It is only fitting that Rainn Wilson from The Office hosted this year's Film Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday, February 23, 2008. As the rain fell, the stars of independent film enjoyed their moment in the sun.
The Spirit Awards' big winner was Juno, which won Best Feature and Best First Screenplay for Diablo Cody, as well as Best Female Lead for Ellen Page. Juno, about a smart-alec pregnant teen journeying into adulthood while trying to discover if love can indeed last forever, was directed by Jason Reitman and produced by John Malkovich, Lianne Halfon, Mason Novick, and Russell Smith.
The Savages, I’m Not There,andThe Diving Bell and the Butterfly, all won two awards apiece.
Tamara Jenkins won Best Screenplay and Philip Seymour Hoffman received the award for Best Male Lead for The Savages. The film, also directed by Tamara Jenkins, is about adult siblings brought together to care for their estranged elderly father.
I'm Not There, the Bob Dylan biopic written by Oren Moverman and Todd Haynes and directed by Todd Haynes, won the Robert Altman Award for the film’s ensemble and director. Cate Blanchett took home the Best Supporting Female prize for her role in the film.
Julian Schnabel (Best Director) and Janusz Kaminski (Best Cinematographer) took awards for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, the story of Jean-Dominique Bauby, adapted by Ronald Harwood.
Talk to Me's Chiwetel Ejiofor rounded put the acting categories by winning the awards for Best Supporting Male. Talk to Me is the story of a Washington D.C. radio personality (Ralph "Petey" Greene, played by Male Lead nominee Don Cheadle), an ex-con who became a popular talk show host and community activist in the 1960s.
Other winners were:
- Best First Feature: The Lookout, written and directed by Scott Frank, and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt
- Best Documentary: Crazy Love, written by Dan Klores and co-directed by Dan Klores and Fisher Stevens
- Best Foreign Film went to Ireland’s Once, written and directed by John Carney, and starring Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová
- John Cassavetes Award (for best film made under $500,000): August Evening, written and directed by Chris Eska
- Acura Someone to Watch Award: Ramin Bahrani, director, Chop Shop
- Piaget Producers Award: Neil Kopp, Producer, Paranoid Park and Old Joy
- IFC Truer than Fiction Award: Laura Dunn, Director, The Unforeseen
Film Independent is an organization dedicated to the cultivation of the next generation of filmmakers, the advancement of independent film, and the promotion of diversity.
For complete coverage, go to Spirit Awards.com.
