I’m Not There Leads Spirit Nominations, Wins First Altman Prize

Director TODD HAYNES’ quirky, all-star BOB DYLAN-inspired movie I’M NOT THERE is set to be the toast of the IFC Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica, Los Angeles in February (08), after landing the event’s first Robert Altman Award.

Announced at the Spirit Awards last year (06), the honor is given to the director, casting agent and cast of an outstanding indie movie.

In I’m Not There, Heath Ledger, Richard Gere and Cate Blanchett are among the actors who conjure up the spirit of Dylan at different stages of his life for the offbeat ‘biopic’.

The movie was also nominated for the Spirits’ Best Film prize, where it will compete with Julian Schnabel’s The Diving Bell & The Butterfly, Juno, A Mighty Heart and Paranoid Park.

Blanchett and Marcus Carl Franklin earned Best Supporting Actress and Actor nods respectively for their portrayals of Dylan, and Todd Haynes is a Best Director nominee.

Other four-film nominees are acclaimed coming-of-age film Juno, The Diving Bell & The Butterfly and The Savages.

Meanwhile, Ang Lee’s controversial Lust, Caution is also a multi-nominee; the film’s stars Tony Leung and Tang Wei are up for Best Actor and Actress honours, while Rodrigo Prieto’s cinematography is also under consideration.

French actress Julie Delpy’s 2 Days In Paris earned her a First Feature nomination; she’ll be up against Jeffrey Blitz’s Rocket Science, which garnered three nominations.

In the lead acting categories, Angelina Jolie is an immediate favorite for her role as grieving Marianne Pearl in A Mighty Heart. Jolie will compete against Sienna Miller (Interview), Parker Posey (Broken English), Ellen Page (Juno) and Tang Wei.

Leung will be up against Pedro Castaneda (August Evening), Don Cheadle (Talk To Me), Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Savages) and Frank Langella (Starting Out In The Evening) in the Best Actor category.

The nominations were announced on Tuesday morning (27Nov07) by Lisa Kudrow and Zach Braff.

(KL/WN/MT)