This morning in Los Angeles, nominations were announced for the 2010 Film Independent Spirit Awards and in the documentary category, FOOD, INC. has completed that rare pre-Oscar sweep - netting nods for the top doc award at the Spirits, Cinema Eye, the IDA Awards and the Gothams, where it won Best Documentary last night.
MAN ON WIRE accomplished the same feat last year en route to winning the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.
FOOD, INC.'s across-the-board success confirms the film's broad appeal, something that no other film, including the film most expected to compete with FOOD, INC. for the Oscar - THE COVE, has been able to demonstrate. The IDA Awards are this Friday night in Los Angeles.
The 8-person Spirit Awards Documentary jury also nominated ANVIL! THE STORY OF ANVIL, the Oscar snub that launched 1000 Twitter complaints. ANVIL! was a nominee last year in the Truer Than Fiction grant category. While films have been nominated for both Best Documentary and Truer Than Fiction in the same year, most recently this year when THE ORDER OF MYTHS was double nominated, this is the first time that a film was nominated for Truer Than Fiction one year and Best Documentary the next.
ANVIL! is also up for Best Documentary at the IDA Awards and has been announced as the winner of the Music Documentary prize there.
Also nominated was the Oscar shortlisted doc WHICH WAY HOME, which could provide an important boost to that film, the story of child migrants from Central America attempting to travel by train across Mexico en route to the US.
Nods also went to the LeBron James film MORE THAN A GAME - the first awards season notice for that film - and also to festival favorite OCTOBER COUNTRY, which is nominated for five Cinema Eye Honors, including Outstanding Feature and Director.
For this year's Truer Than Fiction Grant award - given to filmmakers who "have not yet received the attention that they deserve" - the nominees are Bill and Turner Ross for 45365, Jessica Oreck for BEETLE QUEEN CONQUERS TOKYO and Natalia Almada for EL GENERAL.
45365's Bill Ross with BEETLE QUEEN director Oreck at last week's Denver Film Festival.
Almada won Best Director at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, the Ross brothers took the Grand Jury prize at SXSW and BEETLE QUEEN was a Special Jury Prize winner at Cinevegas.
45365 is nominated for three Cinema Eye Honors, including Outstanding Debut. BEETLE QUEEN is up for Cinema Eye's Spotlight Award.
Documentary Nominations for the 2010 Independent Spirit Awards
Best Documentary
ANVIL! THE STORY OF ANVIL
Directed by Sasha Gervasi
FOOD, INC.
Directed by Robert Kenner
MORE THAN A GAME
Directed by Kristopher Belman
OCTOBER COUNTRY
Directed by Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher
WHICH WAY HOME
Directed by Rebecca Cammisa
Truer Than Fiction Grant
45365
Directed by Bill Ross and Turner Ross
BEETLE QUEEN CONQUERS TOKYO
Directed by Jessica Oreck
EL GENERAL
Directed by Natalia Almada
It's worth noting that only American filmmakers are eligible for the Spirit Awards. That excludes a lot of worthy titles including BEACHES OF AGNES, BLOOD TRAIL, BURMA VJ, UNMISTAKEN CHILD, etc that showed up in the Cinema Eye noms.
Posted by: Thom Powers | December 01, 2009 at 10:12 AM