JenniferLawrence-TwoShot

Winter’s Bone, my favorite film from Sundance (with Hesher a close second), starring the hot and talented Jennifer Lawrence (pictured), cleaned up last night at the Gotham Awards, winning Best Feature and Best Ensemble Performance (though Lawrence lost Breakthrough Performance to Ronald Bronstein of Daddy Longlegs).  Meanwhile, the Independent Spirit Award nominations were announced today, with Winter’s Bone picking up seven nominations, including feature, director, lead, and supporting nods for Dale Dickey and John Hawkes (both deserving). You can see all the nominations after the jump.

It’s already available on Netflix so you can decide for yourself, but I worry that the awards are only going to keep people from seeing it.  It already has that awards bait-y look to it, and this will only confirm people’s suspicions.  But I promise it’s not that kind of movie, at least not in the way that 127 Hours was.   While it is super serious, awesomely acted, and lovingly executed, it’s at least a movie made for the sake of telling a good story, and not, say a vehicle for Danny Boyle to prove what an awesome director Danny Boyle is.  In fact, if Debra Granik ends up winning best director, I’d like nothing more than for her to run on stage, tell Danny Boyle “Now THAT’S how you chop peoples’ arms off,” do that “suck it” thing from WWE, drop the mic, and walk off stage.  That would be mad gangster.

Via IFC, the best network ever (psst, please put me on TV more, I don’t want to have to tell people I’m a blogger. It’s worse than admitting to gay amputee porn):

BEST FEATURE
127 Hours
Black Swan
Greenberg
The Kids Are All Right
Winter’s Bone [saw Black Swan this week, review to come]

BEST DIRECTOR
Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
Danny Boyle, 127 Hours
Lisa Cholodenko, The Kids Are All Right
Debra Granik, Winter’s Bone
John Cameron Mitchell, Rabbit Hole

BEST SCREENPLAY
Stuart Blumberg, Lisa Cholodenko, The Kids Are All Right
Debra Granik, Anne Rosellini, Winter’s Bone
Nicole Holofcener, Please Give
David Lindsay-Abaire, Rabbit Hole
Todd Solondz, Life During Wartime

BEST FIRST FEATURE
Everything Strange and New
Get Low
Night Catches Us
The Last Exorcism
Tiny Furniture

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
Diane Bell, Obselidia
Lena Dunham*, Tiny Furniture [*likely future Frotcast guest Lena Dunham, that is]
Nik Fackler, Lovely, Still
Bob Glaudini, Jack Goes Boating
Dana Adam Shapiro, Evan M. Wiener, Monogamy

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD
Daddy Longlegs
Lbs.
Lovers of Hate
Obselidia
The Exploding Girl

BEST FEMALE LEAD
Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right
Greta Gerwig, Greenberg
Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence, Winter’s Bone
Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine

BEST MALE LEAD
Ronald Bronstein, Daddy Longlegs
Aaron Eckhart, Rabbit Hole
James Franco, 127 Hours [the movie's still lame, but he was really good]
John C. Reilly, Cyrus
Ben Stiller, Greenberg

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE
Ashley Bell, The Last Exorcism
Dale Dickey, Winter’s Bone [really, really good]
Allison Janney, Life During Wartime
Daphne Rubin-Vega, Jack Goes Boating
Naomi Watts, Mother and Child

BEST SUPPORTING MALE
John Hawkes, Winter’s Bone [ditto. played a guy named "Thump" Teardrop, which is also still awesome.]
Samuel L. Jackson, Mother and Child
Bill Murray, Get Low
John Ortiz, Jack Goes Boating
Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Adam Kimmel, Never Let Me Go
Matthew Libatique, Black Swan [gotta give the edge here]
Jody Lee Lipes, Tiny Furniture
Michael McDonough, Winter’s Bone
Harris Savides, Greenberg

BEST DOCUMENTARY
Exit Through the Gift Shop
Marwencol
Restrepo [seeing tonight, review, frotcast, and CoTW prize to come]
Sweetgrass
Thunder Soul

BEST FOREIGN FILM
Kisses
Mademoiselle Chambon
Of Gods and Men
The King’s Speech
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives

ACURA SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD [aka the we-almost-liked-you-enough-to-nominate-you-for-an-award award]
Hossein Keshavarz, Dog Sweat
Laurel Nakadate, The Wolf Knife
Mike Ott, Littlerock

PIAGET PRODUCERS AWARD
In-Ah Lee, Au Revoir Taipei
Adele Romanski, The Myth of the American Sleepover
Anish Savjani, Meek’s Cutoff

AVEENO® TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD [well if there's one thing I associate with realistic fiction, it's baby soft skin]
Ilisa Barbash, Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Sweetgrass
Jeff Malmberg, Marwencol
Lynn True, Nelson Walker, Summer Pasture

ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD
Please Give
Director: Nicole Holofcener
Casting Director: Jeanne McCarthy
Ensemble Cast: Ann Guilbert, Rebecca Hall, Catherine Keener, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Lois Smith, Sarah Steele