Sunday, February 22, 2009

The Spirit Awards & Final Pre-Thoughts of Oscars

The Spirit Awards
I'm not going to include a picture with this post because I'm lazy today and I just want to make a post. I just got done watching the re-run of the Independent Spirit Awards, which to me are my second favorite awards program because the Spirit Awards are like the Oscars for independent films. Generally independent films are mostly better films than most Oscar created films (Benjamin Button, Revolutionary Road, etc...) because of their heart & non-studio funded money making grumblers. This award show is definitely most gratifying to me because these films take by far much more dedication and blood, sweet, and tears trying to complete something that comes from something much more than your heart; that's probably why it's called The Spirit Awards because it has to come from your soul as well. I was pleased with the winners of each category as well excited for some films that I have not yet seen but I know of from researching for Exclusive Films at Village 8. One film in particular that I want to see from this has be 'Medicine for Melancholy,' which I am trying to bring to Village 8. Even though the Oscars represent the granddaddy of awards for best filmmaking achievements I think the Independent Spirit Awards represents your actual emotions of true achievement in filmmaking because it's something that just makes you feel at home in your career.



Pre-Oscar Thoughts
Well, we are about 5 and half hours away from finding out whether the Academy got it right or wrong in biggest award show of the year. The more I look at the nominees the more I see how predicting who wins this year feels a lot easier than it should. Maybe I've studied this procedure of how to win too much in the past years or maybe the front runners of each category are actually bound to win. But sometimes to me this gives too much away in surprising a winner. I love not knowing who is going to win especially if it's a category to which you can't decide because they were ALL great performances like the Best Lead Actress. This one category can actually be a toss up. Kate Winslet is the front runner and more than likely will win, but honestly I thought Anne Hathaway was a better performance. I want to see more of these categories where a front runner is not decided. I'm not saying that the films this year are weak which reveals the strong competitor because this is not what I mean. This year as probably produced out a lot more better films in a LONG TIME! There were so many great films in 2008 that it's terrible you can only choose 5 to represent Best Picture; this goes with saying for Best Actor, Supporting Actor, Actress, Scripts, Director's, etc... It's good to see how many films got snubs because I always thought The Dark Knight & Gran Torino should have been included in the Best Picture and probably The Wrestler as well. My final thought because I want to wrap this up and I can keep going on and on about the subject is, what a fantastic year for films!! Independently and Studio backed films. 2008 should go down in history as one of the better years in filmmaking and probably the best overall in this decade coming close with 2003 & 2004. Enjoy the Oscars tonight and come watch in the winners and nominees at Village 8. 


-LouEx

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