International
Film Independent announces nominees for next year’s Spirit Awards
MUMBAI: Wes Anderson‘s Moonrise Kingdom and David O. Russell‘s Silver Linings Playbook dominate the field with five nominations each at the 2013 Spirit Awards.
They will compete for best feature award alongside Beasts of the Southern Wild, Bernie and Keep the Lights On.
Moonrise also scored nominations for director Anderson, its screenplay by Anderson and Roman Coppola, supporting actor Bruce Willis and Robert Yeoman‘s cinematography. The Focus Features release that debuted at the Cannes Film Festival was also named best feature at the 22nd Gotham Independent Film Awards.
In addition to Moonrise‘s Anderson, other directors who have been nominated include Playbook‘s David O. Russell, Beasts‘ Benh Zeitlin and Lights‘ Ira Sachs. The fifth directing slot went to The Loneliest Planet‘s helmer Julia Loktev.
Playbook‘s two lead actors – Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence – both earned nominations in the acting categories. The Sessions, the account of a man living with an iron lung who seeks out his first sexual experience, also picked up two acting nominations — one for lead actor John Hawkes and another for supporting actress Helen Hunt. The mother-daughter movie, Middle of Nowhere, was represented by three acting nominations, with Emayatzy Corinealdi in the best actress category, Lorraine Toussaint in supporting actress and David Oyelowo in supporting actor. Matthew McConaughey was not only nominated as lead actor for playing the title role in the crime movie Killer Joe but also as supporting male for emceeing a club full of male strippers in Magic Mike.
Rounding out the list of lead actors were Bernie‘s Jack Black; Lights‘ Thure Lindhardt and Four‘s Wendell Pierce. The lead actress contingent also included Return‘s Linda Cardellini, Smashed‘s Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Beasts‘ young Quvenzhane Wallis.
On the documentary front, the Spirit nominations singled out David France‘s How to Survive a Plague, which looks at the gay community‘s response to the AIDS crisis, Matthew Akers‘ Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present, a portrait of the Serbian performance artist, The Central Park Five, an account of injustice in New York City from Ken Burns, Sarah Burns and David McMahon, Kirby Dick‘s The Invisible War, which investigates rape within the military and Peter Nicks‘ The Waiting Room, which examines the health crisis by focusing on one public hospital.
In the best international film category, two of this year‘s most celebrated films from Cannes — Michael Haneke‘s Amour and Jacques Audiard‘s Rust and Bone — will compete with Nuri Bilge Ceylan‘s Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, from Turkey; Ursula Meier‘s Sister, from Switzerland; and Kim Nguyen‘s War Witch, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, which also happens to be Canada‘s submission for the foreign-language film Oscar.
Film Independent also announced that it will give its annual Robert Altman Award, which recognizes a film‘s director, casting director and ensemble cast, to Sean Baker‘s Starlet.
Among distributors, Fox Searchlight could boast of the most nominations. It collected nine nominations for Beasts, Sessions, Ruby Sparks and Sound of My Voice. Music Box Films also had surprisingly strong showing with seven noms spread among Lights, Abramovic and Starlet. IFC Films, Focus and Sony Pictures Classics each collected six nominations.
Winners of the Spirit Awards will be announced Feb. 23 at the annual awards luncheon held in a tent on the beach in Santa Monica. The ceremony will be broadcast that evening at 10 p.m. ET/PT on IFC.
International
Moskino and Bollywood: Moscow Film Cluster and Film City Mumbai signed a cooperation agreement
Moscow Film Cluster has signed a cooperation agreement with Film City Mumbai. The parties agreed to cooperate in developing the film industry, promoting shooting locations and supporting filmmakers.
The memorandum was signed on the sidelines of the India International Film Tourism (IIFTC) Conclave in Mumbai. At this forum, the Moscow Film Cluster presented Moscow’s opportunities for film shooting, including infrastructure projects such as Film City Moskino and Film Factory. Special attention was paid to the Moscow rebate system – up to 45% – and the co-production development.
Memorandum of Understanding between the Film City and Moscow Film Cluster provides for the establishment and development of mutually beneficial cooperation in the film industry development, including joint promotion of shooting locations, support for filmmakers, implementation of marketing and industry events, development of incentive support measures and strengthening of economic and cultural interaction between India and Moscow.
The parties also intend to promote the development of the audiovisual sector through the exchange of experience, joint initiatives and the search for opportunities to create new industry partnerships and clusters.
Moscow Film Cluster is a major city initiative led by Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin to develop the capital into a global cinema hub. It brings together key production infrastructure – such as the Moskino Film Сity, Film Factory and Gorky Film Studio – along with the Film Commission, digital platform and cinema chain to streamline shooting, support productions and attract international filmmaking to Moscow.
Also, Moscow offers a rebate of up to 45%: 30% as direct production cost compensation, up to 15% for visa and accommodation support. The Moscow Image Grant provides up to $255,000 for films showcasing iconic city views.
The Moscow Film Cluster booth attracted considerable attention from Indian producers and studios. Over 80 business meetings were held, including those with major Indian companies.
One of the booth guests was the famous Indian actress Khushboo Sundar, known to Soviet and Russian audiences for her role in My Soul and considered the leading star of Tamil cinema, in whose honor one of the local temples was even built. Prithul Kumar, representative of the Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and one of the officials responsible for regulating the film industry in the country, also expressed interest in the development of the Moscow Film Cluster.
One of the highlights of the India International Film Tourism Conclave was the awarding of The Greatest of All Time in the For Cinematic Excellence category. The movie was shot in Moscow. The jury members noted the project’s contribution to the development of tourism.
The shooting of The Greatest of All Time AGS by Entertainment was organized with the assistance of the Moscow Film Cluster and the Moscow Film Commission and took place in April 2024 on the streets of Moscow. The scenes were shot in such famous locations as Patriarch Bridge, Teatralnaya Square, Manezhnaya Square, Kazarmenny Lane, Podsosensky Lane, Nikolskaya Street and one of the festival venues of Moscow Seasons.
The Greatest of All Time became a landmark event in Indian box office history. It ranked fourth in box office earnings among all movies released in India in 2024 and is one of the most successful Tamil-language movies in history.
At the same time, the shooting of another joint Russian-Indian movie started at the Moskino Film City in Moscow. A film project dedicated to badminton became one of the first participants in the Moscow rebate program.
A project by Smena & WISH Media (Russia) and Kartina Entertainment And Sports Private Limited (India) will tell the story of a badminton player who travels to India with the Russian national team to compete in a tournament. Russian viewers will see for the first time the scale of sporting competitions in Asia, where badminton is a cult sport and draws packed stands of fans.
The agreement on the joint production of the Smash movie was signed st the Moscow International Film Week in August 2025. And as Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said, a rebate application was also submitted at that time to reimburse part of the costs incurred during the shooting process in the Russian capital.
