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With all the "Black Swan" hoopla, am I the only one who thinks that the film, while well-made, is not deserving of all these hyper-crazed adulations? Portman was good, but I prefer Annette Bening's understated performance in "The Kids Are All Right." Or heck, Jennifer Lawrence's "Winter's Bone" performance could easily outdance Portman's delusional ballerina portrayal any day.

And "Winter's Bone," celebrating its true independent spirit, was virtually snubbed at last night's Independent Spirit Awards. Sure, the excellent supporting cast was honored with Dale Dickey winning Best Supporting Female and John Hawkes for Best Supporting Male, but the engaging and deeply haunting Debra Granik movie (with the most nominations totaling to seven nods) lost out to...you guessed it, Darren Aronofsky's "Black Swan." (Check out my "Winter's Bone" movie review right here)

And yes, I do admire Aronofsky, I thought "The Wrestler" was one of his personal...

I'm so glad that "Winter's Bone" has been receiving all the accolades. I love this film when it was shown in limited release last summer. The backwoods drama won big at the Gothams Awards winning Best Feature and Best Ensemble, and now, it dominated the Independent Spirit Awards with seven nominations including Best Feature, Director for Debra Granik, Screenplay for Granik and Anne Rosellini, Female Lead for Jennifer Lawrence, Supporting Female for Dale Dickey, Supporting Male for John Hawkes, and Cinematography for Michael McDonough. ("Winter's Bone" Movie Review)

"Winter's Bone" will compete against "127 Hours," "Black Swan," "Greenberg" and "The Kids Are All Right" for best picture.

Related Links:

"127 Hours" interviews with James Franco, Danny Boyle, and Simon Beaufoy

"Greenberg" Movie Review and Interviews with Ben Stiller, Greta Gerwig, and Rhys Ifans

"The Kids Are All Right" Movie Review and Interviews with Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Mia Wasikowska, Josh Hutcherson, and...

Historically the Spirit Awards tend to honor a few of the major Oscar players each year but a win at the Spirits can sometimesLe be the last hurrah, a consolation prize as some would say, if the work is too "edgy" for lack of a less exhaustively employed word. Last year's big winner was Precious (refresh your memory?) It took home Picture, Director, Actress, Supporting Actress and Adapted Screenplay. There were only three crossover winners from Spirits to Oscars last year : Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart), Mo'Nique (Precious) and the screenplay for Precious. (The Hurt Locker was considered a 2008 film.)

So what fared well this year? Black Swan got four nods including Best Actress for "sweet girl" Natalie Portman. But it could peak at the right time. Full list after the jump with Winter's Bone (7) and The Kids Are All Right (5) leading the pack.

Eva Mendes and Jeremy Renner announced the nominees.

In writer/director Tanya Hamilton’s first feature Night Catches Us, a man (The Hurt Locker’S Anthony Mackie) returns home to Philadelphia after fleeing his former life as a Black Panther. But time has not washed away the sins of the past, as he is wanted by both his former brothers and the local police so that he may be used as a pawn in their game.

Read more on Sundance 2010 Red Carpet Video Interview: Night Catches Us (writer/director Tanya Hamilton, producer Sean Costello, and actor/producer Ron Simons)…...

Producer Ron Simons has been blogging from Sundance about his trip there with his first film, Tanya Hamilton's Night Catches Us. Scroll back through the blog for his earlier posts. Night Catches Us has premiered! The last two days have been a symphony of interviews and press meetings. The day of the premiere our PR firm (Fatdot — a great PR firm by the way!) shuffled Tanya (our director) and me off to TV interviews, photo shoots and a taping for the Sundance Channel, among others. We’d wanted to include my producing partner Sean Costello in these activities but all the day’s bookings only wanted to meet with the director and actors in the film (I play Carey in the film so there I was). Would have been really nice to have Sean there...

If you’re just joining us…

Ron Simons, producer of the film, Night Catches Us, one of the high-profile films screening at Sundance Film Festival this year, was asked to blog about his Sundance experiences, by Filmmaker magazine.

You can follow his dailies over at the Filmmaker magazine blog, where he’s already posted one entry.

A second was uploaded today.

Here’s a snippet:

Well I am here!

The journey was not without its complications, but I’m here.

While the flight to Slc was not delayed (actually arrived 15 minutes early), there were a number of disgruntled passengers sharing the flight with me. While I was uncomfortably sleeping (having slept only an hour and a half last night due to packing), another poor soul was suffering across the aisle from me. Apparently the gray haired gentleman boarded the non-stop from JFK to Slc (4.5 hours) without his migraine medication. What...

NEW YORK -- Mos Def and Sophie Okonedo are in final negotiations to co-star in the indie period drama Stringbean and Marcus, which was written and will be directed by first-time feature helmer Tanya Hamilton. The film takes place in 1978 and focuses on the broken love affair between two former Black Panther members (Mos Def and Okonedo) and is told through the eyes of an adolescent girl. "It's not so much about the idea of race," Hamilton said. "I just wanted to show this world of ordinary people living under extraordinary circumstances, trying to outrun this past they all have." Sean Costello, Jen Roskind and Samara Koffler will produce for RedBone Films. Shooting is scheduled to begin in July in Philadelphia. Mos Def and Okonedo, Costello said, have not yet signed, but "they've committed to the project." Contracts are not likely to be finalized until June, he added. Stringbean was developed through the Sundance Writers and Directors Labs in 1999 and received a Pew Fellowship. It was the first screenplay to receive such a grant. Hamilton was honored at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1996 for her short film The Killers, for which she also received a DGA Women's Award. "Mos is one of my favorite actors; he's fantastic," Costello said. "Sophie has to play this character who's both closed off and being open to helping people yet not being an angry woman. That's what she did in 'Hotel Rwanda' as this maternal, yet emotionally conflicted woman." Okonedo, who received a best supporting actress Oscar nomination for Rwanda last year, is repped by ICM and Julian House at Markham and Froggatt Ltd. Mos Def is repped by Emily Gerson-Saines of Brookside Artists Management.

Tilda Swinton and Amber Tamblyn are starring in Stephanie Daley, an indie feature being directed by Hilary Brougher. Producing are Jen Roskind, Samara Koffler and Sean Costello of RedBone Films and Lynette Howell and Doug Dey of Silverwood Films. Daley, a Sundance Filmmaker Lab project written by Brougher, follows a forensic psychologist (Swinton) investigating a 17-year-old (Tamblyn) accused of infanticide. The film is in production in upstate New York's Catskill Mountains.

Rebone Films has acquired the psychological thriller spec script Silent Scream from writer Michael Wood. The project centers on the disappearance of a woman's family and her attempts to piece together their whereabouts. Rebone Films' Jen Roskind, Samara Koffler and Sean Costello Will Shepherd. Wood was repped in the deal by Brooklyn Weaver at Energy and Rob Szymansky of Eclipse Law Corp.