Indie Spirit Nominations Go For 'Beasts of No Nation,' 'Carol' and 'Spotlight'

The Independent Spirit Award nominations are here, and to be honest, my favorite thing in these nominees are the three nods for It Follows in cinematography, editing and director. That's pretty awesome. Them embracing Netflix's Beasts of No Nation is nice to see as well- it remains to be seen whether the industry will do the same thing with the Netflix production. Another note is that this is the second organization to reject Rooney Mara's placement in supporting for Carol- she was nominated in Lead with Cate Blanchett, but if the Oscars also reject her placement it probably means she won't get nominated at all, since they haven't nominated two actresses in the lead category since Thelma and Louise.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Beasts of No Nation
Carol
It Follows
Meadowland
Songs My Brothers Taught Me

BEST DIRECTOR
Charlie Kaufman & Duke Johnson, Anomalisa
Cary Joji Fukunaga, Beasts of No Nation
Todd Haynes, Carol
David Robert Mitchell, It Follows
Tom McCarthy, Spotlight
Sean Baker, Tangerine

BEST DOCUMENTARY
Best of Enemies
Heart of a Dog
The Look of Silence
Meru
The Russian Woodpecker
(T)error

BEST EDITING
Beasts of No Nation
Heaven Knows What
It Follows
Room
Spotlight

BEST FEATURE
Anomalisa
Beasts of No Nation
Carol
Spotlight
Tangerine

BEST FEMALE LEAD
Cate Blanchett, Carol
Rooney Mara, Carol
Bel Powley, The Diary of a Teenage Girl
Brie Larson, Room
Kitana Kiki Rodriguez, Tangerine

BEST FIRST FEATURE
The Diary of a Teenage Girl
James White
Manos Sucas
Mediterranea
Songs My Brothers Taught Me

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
The Diary of a Teenage Girl
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Mediterranea
The Mend
Room

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM
Embrace of the Serpent
Girlhood
Mustang
A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence
Son of Saul

BEST MALE LEAD
Abraham Attah, Beasts of No Nation
Jason Segel, The End of the Tour
Christopher Abbot, James White
Koudous Seihon, Mediterranea
Ben Mendelsohn, Mississippi Grind

BEST SCREENPLAY
Anomalisa
Bone Tomahawk
Carol
The End of the Tour
Spotlight

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE
Jennifer Jason Leigh, Anomalisa
Marin Ireland, Glass Chin
Robin Bartlett, H.
Cynthia Nixon, James White
Mya Taylor, Tangerine

BEST SUPPORTING MALE
Idris Elba, Beasts of No Nation
Richard Jenkins, Bone Tomahawk
Paul Dano, Love & Mercy
Kevin Corrigan, Results
Michael Shannon, 99 Homes

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD
Advantageous
Christmas, Again
Heaven Knows What
Krisha
Out of My Hand

ROBERT ALTMAN ENSEMBLE AWARD
Spotlight

They got a little creative with their nominations here, choosing things like Anomalisa, Beasts of No Nation and It Follows, so the Indie Spirits are continuing its turnaround that started last year in trying to go back to their roots in honoring true American independent productions. As always, the ceremony is held the night before the Oscars, February 27th.

'It Follows' lands three Indie Spirit nods

'Amy' and 'The Hunting Ground' Among This Year's PGA Documentary Nominees

The producers guild has announced its five nominees for Documentary Feature of the year, and in doing so becomes the first guild to announce choices for the year. Their narrative features are the ones with significant Oscar influence, but the documentaries usually end up with at least a few corresponding nominees in the Best Documentary category as well.

The Hunting Ground
Amy
The Look of Silence
Meru
Something Better to Come

The Amy Winehouse doc Amy was the most successful of the year, but it's still on the bubble for an Oscar nomination, since the documentary branch prides itself on being snobby and somewhat resentful of mainstream success in its category, strangely enough. The Hunting Ground, the doc about the rape crisis on college campuses, just aired on CNN last night in defiance of threats of lawsuits from accused attackers in the film, including an NFL player for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I think that one is pretty much secured a nomination come Oscar time. The PGA awards will be held on Jan 5th, where the documentary award will be given out alongside the rest of the narrative features.

Steve Carell Gives Advice in New Trailer for 'The Big Short'

This looks like a parody trailer right down to the voiceover, doesn't it? But apparently it's real, which means Paramount has no idea how to market this movie. It premiered at AFI fest to a somewhat divided reaction, but some people really loved it- Adam McKay directs a dense, wonky look at the Wall Street fiasco from 2008, and supposedly it was just too complex for a lot of viewers to grasp. It's coming out on Dec 23rd.

Gal Gadot Debuts Wonder Woman

A new picture of Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman was released the other day and she looks a little more like a Jedi than a superhero, don't you think? I wish the movie was going to be good, I really do, but I have no hope for most of the WB heroes movies. They've taken Zack Snyder's approach with all of it and it's absolutely the wrong way go about DC's mostly lighthearted, fun, and comic book-y superheroes, aside from Batman. They can't all be dark.

BOX OFFICE 11/20-11/22: Final 'Hunger Games' Opens on Top

In one of those weird box office stories where a massive opening is perceived as a slight disappointment, Mockingjay-Part 2 topped the charts this weekend as expected, but with "only" 101 million, about 20 million or so off predictions and over a 50 percent drop from the last movie's opening weekend. What does this mean? Well, how about the studios stop splitting the final book in a successful series into two unnecessary movies that makes both of them worse than if it had been one film? That's what I would take from this, but the truth is, how can anything that makes 100 million on a debut weekend be labeled disappointing? Yes, it'll make less than the other films in the series, but in fairness, this was also by far the worst book. I'm just happy these things are over.

The other releases didn't make 15 million, with Seth Rogen's The Night Before coming in with 10 million, and Julia Roberts' thriller The Secret in Their Eyes, opening with just 6.6 million, the lowest of her career. Spectre and The Peanuts Movie filled out the holdovers, with Spectre's total rising to 153 million, and Peanuts closing in on 100, with 98.9 million in the bank.

Top 5:

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay- Part 2- 101 million
Spectre- 14.6 million
The Peanuts Movie- 12.8 million
The Night Before- 10.1 million
The Secret in Their Eyes- 6.6 million

In the specialty box office, Carol opened strong in 4 theaters with 248k and a 62k per screen average, good for the third highest PTA of the year, behind Steve Jobs and Sicario. Of course, the story with these is all about expansion, but you can probably count on The Weinstein Co. to make sure this Oscar contender is not perceived as a failure, so look for a slow rollout. Spotlight meanwhile, expanded to about 600 locations and earned over 3 million, marking its entry into the top ten as it looks to bring in the adult audience over the next two months. Thanksgiving week sees the debuts of Pixar's The Good Dinosaur and Creed, along with Victor Frankenstein and The Danish Girl in limited release. I'm personally rooting for Creed next week, but we'll see how it goes. See you after Turkey Day everybody.

Kevin Hart and The Rock Team Up for 'Central Intelligence'

I have yet to see Kevin Hart in a single movie that he actually stars in, and since this one is from the guy who made We're the Millers, I don't think it'll be my first. However, with these two guys in it, I'm sure it'll be a big hit, no matter how awful it turns out. Yeah, that fat Rock joke? Shudder. And yes, I'm still calling him the Rock and always will.

Melissa McCarthy is Michelle Darnell in 'The Boss'

If Melissa McCarthy tickles your funny bone, this looks good for a couple of chuckles, but there are warning signs because it's not directed by Paul Feig, and is in fact another one written and directed by McCarthy's husband Ben Falcone. In case you don't remember, he's the guy she collaborated with on Tammy, one of the worst movies of last year. It's also notable that Melissa's dropped about 50 pounds now and looks decidedly different in this trailer than she ever has onscreen. Good for her, health-wise.

Gerard Butler Stars in 'Gods of Egypt'

I don't think this is another movie based on a videogame, but it sure looks like it. Does anything on the screen in this trailer look real to you? Even the actors only look barely there. I wonder if this is already a catalyst for worst movie of 2016, a month and a half before the new year even starts.

Dakota Johnson and Rebel Wilson in 'How to Be Single' Trailer

I guess it really pays off to be the priveleged child of celebrity parents, doesn't it? There's no other explanation for the fact that Dakota Johnson, aka the daughter of Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson, gets to actually star in movies now. Does anyone else find that as annoying as I do?

Michael Shannon Stars in Trailer for 'Midnight Special'

Independent filmmaker Jeff Nichols, director of Take Shelter and Mud, is re-teaming with his Take Shelter star for a new movie, this one about what looks to be an alien kid. His past work has been interesting in every case, even if I wasn't totally crazy about Mud, so I'm definitely on the lookout for this.

Chris Hemsworth Returns in 'The Huntsman: Winter's War'

I seem to remember Snow White and the Huntsman being something of a Kristen Stewart vehicle when it came out, so I guess this is more of a spinoff than a sequel. But now we have Chris Hemsworth's huntsman fighting off Charlize Theron, Emily Blunt and Jessica Chastain- could it really be any good? I doubt it, but who knows.

Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson are Back in New Trailer for 'Zoolander 2'

Zoolander 2 is the latest 15 years later sequel to get a trailer in the last few days, and you know what- this one actually made me chuckle a couple times. Any movie that actually kills Justin Bieber in it can't be all bad, at least in principle. I hope it's just as silly as the first one, which also made me laugh in spite of myself.