Spirit Awards 2010: Nominations

Michael Stuhlbarg in A Serious Man (top); James McAvoy, Christopher Plummer, Helen Mirren in The Last Station (middle); Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zooey Deschanel in (500) Days of Summer (bottom)

The nominees for the 25th annual Spirit Awards have been announced. Two of the best picture nominees also happen to be this year's most nominated films: Lee Daniels' Precious and Michael Hoffman's The Last Station, with five nods each.

There were quite a few surprises this year — mostly those who were left out.

First of all, where's The Hurt Locker, winner of two Gotham Awards — best picture and best ensemble — and a likely Oscar contender? Well, don't panic. The Hurt Locker was nominated last year in (a mere) two categories, best actor (Jeremy Renner) and best supporting actor (Anthony Mackie). It was thus ineligible this year. (In addition to commercial runs, films screened at six US-based film festivals are eligible for the Spirit Awards on any given year.)

Now, what is really weird is that on March 5, 2010, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen's A Serious Man will be receiving the Robert Altman Award, which is akin to a best film prize as it honors a film's director(s) and cast. Yet, A Serious Man is nowhere to be found among the Spirit Awards' five best feature nominees: (500) Days of Summer, Amreeka, Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire, Sin Nombre, and The Last Station. Nor is leading man Michael Stuhlbarg to be found among the best actor nominees. A tale of two juries, I guess. (One for the Altman award; one for the narrative-film nominations.)

Other glaring omissions were Michael Moore's documentary Capitalism: A Love Story, Louie Psihoyos' documentary The Cove, director Cherien Dabis for best picture nominee Amreeka (Dabis did get a best first screenplay nomination), Hal Holbrook for That Evening Sun (Holbrook still has a chance to land an Oscar nod), Zooey Deschanel for (500) Days of Summer, James McAvoy for The Last Station, Stockholm best actor winner Edgar Flores for Sin Nombre, Ben Foster for The Messenger, Hiam Abbass for Amreeka, cinematographer Eduard Grau for A Single Man, and Julianne Moore for A Single Man (another likely Oscar candidate in the supporting actress category).

Also, Sebastián Silva's Chilean The Maid, considered an American movie at the Gotham Awards, was apparently deemed unAmerican by Film Independent: it landed a best foreign film nomination and that was that. But rest assured that Catalina Saavedra will be heard from again this awards season.