isaWhile I was away in Berlin the Independent Spirit Award nominations were announced. These are the kinds of films that you’ll often find me slobbering over here on the site, and this year’s nominees are a list of exactly some of the films that have me saying that 2004 is, pound for pound, one of the best years for movies in a long, long time. And before you ask, yes, better than the legendary year of 1999.

Here’s a list of the films nominated this year, with my choices for what SHOULD win in red.

  • BEST FEATURE: Baadasssss!;
    Kinsey;
    Maria Full of Grace;
    Primer; Sideways

  • BEST DIRECTOR:
    Shane Carruth, Primer;
    Joshua Marston, Maria Full
    of Grace    ;
    Alexander Payne, Sideways;
    Walter
    Salles, The Motorcycle Diaries;
    Mario Van Peebles,
    Baadasssss!

  • BEST SCREENPLAY:
    Baadasssss!, Mario Van Peebles and Dennis Haggerty;
    Before Sunset, Richard Linklater and Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke;
    The Door in the Floor, Tod Williams;
    Kinsey, Bill Condon;
    Sideways, Alexander Payne and
    Jim Taylor

  • BEST FIRST FEATURE:
    Brother to Brother, Garden State,
    Napoleon
    Dynamite    , Saints and Soldiers, The Woodsman

  • BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY: Brother to
    Brother    , Rodney Evans;
    Garden State, Zach Braff;
    Maria Full of Grace, Joshua Marston; Primer, Shane
    Carruth; Robbing Peter, Mario F. de la Vega

  • JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD (best feature made for $500,000):
    Down to the Bone;
    Mean Creek; On the Outs;
    Robbing Peter;
    Unknown Soldier (Note from Devin: Where’s Primer?)

  • BEST DEBUT PERFORMANCE (actors in their first significant
    role in a
    feature film): Anthony Mackie, Brother to
    Brother    ; Louie Olivos, Jr., Robbing Peter; Hannah Pilkes,
    The Woodsman; Rodrigo de la Serna, The Motorcycle
    Diaries    ; David Sullivan, Primer (I know, a tie is cheap, but Sullivan is REALLY a newbie, while de la Serna, who gives a GREAT performance, has acted before. I couldn’t split the difference)

  • BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE: Cate Blanchett, Coffee and
    Cigarettes    ;
    Loretta Devine, Woman Thou Art Loosed;
    Virginia Madsen, Sideways (note from Devin: She’s a Female LEAD);
    Robin Simmons, Robbing
    Peter    ;
    Yenny Paola Vega, Maria Full of Grace

  • BEST SUPPORTING MALE:
    Thomas Haden Church,
    Sideways;
    Jon Gries (news), Napoleon Dynamite;
    Aidan Quinn, Cavedweller;
    Roger Robinson, Brother to
    Brother    ;
    Peter Sarsgaard, Kinsey

  • BEST FEMALE LEAD:

    Kimberly Elise, Woman
    Thou Art Loosed    ;
    Vera Farmiga, Down to the Bone;
    Judy Marte, On the Outs;
    Catalina Sandino Moreno,
    Maria Full of Grace;
    Kyra Sedgwick, Cavedweller

  • BEST MALE LEAD:
    Kevin Bacon, The
    Woodsman    ;
    Jeff Bridges, The Door in the Floor;
    Jamie Foxx , Redemption;
    Paul Giamatti,
    Sideways;
    Liam Neeson, Kinsey

  • BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY:
    Dandelion, The Motorcycle
    Diaries    ,
    Redemption, Saints and Soldiers,
    We Don’t Live Here Anymore

  • BEST
    FOREIGN FILM:     Bad Education,
    Oasis,
    Red Lights, The Sea Inside, Yesterday

  • BEST DOCUMENTARY:
    Bright Leaves,
    Chisholm ’72: Unbought & Unbossed, Hiding and Seeking: Faith
    and Tolerance After the Holocaust
    Metallica: Some Kind of
    Monster     Tarnation

  • SPECIAL
    DISTINCTION:     Mean Creek cast:
    Rory Culkin, Ryan
    Kelley, Scott Mechlowicz, Trevor Morgan, Josh Peck, Carly Schroeder