Oscars and Spirits (and Razzies and more).

By David Hudson on 02/22/2009

[Updated] As somewhat widely reported (choose your listings: Jason Guerrasio, Filmmaker; Ambrose Heron; Hot Splice; Peter Martin, Cinematical; Peter Knegt and Brian Brooks, indieWIRE; Movie City News), Darren Aronofsky's "The Wrestler" won Best Feature, Best Male Lead (Mickey Rourke) and Best Cinematography (Maryse Alberti) at last night's Spirit Awards.

Aronofsky himself, though, lost out to Tom McCarthy ("The Visitor") for Best Director; Woody Allen won Best Screenplay for "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," which also scored Best Supporting Female (Penélope Cruz); Melissa Leo won Best Female Lead for "Frozen River," which also picked up the Piaget Producers Award for Heather Rae; "Milk" scored two: Best First Screenplay (Dustin Lance Black) and Best Supporting Male (James Franco). Best Documentary: "Man on Wire." Best Foreign Film: "The Class." Best First Feature: "Synecdoche, New York," which also won the previously announced Robert Altman Award. John Cassavetes Award: "In Search of a Midnight Kiss." Acura Someone to Watch Award: Lynn Shelton ("My Effortless Brilliance"). Lacoste Truer Than Fiction Award: Margaret Brown ("The Order of Myths").

"Mike Myers and Paris Hilton were the big losers tonight at the Razzies," reports the New York Post's Lou Lumenick. "Germany's Uwe Boll was named worst director for three movies, as well as receiving a special lifetime achievement award from the Razzies. What happened to Will Smith and 'Seven Pounds'? It got shut out, which is a scandal!"

At the Alternative Film Guide, Deborah Arthur has the nominees and winners of the Visual Effects Society's awards and Massimo David has the nominees and winners of the French film critics' awards, the Étoiles d'Or.

Kimberly Lindbergs reemerges to comment on the whole dang awards season, all at once.

"2009 Spirit Awards: Truly Indie Anymore?" asks Nikki Finke.

The Spirits are usually "more fun than the Oscars," blogs the Boston Globe's Wesley Morris. "But this year, something's off. Everybody's painfully earnest."

Host Steve Coogan's "best schtick was showing up onstage as Christian Bale as a foul-mouthed Batman berating an actor dressed up as Joaquin Phoenix in fake wig, beard and shades who whined, 'I'm giving up acting,'" reports Anne Thompson. "'You've given up shaving,' Batman replied, 'There's a difference.'"

At any rate, tonight it's the Oscars, less fun or not, and that, at long last, will be that. Except for the Monday morning commentary, of course.

"[T]he Hollywood table-talk this year has been much less about Oscar prospects and more about the process," reports Michael Cieply. "And an overriding theme is this: The movie prize cycle had better become shorter, brighter and more popular in its bent - or some major players are pulling back."

Also in the New York Times, designers Emily Oberman and Bonnie Siegler dream up a new category and present their nominees for Best Achievement in Film Title Design.

"As it's done now for over 31 years, the Academy hosted a pre-Oscar symposium this Saturday morning at its Samuel Goldwyn theater in Beverly Hills where the directors of the five films nominated for Best Foreign Film got to navigate not only the perils of the Hollywood publicity machine, but also their own varying commands of the English language." John Logan reports for VF Daily.

In the Los Angeles Times, Reed Johnson talks with Scott Hamilton Kennedy about his nominated doc, "The Garden" (related online viewing: David Poland), John Horn revisits the story behind "Slumdog Millionaire" and Kenneth Turan: "Movie people care about the Oscars in part because they understand that when you vote for a best picture candidate, you are voting for more than an individual film. Whether you acknowledge it or not, you are voting for the philosophy of filmmaking, the attitude toward cinema, your particular choice represents."

Last-minute predictions: Dennis Cozzalio, Ambrose Heron, Robert Horton (Herald), Slant and Jason Solomons (Observer).

Live-blogging the Spirits last night: Daniel Fienberg (Hitfix), Peter Knegt (indieWIRE), Nathanel R and Alison Willmore (IFC).

Live-blogging the Oscars tonight: Austin Movie Blog, the AV Club, David Cairns, Cinematical, Daily Plastic, Nikki Finke, GreenCine, the SpoutBlog, Vanity Fair and Jeffrey Wells.

Online scrolling tip. "Academy Noir at If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger....

Online listening tip. Jerry Lentz on the Spirits.

Online viewing tip #1. The Playlist has Rourke's speech, "F'bombs and everything... easily the highlight of the night. Heartfelt, funny, trainwreck-y, everything you love about Mickey Rourke." David Carr comments: "The Bagger began the awards season sitting next to Mr Rourke at the Gothams and thought he had a shot at all the marbles, but was pretty sure he would find a way to screw it up by shooting off his mouth or being ungracious in some way. Never happened, including yesterday."

Online viewing tip #2. "For this weekend only, Dailymotion and Cinetic Media are making available, for free, Margaret Brown's Spirit Award-winning (and four time Cinema Eye nominee) film, 'The Order of Myths.'" AJ Schnack's got it.

Updates: Time's Richard Corliss has a few suggestions for the Academy: Get audiences watching again by having "a designated celebrity read out the five names in each major category in ascending order of the votes they received - the last-named being the winner.... I'd also like the Academy to reveal the votes that went into the nominations. The top five are announced; let's hear the top 10. That would have told us exactly where 'The Dark Knight' finished."

Also: Jerry Lewis is "getting an Oscar, and, wouldn't you know, it's the wrong one. The Motion Picture Academy is giving him the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award... But it's a minor token, almost an insult, to one of the wildest, most imaginative comic talents in any medium and, without question, the definitive showbiz ego of the mid-20th century."

The Film Experience readers have spoken.

Katie Green in Jewish Week on "Waltz with Bashir": "We will be debating over the next decade whether Ari Folman has, with his film, done his country a great service or caused it irreparable damage. My vote is for the latter." Wow.

StinkyLulu is hosting "Supporting Actress Smackdown - 2008."

AJ Schnack posts photos from the Spirit Awards.

The Muriel Awards countdown is on. (The wha? Here's clarification.)

Anne Thompson posts some of the photos she snapped at the Spirit Awards.

[Photo: "The Wrestler," Fox Searchlight, 2008]

Tags: Mickey Rourke, Oscars, Spirit Awards 2009, The Wrestler