Spirit Awards nominees named
The urban drama “Precious” and the Leo Tolstoy period piece “The Last Station” have each earned a leading five nominations for the Spirit Awards, honoring independent film.
They will compete for best feature film with the romance “(500) Days of Summer” and the immigrant dramas “Amreeka” and “Sin Nombre.”
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” also earned a best-actress nomination for newcomer Gabourey Sidibe, who plays an illiterate Harlem teen rising above a life of incest and abuse, and a supporting-actress slot for Mo’Nique, who plays her mother.
Helen Mirren had a best-actress nomination for her role as Tolstoy’s wife in “The Last Station,” while Christopher Plummer earned a supporting-actor honor as the aging Russian author.
The Spirit Awards will be presented March 5 in a ceremony airing on the Independent Film Channel.
Animation nominations
The travel adventure “Up,” the musical fairy tale “The Princess and the Frog” and the storybook adaptations “Fantastic Mr. Fox” and “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” are competing for top honors at the Annie Awards.
Also in the running for best animated feature are the dark family tale “Coraline,” which received a leading 10 nominations, and the Irish adventure “The Secret of Kells.”
“The Princess and the Frog” has eight nominations, including three of the five slots for individual character animation, and two of the five slots for voice acting for co-stars Jennifer Cody and Jenifer Lewis.
Winners of the awards from the International Animated Film Society will be announced at a ceremony Feb. 6.
‘Moon’ shots
The director of “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” is coming to the defense of a Chicago woman facing prison time for videotaping part of the film.
Director Chris Weitz told the Chicago Sun-Times that he was dismayed to hear about Samantha Tumpach’s Nov. 28 arrest at a Rosemont, Ill., movie theater. She faces a felony charge of illegally copying the film and could get three years in prison if convicted.
Tumpach was found with about three minutes of “New Moon” on her digital camera. She says she was taping her sister’s birthday party at the theater and wasn’t trying to record the movie.
In an e-mail to the Sun-Times, Weitz says there’s a difference between trying to protect the film’s copyright and prosecuting someone who “clearly seems not to have any intentions towards video piracy.”