Independent Spirit Award Nominations Announced

Awards season has officially arrived as various groups announce their picks for the year's best films. Among these groups, the Independent Spirit Awards represents one of the more prestigous ceremonies. For my money, they not only provide a hint of things to come for the Academy Awards, but also end up representing a superior line of nominees. Leading the way this year are Precious and The Last Station, each with five nominations.

Here are a few of the major categories:

BEST FEATURE (Award given to the Producer)
500 Days of Summer
Amreeka
Precious
Sin Nombre
The Last Station

BEST DIRECTOR
The Coen Brothers for A Serious Man
Lee Daniels for Precious
Cary Fukunaga for Sin Nombre
James Grey for Two Lovers
Michael Hoffman for The Last Station

BEST FEMALE LEAD
Maria Bello for Downloading Nancy
Helen Mirren for The Last Station
Gwentyth Paltrow for Two Lovers
Gabby Sidibe for Precious
Nisreen Faour for Amreeka

BEST MALE LEAD
Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart
Colin Firth for A Single Man
Joseph Gordon Levitt for 500 Days Of Summer
Souleymane Sy Savane for Goodbye Solo
Adam Scott for The Vicious Kind

BEST SCREENPLAY
Alessandro Camon, Oren Moverman for The Messenger
Michael Hoffman for The Last Station
Lee Toland Krieger for The Vicious Kind
Greg Mottola for Adventureland
Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber for 500 Days of Summer

For a complete listing, visit http://www.deadline.com/hollywood/film-independent-spirit-award-nominations/.