Middle of Nowhere Surprises with 4 Spirit Award Nominations

Two movies lead the Spirit Award nominations, Silver Linings Playbook and Moonrise Kingdom, both with five. But heading into the race with 4 is Ava DuVernay’s Middle of Nowhere, the REAL little movie that could, funded by DuVernay herself.  Middle of Nowhere earned acting nominations for three of its stars – Emayatzy Corinealdi, David Oyelowo and Lorraine Toussant.  DuVernay is nominated for the Cassavettes award, and I know he would approve.  Missing, unfortunately, is a writing nomination for DuVernay.  Instead, screenplay nominations went to Moonrise Kingdom, Ruby Sparks, Seven Psychopaths, Silver Linings, Keep the Lights On.  They might want to consider dividing up those awards into original and adapted, since making up a story from whole cloth is always much harder.