..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..R.J. Matson
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Michael Wilmington

Spirited Away

Two decades back the Independent Feature Project/West proclaimed Platoon the best American indie of the year. I'd have to rummage through files to find out what the other films in competition were back in 1986 but certainly from the perspective of the rear view mirror, Oliver Stone's gritty, in your face picture set on the front lines of Vietnam doesn't seem like much of a poster child for the independent spirit.

The irony is that its off-Hollywood credentials are considerably better than contemporary films that are perceived as the antidote to the mainstream. It was privately financed on a bare bones budget of $6 million, had a then-relatively unknown cast and was released by Orion, a mini-major on a roll that would not last. However, from its first industry screening on, the film's majesty, breadth and emotional power forever elevated it from the alternative niche … except in the eyes of a small sector looking for respectability.

The choice of Platoon may have been somewhat inappropriate but subsequent winners were darn right bone-headed. The members of the IFP convinced themselves one year that William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh was the quintessence of American independent filmmaking. A few years later the film representing China at the Oscars - Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - was the Independent Spirit winner by dint of an American co-producer and co-writer. It didn't seem to matter that the cast, crew, location and language were indigenous to a nation a half a globe away.

This year's best picture selections are comprised of Baadasssss!, Kinsey, Maria Full of Grace, Primer and Sideways. I can't carp about the quality of the individual titles but have to admit that only Baadasssss! and Primer appear to me like apt representatives. Kinsey and Sideways were financed by Fox Searchlight and Maria Full of Grace by HBO, respectively subsidiaries of News Corp. and Time-Warner. The latter film though set in America focuses on a Columbian woman caught up in drug smuggling and was submitted and rejected by the Academy as that South American nation's foreign-language submission.

The guidelines the IFP give its selection committee have historically created more problems than they have resolved. The budget of a movie for instance should reflect "an economy of means." It's one of those euphemisms that translate into: what the market perception will bear. Judging from the list of nominees across the slate that would be roughly $20 million. So, pictures many might consider indies such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or I Heart Huckabees likely are disqualified on that basis.

Films also have to have an American in at least two of the creative positions of director, writer and producer. It does not matter if there are multiple credits in any or all of those positions. So by that application The Motorcycle Diaries qualifies by dint of at least one American producer and a foreign writer resident in the U.S. This year's selectors either have a collectively well-honed sense of irony or none whatsoever. The writer was not nominated and neither was the film but its Brazilian director, Argentinian actor and French cameraman did make the short list.

There's also an apples to oranges element that intrudes by the very nature of the categories. There are essentially three best picture categories and two each for direction and writing. A film can be nominated for best feature, best first feature or for the best feature made on a budget of less than $500,000. One can be nominated either as a first time writer or director or simply as best director. Now here's where it begins to get complicated. First features and low budgets can be nominated in the best feature category and then become ineligible in the other two categories. However, first-time writers and directors can only be nominated in that designated niche.

So, when the ballot arrives, it's a sort of free for all. Novices are pitted against old pros; micro budget wonders face off against well-funded extravaganzas and the film with the best profile invariably wins.

As far as the process goes, it's fraught with glitches. A panel selects the nominees and the winners are chosen by the entire membership. The voters are asked to refrain from voting in areas where they have not seen all the nominees but its done on an honor system and the results historically suggest a great deal of fudging.

It's fair to anticipate that should Sideways be an Oscar nominee, it will win at the Spirit Awards. Similarly, the actor that's been honored the most prior to the Spirits or that has the highest profile is advantaged. The best actress nominees this year are Kimberly Elise, Vera Farmiga, Judy Marte, Catalina Sandino Moreno and Kyra Sedgewick for respectively Woman Thou Art Loosed, Down to the Bone, On the Outs, Maria Full of Grace and Cavedweller and its likely most voters will have seen at best one of these films unless they attend screenings set up by the IFP.

Organizers of the event admit that they've been frustrated by the predictability of winners based on profile rather than merit. However, they take solace in the fact that deserving people are nominated.

But putting all that aside, there are much bigger problems involved with the honoring of independent movies.

At the very top of the list is the fact that the entire arena has been co-opted by the majors. Three of the best picture nominees were financed by companies owned by a major studio and a fourth was distributed by one. That's pretty much indicative of the entire roster with the exception of special and first-time categories.

At the same time these specialized divisions have evolved into the studio's prestige arms, producing the films that receive critical kudos while the mothership churns out sequels, franchises and tent pole movies. The Spirit Awards have become one more stop on the award's circuit that culminates at the Oscars and that's reflected in movie marketing, photo ops, attendance and the selection of presenters.

There's also a growing competitiveness between the west coast's Spirit's and the IFP/East's Gotham Awards that have moved from September to February to cash in on award season dollars that have enriched its California cousin's coffers.

I won't belabor the fact that the Spirits began as an intimate lunch for about a hundred people in a small restaurant and grew like topsy. Today it's a social stop for two thousand movers and shakers many of whom have little to no connection to alternative cinema. It is the IFP's cash cow and in the process of attracting fat cat sponsors and a television broadcast the organization has become more consumed with the event than the people being honored with nominations and trophies.

Several years back the IFP actually set in motion meetings to address the growing rift between the art and commerce of their awards. To get right to the point, commerce won decisively. For instance, as the awards occur the day prior to the Oscars, media coverage of the event tends to get buried or reduced to filler fare. This hadn't been a problem until the Academy Awards moved from Monday to Sunday and it was suggested the Spirits reposition to the prior weekend.

The problem in such a move, according to organizers, was the prospect they would lose celebrity guests and presenters. The domino effect would be that the broadcaster would pull out. It didn't matter that the broadcaster, the Bravo Channel, tended to cut lower profile awards that truly involved nascent talent. The band-aid solution was to attempt to promote nominees in the media prior to the event but that has proven to be a losing fight as the pages of newspapers and publications are over booked with sexier names and movies during the season.

The good news is that the award ceremony generates sufficient cash to underwrite IFP programming for the other 364 days of the year. It runs workshops, seminars, programs in the schools, provides equipment at discount costs, operates a film festival and myriad other activities you likely had no idea existed. You just thought it was another organization patting itself on the back and honoring the same people that everyone else was so eager to champion in December, January, February and March.

- by Leonard Klady