News: Independent Spirit Awards So Much Better, Anyone?

Having just watched the brilliant Rachel Getting Married, and remembering there is only one nomination for that film in the Academy Awards, and remembering that The Wrestler wasn't up for the awards I've caught wind it should have, and remembering that Synecdoche, New York was nominated not once, not twice, but zero times at the Academy Awards, when it should sweep house, makes me want to give you a list of wildly better films getting the recognition they deserve in the ways they should:

Best Feature:

Ballast

Frozen River

Rachel Getting Married

Wendy and Lucy

The Wrestler

Best First Feature:

Afterschool

Medicine for Melancholy

Sangre De Mi Sangre

Sleep Dealer

Synecdoche, New York

Best Director:

Chop Shop's Ramin Bahrani

Rachel Getting Married's Jonathan Demme

Ballast's Lance Hammer

Frozen River's Courtney Hunt

The Visitor's Tom McCarthy

Best Male Lead:

Vicky Cristina Barcelona's Javier Bardem

The Visitor's Richard Jenkins

Milk's Sean Penn

The Hurt Locker's Jeremy Renner

The Wrestler's Mickey Rourke

Best Female Lead:

Towelhead's Summer Bishil

Rachel Getting Married's Anne Hathaway

Frozen River's Melissa Leo

Ballast's Tarra Riggs

Wendy and Lucy's Michelle Williams

Best Supporting Male:

Milk's James Franco

The Hurt Locker's Anthony Mackie

Frozen River's Charlie McDermott

Ballast's JimMyron Ross

The Visitor's Haaz Sleiman

Best Supporting Female:

Vicky Cristina Barcelona's Penelope Cruz

Rachel Getting Married's Rosemarie DeWitt

The Take's Rosie Perez

Frozen River's Misty Upham

Rachel Getting Married's Debra Winger

Best Screenplay:

Vicky Cristina Barcelona's Woody Allen

Sugar's Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck

Synecdoche, New York's Charlie Kaufman

Savage Grace's Howard A. Rodman

Sangre De Mi Sangre's Christopher Zalla

Best Cinematography:

The Wrestler

Ballast

Medicine for Melancholy

Milk

Chop Shop

Best Documentary:

The Betrayal

Encounters at the End of the World

Man on Wire

The Order of Myths

Up the Yangtze

Best Foreign Film:

The Class (France)

Gomorra (Italy)

Hunger (U.K./Ireland)

Secret of the Grain (France)

Silent Light (Mexico/France/Netherlands/Germany)

Eh?

- Eric T. Voigt, Eh.