Independent Spirit Award Nominess! (with commentary)

Best Feature Film:

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Producers: Kathleen Kennedy, Jon Kilik

I'm Not There

Producers: Christine Vachon, John Sloss, John Goldwyn, James D. Stern

Juno

Producers: Lianne Halfon, John Malkovich, MAaon Novick, Russell Smith

A Mighty Heart

Producers: Dede Gardner, Andrew Eaton, Brad Pitt

Paranoid Park

Producers: Neil Kopp, David Cress

Okay....so why isn't "Waitress" in here? I understand Once is out b/c it's a foreign film, but Waitress was surely better than that Oscar begging "A Mighty Heart"...bleh. Glad to see "Diving Bell" and Juno get mentioned, but I'm stunned that "The Savages" got snubbed.

Best First Feature

2 Days in Paris

Director: Julie Delpy

Producers: Julie Delpy, Christophe Mazodier, Thierry Potok

Great World of Sound

Director Craig Zobel

Producers: Melissa Palmer, David Gordon Green, Richard Wright, Craig Zobel

The Lookout

Director: Scott Frank

Producers: Roger Birnbaum, Gary Barber, Laurence Mark, Walter Parkes

Rocket Science

Director: Jeffrey Blitz

Producers: Effie T. Brown, Sean Welch

Vanaja

Director: Rajnesh Domalpalli

Producer Latha R. Domalapalli

Best Screenplay

Ronald Harwood- The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Tamara Jenkins - The Savages

Fred Parnes & Andrew Wagner - Starting Out in the Evening

Adrienne Shelly - Waitress

Mike White - Year of the Dog

Thank goodness Waitress and Savages got in here.

Best Female Lead

Angelina Jolie - A Mighty Heart

Sienna Miller - Interview

Ellen Page- Juno

Parker Posey -Broken English

Wei Tang - Lust Caution

Yay for Ellen Page and Parker Posey, but Jolie? Oscar begging at its worst. And where in the world are Nicole Kidman for "Margot" and Laura Linney for "Savages"?

Best Supporting Female

Cate Blanchett - I'm Not There

Anna Kendrick - Rocket Science

Jennifer Jason Leigh - Margot at the Wedding

Tamara Podemski - Four Sheets to the Wind

Marisa Tomei - Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

Blanchett's taking this one. The only one standing in her way is Jennifer Jason-Leigh.

Best Cinematography

Mott Hupful - The Savages

Janusz Kaminski - The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Milton Kam - Vanaja

Mihai Malaimare, Jr. - Youth Without Youth

Rodrigo Prieto - Lust, Caution

Best Foreign Film

4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 3 Days (Romania)

Director: Cristian Mungiu

The Band's Visit (Israel)

Director: Eran Koirin

Lady Chatterley (France)

Director: Pascale Ferran

Once (Ireland)

Director: John Carney

Persepolis (France)

Director: Vincent Paronnaud & Marjane Satrapi

Hopfeully it'll go to Once, and if not that Persepolis.

IFC/Acura Someone to Watch Award

Ramin Bahrani

Director of Chop Shop

Lee Isaac Chung

Director of Munyurangabo

Ronnie Bronstein

Director of Frownland

Axium Producers Award

Anne Clements

Producer of Ping Pong Playa and Quinceanera

Alexis Ferris

Producer of Cthulhu and Police Beat

Neil Kopp

Producer of Paranoid Park and Old Joy

Best Director

Todd Haynes

I'm Not There

Tamara Jenkins

The Savages

Jason Reitman

Juno

Julian Schnabel

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Gus Van Sant

Paranoid Park

It'll be Todd Haynes or Julian Schnabel with Gus Van Sant as the dark horse.

John Cassavetes Award

August Evening

Writer/Director: Chris Eska

Producers: Connie Hill, Jason Wehling

Owl and the Sparrow

Writer/Director: Stephane Gauger

Producers: Nguyen Van Quen, Doan Nhat Nam, Stephane Gauger

The Pool

Director: Chris Smith

Producer: Kate Noble

Writers: Chris Smith & Randy Russell

Quiet City

Director: Aaron Katz

Producers: Brendan McFadden, Ben Stambler

Writers: Aaron Katz, Erin Fisher, Cris Lankenau

Shotgun Stories

Writer/Director: Jeff Nichols

Producers: David Gordon Green, Lisa Muskat, Jeff Nichols

Best First Screenplay

Jeffrey Blitz

Rocket Science

Zoe Cassavetes

Broken English

Diablo Cody

Juno

Kelly Masterson

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

John Orloff

A Mighty Heart

Yech, another nomination for A Mighty Heart? Please, PLEASE let this go to Juno.

Best Male Lead

Pedro Castaneda

August Evening

Don Cheadle

Talk to Me

Philip Seymour Hoffman

The Savages

Tony Leung

Lust, Caution

Frank Langella

Starting Out in the Evening

Yay for Hoffman.

Best Supporting Male

Chiwetel Ejiofor

Talk to Me

Marcus Carl Franklin

I'm Not there

Kene Holliday

Great World of Sound

Irfan Khan

The Namesake

Steve Zahn

Rescue Dawn

A tough one. Kene Holliday definitely isn't winning but all the others have pretty decent chances.

Best Documentary

Crazy Love

Director: Dan Klores

Lake of Fire

Director: Tony Kaye

Manufactured Landscapes

Director: Jennifer Baichwal

The Monastery

Director: Pernille Rose Gronkjaer

The Prisoner Or: How I Planner To Kill Tony Blair

Directors: Petra Epperlein & Michael Tucker

Robert Altman Award

I'm Not There

Director: Todd Haynes

Casting Director Laura Rosenthal

Ensemble Cast: Cate Blanchett, Christian Bale, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, Ben Whishaw, Marcus Carl Franklin, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Bruce Greenwood

Axium Truer than Fiction Award

Laura Dunn

Director of The Unforeseen

Gary Hustwit

Director of Helvetica

John Maringouin

Director of Running Stumbled

One last comment: WHERE IN THE WORLD ARE THE NOMINATIONS FOR "LARS AND THE REAL GIRL"!?