That old “what defines independent” chestnut gets a little tiresome but I read this from Andrew O’Hehir at Salon with interest:

“The academy showers its laurels on a film that has made about $63 million in domestic box office, while the big winner at the supposedly independent Spirit Awards has grossed double that amount.”

Boring Oscars. Interesting Times.

You can see the full list of Spirit Award winners on indieWIRE. Congrats to all, both winners and nominees. I have to confess that I hadn’t seen a few of the narrative nominees until quite recently and had to do some cramming so I could cast my vote (as a member of IFP). It was really gobsmacking to think that there is so much talent out there that just doesn’t get seen – even when you really love films and live in a city like NYC where it is fairly easy to see most stuff. I don’t really know where I’m going with this except to acknowledge what a herculean task it is to make a film and get it out to an audience so well done to everybody who does it!

There’s so much going on at the moment I feel rather gleefully overwhelmed. The Spirit Awards will be broadcast live on IFC tomorrow at 5pmET but I’m also going to be watching a webcast of the red carpet on IFC.com at 2.30pmET with commentary from SXSW’s Matt Dentler and IFC’s Alison Willmore.

And then of course on Sunday there’s some Oscar something or other happening. I’m going to find a friend with a bigger TV than mine and make some careless financial bets. It makes it more fun when “stakes is high.”

On a smaller scale but no less enjoyable, earlier in the week I went to the Brooklyn Independent Cinema Series night that Michael Tully guest-curated with aplomb. He chose some films that I already know and love (The Zellner’s Foxy and the Weight of the World and the Duplass’s The Intervention) but it’s always a pleasure to watch old favorites with an audience. I finally got a chance to see Matthew Lessner’s clever and rather heartbreaking By Modern Measure and Josh Safdie’s beautiful We’re Going to the Zoo – and I reveled in the wonderful Weekend by Henrik Andersson, a film that makes me want to move to Scandinavia and wear a lot of beige. Check out upcoming screenings from the series – Barbes is always a fun place to drink beer and watch films on a Monday night.

On Tuesday I moderated an IFP Industry Connect panel on alternative distribution options which was very useful for me as I’m currently writing an article on that very subject. There was healthy debate amongst the panelists who brought a wealth of experience working on everything from: new models for theatrical (IFC Films with their day and date strategy), aggregating for iTunes (New Video), digital cinema ventures (Emerging Cinema), new web fundraising strategies (IndieGoGo), and online film sites (IndiePix). I’ll post more feedback in here shortly as the article comes together. It’s a subject I have been thinking about somewhat obsessively of late – for now there’s more discussion on this on the TOOLS blog.

Enjoy the film-tastic weekend!