if not non-existent. Also, the festivals flock to the bigger budget, higher profile indies, because that’s what attracts the press and therefore the public…

  It’s great that Film Independent includes a category for movies budgeted under $500,000 dollars with it’s John Cassevetes Award!!! That is the realm of the new technology. These are movies that if they’re shooting union at all, they’re using the low budget agreements from the various guilds and unions. These are allowing filmmakers to work with potential name actors and creatives and maybe get some kind of distribution for their movie. Otherwise they are the world’s most expensive home movies. I don’t know about the other unions, but over half of the film productions signed to SAG’s theatrical contracts are under one or more of their different low budget agreements based fairly on the size of the budgets. I used to chair SAG’s Low Budget Task Force.

  Bravo to Film Independent’s Spirit Awards!!!!! Anything that promotes the art form works for me.

  Comment by Raymond Forchion — Sunday February 22, 2009 @ 12:06pm PST  Reply to this post

• Indie Spirit Awards are way better than the bought and paid for popularity contest—the oscars-oh but we all know that…

  I’m sad and beat’in down by the politricks of our Unions-
  with the…. SAG IATSE WGA AMPTP fucks…

  The Indie Spirit almost made me believe in FILM AGAIN…..
  the excitement I found in the celluloid 20 years ago……
  a creative collaboration…..an art…. not business…

  Comment by Bob from Venice — Sunday February 22, 2009 @ 12:32pm PST  Reply to this post

• The Spirit Awards wins seem at least more about who genuinely qualified to win than the Oscars noms or these other award shows this year. Take Slumdog Millionaire. It’s a good movie, but it’s not great. It stuck out because it was something different to other movies of 2008. Quite frankly the children were far better actors than the adults. Slumdog should never have been nominated for best picture (and I’m South Asian aka Indian). How could they leave out Dark Knight? And what happened to Che for consideration in some category?

  Comment by sarah — Sunday February 22, 2009 @ 12:34pm PST  Reply to this post

• Who votes for these? Apparently they checked the box of the most famous names and didn’t see the films…

  There were some high-quality small independent movies made last year. The winners are just famous people who can get $20m vanity projects financed. What a waste and a total sham.

  Comment by Dwayne Brownstein — Sunday February 22, 2009 @ 1:57pm PST  Reply to this post

• Catch the Bale/Phoenix skit here

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPLs6v_52GQ

  Comment by Joe Gibson — Sunday February 22, 2009 @ 4:26pm PST  Reply to this post

• Dwayne – the question of who votes gets to the core of why the ISAs drift to the mainstream – access.

  Eligible voters are members of LA Film Independent or NY, Chi, MN IFP. These people are filmmakers, though in many cases that may be more aspirational. Fact is, all one needs to be a member is to pay a fee of around $100.

  I was a member the last two years, though I let mine lapse this year. I would get the occasional screener DVD, and they’ve tried to arrange others via Neflix and online streaming, plus some screenings in LA and maybe NY.

  So it’s up to a membership with fringe connections to see a slate of nominees that are often difficult to find. If you didn’t catch the smaller films during their one-week run at your local art house, and they haven’t been released on DVD, good luck finding them – even if you’re an ISA voter.

  The ISAs consistently nominate a stronger crop than the Oscars, and I give them credit for considering some ultra-low budget fare alongside specialty material. But given their voting body, the winners will tend to be the most widely distributed.

  Comment by Ben — Monday February 23, 2009 @ 8:22am PST  Reply to this post

• @ 8moviesfiveplays

  I was there with you, watching that microphone stand… shiiittttty excuse for a webcast. I got banned too. This was long after people were NOT banned for ragging on homosexuality, and NOT banned for talking about Penelope’s hot bod.

  As soon as I said something along the lines of “It’s 2009 IFC, don’t you know who your audience is?” regarding the lack of a webcast, I was banned.

  Whorefest of corporate sponsorship? CHECK. Losing its street cred? CHECK.

  Comment by rt — Tuesday February 24, 2009 @ 2:43pm PST  Reply to this post