Behind the Scenes at the Spirit Awards

by Lauren Barbato | Published February 23, 2009

Mickey Rourke and his BFF, Eric Roberts.

If there were a multiple choice exam for the various award shows honoring movies, the question for Film Independent’s Spirit Awards would look something like this:

At the Indie Spirit Awards, you are most likely to find:
a) Sandra Oh riding in a golf cart, hot pink mini-dress and all
b) A kangaroo on a leash leaving many journalists wondering if they had a little too much to drink in the Heineken Lounge
c) Teri Hatcher asking, during rehearsal, if she should go for the “ass shot” at the end of her song-and-dance number, evoking the stand-ins to promptly raise their hands in response
d) A totally uncensored six-minute speech from Mickey Rourke, where he reminds the film industry about Eric Roberts, thanks the Santa Monica Police Department and spews sleaze galore when referring to any and every woman in his life.

The answer?

e) All of the above

The champagne and expletives flowed freely at Film Independent’s 24th Annual Spirit Awards on Saturday, February 21st. Held in a massive white tent in a parking lot adjacent to the Santa Monica beach, the Spirit Awards honor movies that were made for under a $20 million budget.

From the alternative blue carpet to the pulsating beats from the Elle Lounge, the Spirit Awards at once seemed quirky and zany, bold and spontaneous to the joggers, cyclists and weekend beach-goers crowded at the site’s exterior barricades.

Yet each of the winners, nominees, guests and volunteers present that day had their own personal connotation of the term “independent spirit.”

“It’s the chance to tell your own story,” said a winded yet pleased Tom McCarthy minutes after he won Best Director for The Visitor. “To really be left alone and get the people you want to get together and… to not have to worry about a lot of other things.”

For James Franco, winner of Best Supporting Male for his turn as Harvey Milk’s lover in Milk, it’s both the movies he admired since he was a child and the type of movies he would like to produce and direct in the future.

“When I think of the kind of movies I want to make, they’re the movies that Gus Van Sant makes,” said Franco. “ And when I go to the cinema, these are the types of movies that I go to see. This is my awards show.”

French writer-director Laurence Cantet, who captured the Best Foreign Language Award for The Class, described in broken English the moviemaking freedom of French cinema.

“We have a lot of producers that allow us to make the films we want to make and [in the] ways we want to make them,” said Claudet. “When we started to work on this film, we really didn’t know if it will be a film in the end. We just gathered 25 children in the classroom and improvised… Two years later, we are here. The only way to make this kind of film is the independence.”

And Charlie Kaufman, Best First Feature and Robert Altman award double-winner for Synecdoche, New York, claimed he didn’t know if he could define “independent spirit” at all, though he did give it a shot.

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COMMENTS | POST A COMMENT

Comment by Grace on 4/08/09 at 3:50 pm: Hi My name is Grace and I was wondering where i can get a job acting
Comment by Suzanne Somers on 5/11/09 at 3:35 pm: 2008 was a pretty good year for movies, esp indies, loved “The Visitor” and “Frozen River” my too favorites for the years :)
Comment by denver criminal lawyers on 5/31/09 at 8:13 pm: Thanks to Spirit Awards that lower budget movies and the artists working in them also get recognized and appreciated for their talent.
Comment by SEO Experts on 6/12/09 at 3:34 pm: A totally uncensored six-minute speech from Mickey Rourke, where he reminds the film industry about Eric Roberts, thanks the Santa Monica Police Department and spews sleaze galore when referring to any and every woman in his life.
Comment by California Animation College on 6/22/09 at 5:52 pm: the alternative blue carpet to the pulsating beats from the Elle Lounge, the Spirit Awards at once seemed quirky and zany, bold and spontaneous to the joggers, cyclists and weekend beach-goers crowded at the site’s exterior barricades.
Comment by School of Acting on 6/30/09 at 6:35 am: Thanks for sharing with us
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Comment by hayden on 7/23/09 at 4:31 am: The Spirit Award nominees for Tales..this are pretty big honor....for the Movie Awards...Nice blog..
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