30th Independent Spirit Award Winner Predictions

Here are my surefire winner predictions for the 30th Independent Spirit Awards. It’s weird to think that there is a real possibility that all four acting winners here today could repeat at the Oscars tomorrow. Go independent film?

2014 FILM INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARD WINNER PREDICTIONS

BEST FEATURE
(Award given to the Producer. Executive Producers are not awarded.)

Boyhood
Producers: Richard Linklater, Jonathan Sehring, John Sloss, Cathleen Sutherland

BEST DIRECTOR

Richard Linklater
Boyhood

BEST SCREENPLAY

Dan Gilroy
Nightcrawler

BEST FIRST FEATURE (Award given to the director and producer)

Nightcrawler
Director: Dan Gilroy
Producers: Jennifer Fox, Tony Gilroy, Jake Gyllenhaal, David Lancaster, Michel Litvak

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY

Justin Simien
Dear White People

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD  (Given to the best feature made for under $500,000.  Award given to the writer, director and producer.  Executive Producers are not awarded)

Blue Ruin
Writer/Director: Jeremy Saulnier
Producers:  Richard Peete, Vincent Savino, Anish Savjani

BEST FEMALE LEAD

Julianne Moore
Still Alice                

BEST MALE LEAD

Michael Keaton
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE

Patricia Arquette
Boyhood

BEST SUPPORTING MALE

J.K. Simmons
Whiplash

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Emmanuel Lubezki
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

BEST EDITING                  

Sandra Adair
Boyhood

BEST DOCUMENTARY (Award given to the director and producer)

CITIZENFOUR
Director/Producer: Laura Poitras
Producers: Mathilde Bonnefoy, Dirk Wilutzky

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM (Award given to the director)

Force Majeure
(Sweden)
Director: Ruben Östlund

21^st ANNUAL KIEHL’S SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD – The 21^st annual Someone to Watch Award, sponsored by Kiehl’s Since 1851, recognizes a talented filmmaker of singular vision who has not yet received appropriate recognition.  The award includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant funded by Kiehl’s Since 1851.

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
Director: Ana Lily Amirpour

20^th ANNUAL LENSCRAFTERS TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD – The 20^th annual Truer Than Fiction Award, sponsored by LensCrafters is presented to an emerging director of non-fiction features who has not yet received significant recognition.  The award includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant funded by LensCrafters.

The Kill Team
Director: Dan Krauss

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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