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Kate Beckinsale and Anthony Mackie Announce 2012 Film Independent Spirit Award Nominations

2012 FILM INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARD NOMINATIONS

BEST FEATURE (Award given to the Producer, Executive Producers are not listed)

50/50	Producers: Evan Goldberg, Ben Karlin, Seth Rogen
Beginners	Producers: Miranda de Pencier, Lars Knudsen, Leslie Urdang, Dean Vanech, Jay Van Hoy
Drive	Producers: Michel Litvak, John Palermo, Marc Platt, Gigi Pritzker, Adam Siegel
Take Shelter	Producers: Tyler Davidson, Sophia Lin
The Artist	Producer: Thomas Langmann
The Descendants	Producers: Jim Burke, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor

BEST DIRECTOR

Michel Hazanavicius	The Artist
Mike Mills	Beginners
Jeff Nichols	Take Shelter
Alexander Payne	The Descendants
Nicolas Winding Refn	Drive

BEST SCREENPLAY

Joseph Cedar	Footnote
Michel Hazanavicius	The Artist
Tom McCarthy	Win Win
Mike Mills	Beginners
Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash	The Descendants

BEST FIRST FEATURE (Award given to the director and producer)

Another Earth	Director: Mike Cahill Producers: Mike Cahill, Hunter Gray, Brit Marling, Nicholas Shumaker
In the Family	Director: Patrick Wang Producers: Robert Tonino, Andrew van den Houten, Patrick Wang
Margin Call	Director: J.C. Chandor Producers: Robert Ogden Barnum, Michael Benaroya, Neal Dodson, Joe Jenckes, Corey Moosa, Zachary Quinto
Martha Marcy May Marlene	Director: Sean Durkin Producers: Antonio Campos, Patrick Cunningham, Chris Maybach, Josh Mond
Natural Selection	Director: Robbie Pickering Producers: Brion Hambel, Paul Jensen

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY

Mike Cahill, Brit Marling	Another Earth
J.C. Chandor	Margin Call
Patrick deWitt	Terri
Phil Johnston	Cedar Rapids
Will Reiser	50/50

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD - Given to the best feature made for under $500,000.  Award given to the writer, director, and producer.  Executive Producers are not listed

Bellflower	Writer/Director: Evan Glodell Producers: Evan Glodell, Vincent Grashaw
Circumstance	Writer/Director: Maryam Keshavarz Producers: Karin Chien, Maryam Keshavarz, Melissa M. Lee
Hello Lonesome	Writer/Director/Producer: Adam Reid
Pariah	Writer/Director: Dee Rees Producer: Nekisa Cooper
The Dynamiter	Writer: Brad Inglesby Director: Matthew Gordon Producers: Kevin Abrams, Matthew Gordon, Merilee Holt, Art Jones, Mike Jones, Nate Tuck, Amile Wilson

BEST FEMALE LEAD

Lauren Ambrose	Think of Me
Rachael Harris	Natural Selection
Adepero Oduye	Pariah
Elizabeth Olsen	Martha Marcy May Marlene
Michelle Williams	My Week with Marilyn

BEST MALE LEAD

Demián Bichir	A Better Life
Jean Dujardin	The Artist
Ryan Gosling	Drive
Woody Harrelson	Rampart
Michael Shannon	Take Shelter

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE

Jessica Chastain	Take Shelter
Anjelica Huston	50/50
Janet McTeer	Albert Nobbs
Harmony Santana	Gun Hill Road
Shailene Woodley	The Descendants

BEST SUPPORTING MALE

Albert Brooks	Drive
John Hawkes	Martha Marcy May Marlene
Christopher Plummer	Beginners
John C. Reilly	Cedar Rapids
Corey Stoll	Midnight in Paris

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Joel Hodge	Bellflower
Benjamin Kasulke	The Off Hours
Darius Khondji	Midnight in Paris
Guillaume Schiffman	The Artist
Jeffrey Waldron	The Dynamiter

BEST DOCUMENTARY (Award given to the director and producer)

An African Election	Director/Producer: Jarreth Merz
Bill Cunningham New York	Director: Richard Press Producer: Philip Gefter
The Interrupters	Director/Producer: Steve James Producer: Alex Kotlowitz
The Redemption of General Butt Naked	Director/Producers: Eric Strauss, Daniele Anastasion
We Were Here	Director/Producer: David Weissman

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM (Award given to the director)

A Separation (Iran)	Director: Asghar Farhadi
Melancholia (Denmark/Sweden/France/Germany)	Director: Lars von Trier
Shame (UK)	Director: Steve McQueen
The Kid With a Bike (Belgium/France/Italy)	Directors: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
Tyrannosaur (UK)	Director: Paddy Considine

PIAGET PRODUCERS AWARD – The 15^th annual Piaget Producers Award honors emerging producers who, despite highly limited resources demonstrate the creativity, tenacity, and vision required to produce quality, independent films.  The award includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant funded by Piaget.

Chad Burris	Mosquita y Mari
Sophia Lin	Take Shelter
Josh Mond	Martha Marcy May Marlene

SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD – The 18^th annual Someone to Watch Award recognizes a talented filmmaker of singular vision who has not yet received appropriate recognition.  The award includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant.

Simon Arthur	Silver Tongues
Mark Jackson	Without
Nicholas Ozeki	Mamitas

TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD – The 17^th annual Truer Than Fiction Award is presented to an emerging director of non-fiction features who has not yet received significant recognition.  The award includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant.

Heather Courtney	Where Soldiers Come From
Danfung Dennis	Hell and Back Again
Alma Har'el	Bombay Beach

ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD - (Given to one film's director, casting director, and its ensemble cast)

Margin Call	Director: J.C. Chandor
	Casting Director: Tiffany Little Canfield, Bernard Telsey
	Ensemble Cast: Penn Badgley, Simon Baker, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Mary McDonnell, Demi Moore, Zachary Quinto, Kevin Spacey, Stanley Tucci

 

ABOUT THE FILM INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARDS

Now in its 27^th year, the Film Independent Spirit Awards is an annual celebration honoring artist-driven films made with an economy of means by filmmakers who embody independence and originality. The Spirit Awards recognizes the achievements of American independent filmmakers and promotes the finest independent films of the year to a wider audience. 

 

Source /PRNewswire

USC Annenberg study: Hollywood hooked on sexualizing women and teen girls

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 21, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A new study by USC Annenberg researchers Stacy Smith, Marc Choueiti and Stephanie Gall surveys the top 100 grossing movies of 2009 and shows Hollywood's addiction to films that marginalize and sexualize women is as strong as ever.

Perhaps most troubling were the findings about young teen characters. Professor Smith and her research team of undergraduate students found the same prevalence of sexually revealing clothing and partial nudity in female characters in all age groups from 13 to 39. In fact, 13- to 20-year-olds were just as likely as 21- to 29-year-olds to be depicted that way.

The survey found 33.8 percent of female teen characters were seen in sexy clothing, and 28.2 percent were shown with exposed skin in the cleavage, midriff or upper thigh regions. For male teen characters, the numbers were drastically lower – 5.3 percent shown in sexy clothing and 11.2 percent showing skin.

Sexualizing a significant portion of women this age may contribute to males viewing girls and women as "eye candy" at younger and younger ages, Smith said.

"Viewing sexualized images of females in film may contribute to self-objectification in some girls or women, which – in turn – may increase body shame, appearance anxiety and have other negative effects," she said.

Elsewhere, Smith's team found numbers that echo a discouraging trend revealed in her studies of movies from 2007 and 2008.

They examined 4,342 speaking characters in 2009 movies, including Transformers 2, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, The Twilight Saga New Moon, Up and The Hangover.

*Of the speaking characters, 32.8 percent were women and 67.2 percent were men. That equals 2.05 males for every female. The percentage was identical to movies of 2008.

*Less than 17 percent of films were gender-balanced, meaning they featured girls or women in 45 to 54.9 percent of speaking roles. Those findings were similar to the previous two years; only 15 percent were gender-balanced in 2008 and 12 percent in 2007.

"The infrequency of females in film is symptomatic of a greater industry issue," Choueiti said. "Our data show that females are simply not equal in film, in front of or behind the camera.Yet, females control a vast majority of the purchasing decisions in the home and buy roughly half of the tickets at the box office. Hollywood is failing to court one of its most financially lucrative audiences." 

And unfortunately, the unchanged numbers – a lack of gender-balanced movies and women behind the camera – year after year reveal a "norm" in Hollywood that is damaging to women. It's almost as if the stats reveal a industry formula regarding gender, Smith said.

"It's completely consistent: there are about 4,300 characters across 100 films per year, and under a third are female. There's a remarkable stability. It becomes normative without some content creators even thinking about it. It's a status quo."

The report is part of a survey conducted yearly by Stacy Smith and Marc Choueiti on the top 100 domestic films.

CONTACT: Gretchen Parker, +1-213-740-6302, gretchen.parker@usc.edu 

 SOURCE University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism