Those that follow mainstream film awards shows know that the horror and sci-fi genres are almst always overlooked. Because of this, I was pleasantly surprised when, earlier this week, the nominees for this year's upcoming Spirit Awards were announced and there were a few genre nods this time around.The first of these was for Oren Peli's indie sleeper, Paranormal Activity. That film garnered a nomination for the category of Best First Feature. It is up against A Single Man, Crazy Heart, Easier With Practice, and The Messenger. While I haven't seen any of those, I really don't expect that Paranormal will win, but it's still pretty cool that it was nominated.
The next, and last, of the genre-related nominations went to Larry Fessenden, who was nominated for ther Piaget Producers Award for his work on I Sell the Dead and The House of the Devil. The award honors "emerging producers who, despite highly limited resources, demonstrate the creativity, tenacity and vision required to produce quality, independent films." It also includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant funded by Piaget. Personally, I think this is awesome, as I've been a huge fan of Fessenden since he did Wendigo back in the day, and he consistently directs and/or produces solid films. He is up against Karin Chien and Dia Sokol.
Hopefully one (or both) will win, but as I said, I'm not going to hold my breath.
The 2010 Spirit Awards will be held on March 5 at L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles and will be broadcast live by IFC.
Source: THR
