The Spirit Awards love ”(500) Days of Summer” (and I love Joseph Gordon-Levitt). 

Here comes the wave of nominations–the Spirit Awards, which celebrate independent films–or should we just say smaller-scale films–announced their nominees today. The big vote getters in this first round were “Precious” and “The Last Station” (which I think has been seen only by critics). Other audience favorites such as “(500) Days of Summer” and “Paranormal Activity” also picked up some nods. Some of the films on the list (probably “Precious,” “A Single Man,” “A Serious Man”) can also expect to see Oscar nominations I would think.

The Spirit Awards will be given out on March 5th, two days before the Academy Awards.   

2010 Spirit Award nominations

BEST FEATURE
“(500) Days Of Summer” – Producers: Mason Novick, Jessica Tuchinsky, Mark Waters, Steven J. Wolfe
“Amreeka” – Producers: Paul Barkin, Christina Piovesan
“Precious” – Producers: Lee Daniels, Gary Magness, Sarah Siegel-Magness
“Sin Nombre” – Producer: Amy Kaufman
“The Last Station” – Producers: Bonnie Arnold, Chris Curling, Jens Meuer

BEST DIRECTOR
Ethan Coen, Joel Coen – “A Serious Man”
Lee Daniels – “Precious”
Cary Joji Fukunaga – “Sin Nombre”
James Gray – “Two Lovers”
Michael Hoffman – “The Last Station”

BEST SCREENPLAY
Alessandro Camon, Oren Moverman – “The Messenger”
Michael Hoffman – “The Last Station”
Lee Toland Krieger – “The Vicious Kind”
Greg Mottola – “Adventureland”
Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber – “(500) Days Of Summer”

BEST FIRST FEATURE
“A Single Man” – Director: Tom Ford; Producers: Tom Ford, Andrew Miano, Robert Salerno, Chris Weitz
“Crazy Heart” – Director: Scott Cooper; Producers: T Bone Burnett, Judy Cairo, Rob Carliner, Scott Cooper, Robert Duvall
“Easier With Practice” – Director: Kyle Patrick Alvarez; Producer: Cookie Carosella
“Paranormal Activity” – Director: Oren Peli; Producer: Jason Blum, Oren Peli
“The Messenger” – Director: Oren Moverman; Producers: Mark Gordon, Lawrence Inglee, Zach Miller

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
Sophie Barthes – “Cold Souls”
Scott Cooper – “Crazy Heart”
Cherien Dabis – “Amreeka”
Geoffrey Fletcher – “Precious”
Tom Ford, David Scearce – “A Single Man”

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD – Given to the best feature made for under $500,000.
“Big Fan” – Writer/Director: Robert Siegel; Producers: Elan Bogarin, Jean Kouremetis
“Humpday” – Writer/Director/Producer: Lynn Shelton
“The New Year Parade” – Writer/Director: Tom Quinn; Producers: Steve Beal, Tom Quinn
“Treeless Mountain” – Writer/Director: So Yong Kim; Producers: Bradley Rust Gray, Ben Howe, So Yong Kim, Lars Knudsen, Jay Van Hoy
“Zero Bridge” – Writer/Director: Tariq Tapa; Producers: Josee Lajoie, Hilal Ahmed Langoo, Tariq Tapa

BEST FEMALE LEAD
Maria Bello – “Downloading Nancy”
Nisreen Faour – “Amreeka”
Helen Mirren – “The Last Station”
Gwyneth Paltrow – “Two Lovers”
Gabourey Sidibe – “Precious”

BEST MALE LEAD
Jeff Bridges – “Crazy Heart”
Colin Firth – “A Single Man”
Joseph Gordon-Levitt – “(500) Days Of Summer”
Souléymane Sy Savané – “Goodbye Solo”
Adam Scott – “The Vicious Kind”

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE
Dina Korzun – “Cold Souls”
Mo’Nique – “Precious”
Samantha Morton – “The Messenger”
Natalie Press – “Fifty Dead Men Walking”
Mia Wasikowska – “That Evening Sun”

BEST SUPPORTING MALE
Jemaine Clement – “Gentlemen Broncos”
Woody Harrelson – “The Messenger”
Christian McKay – “Me and Orson Welles”
Raymond McKinnon – “That Evening Sun”
Christopher Plummer – “The Last Station”

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Roger Deakins – “A Serious Man”
Adriano Goldman – “Sin Nombre”
Anne Misawa – “Treeless Mountain”
Andrij Parekh – “Cold Souls”
Peter Zeitlinger – “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans”

BEST DOCUMENTARY
“Anvil! The Story of Anvil” – Director: Sacha Gervasi
“Food, Inc.” – Director: Robert Kenner
“More Than A Game” – Director: Kristopher Belman
“October Country” – Directors: Donal Mosher, Michael Palmieri
“Which Way Home” – Director: Rebecca Cammisa

BEST FOREIGN FILM
“A Prophet” – (France) Director: Jacques Audiard
“An Education” – (UK/France) Director: Lone Scherfig
“Everlasting Moments” – (Sweden) Director: Jan Troell
“Mother” – (South Korea) Director: Bong Joon-Ho
“The Maid” – (Chile) Director: Sebastián Silva

ACURA SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD
Kyle Patrick Alvarez – “Easier With Practice”
Asiel Norton – “Redland”
Tariq Tapa – “Zero Bridge”

TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD
Natalia Almada – “El General”
Jessica Oreck – “Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo”
Bill Ross, Turner Ross – “45365″

PIAGET PRODUCERS AWARD
Karin Chien – “The Exploding Girl,” “Santa Mesa”
Larry Fessenden – “I Sell the Dead,” “The House of the Devil”
Dia Sokol – “Beeswax,” “Nights & Weekends”

ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD – (Given to one film’s director, casting director, and its ensemble cast)
“A Serious Man”
Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Casting Directors: Ellen Chenoweth, Rachel Tenner
Ensemble Cast: Richard Kind, Sari Lennick, Jessica McManus, Fred Melamed, Michael Stuhlbarg, Aaron Wolff

Where do you from remaking one of the all-time classic sci-fi movies in Tron? If you’re Joseph Kosinski and Sean Bailey, the director and producer of the new Tron: Legacy then you move on to another Disney remake.

This time the film getting the remake treatment is The Black Hole. The Heat Vision blog reports that the pair behind Tron: Legacy, along with scribe Travis Beacham, have the unenviable task of turning what is a strange mishmash of 1970s sci-fi into a believable and relevant movie for today’s audience.

The original The Black Hole follows a band of space explorers who encounter the thought-lost USS Cygnus next to a black hole. The only person left on board is a scientist who claims the crew deserted the ship rather than travel through the black hole. However, he does command an army of faceless robots who may not be all they seem.

Details of the remake are currently being kept under wraps but the science of black holes will play a more prominent role. The main robot of the original, a red beast known as Maximilian, will return but little else is known.

I’m guessing the budget may be a little bigger than that of the $26 million original. It’s hard to judge if this will work until Tron: Legacy is released and we see whether that has been remade competently or not.

It’s pretty much guaranteed that the biggest film of next year will be Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part I, and in 2011 it’ll be The Deathly Hallows Part II. Discounting the next two films in The Twilight Saga, of course.

But what should we expect from the movies? They will, obviously, join the plot of the book quite closely. But what else? In a USA Today first look, director David Yates promises something much closer to ordinary, everyday life. He claims:

“It’s going to feel very real. We’re going for a vérité approach. Being away from Hogwarts, they’re like these three refugees on the run. They’re out in the big bad world, facing real danger, unguarded by those wonderful benign wizards at Hogwarts. They don’t have a home to go to. We’re kind of pulling away from the magic a bit and bringing more reality to it.”

As well as the realism there will be little bit of sex involved. Yates told Video Business that Harry will appear naked a couple of times and “[in one scene,] a horcrux [carrying a piece of Voldemort’s soul] defends itself by producing nightmarish visions, and one shows Hermione and Harry embracing and kissing. It’s something intriguing and sensual for Rupert to react to, and Dan will be bare for that.”

Realism and sex in a Harry Potter film? What is the world coming to? Granted, a road movie with magic still heavily involved and a dark wizard and his henchmen chasing wizarding school kids isn’t all that realistic, and a kiss and some mild nudity hardly counts for sex, but still.

You heard right. Sandra Bullock’s *Blind Side*, in which she plays every liberal’s nightmare — a can-do Republican woman with more energy than a dozen Sarah Palins — racked up a gigantic $40.1 million for the Thanksgiving weekend. That’s only $2.4 million less than the juggernaut that is *The Twilight Saga: New Moon*, which declined nearly 70 percent in its second week while *Blind Side* went up 18 percent. Team Edward and Team Jacob are hereby put on notice: There’s a new sheriff in town and she’s not showing any signs of slowing down. Let’s hear it for Team Sandy.