2006 Independent Spirit Awards

The Independent Film Channel aired the Independent Spirit Awards tonight, a flippantly irreverent awards show dedicated to showcasing excellent independent film, popular and obscure. Many of the films nominated for awards tonight are extremely obscure are will likely never see a DVD release (Sir! No Sir!, Conventioneers, and Jellysmoke, for instance). A few others were well-recognized with multiple Oscar nods. A few of these movies (as many as are out on DVD) are already in my Netflix Queue.

Sarah Silverman started out her monologue with a meandering cutting edge set of jokes that crossed over into feminine hygiene and pokes at George Clooney. The fact that IFC broadcast this awards ceremony uncensored was refreshing. “I personally wanna give a big shout for the host, Sarah Silverman. Finally, there’s an award show host that you’d wanna fuck. Kinda like Jon Stewart, too, you know? I could see myself getting all Heath Ledger on him,” quipped Kevin Smith. The songs about the Best Feature nominees were sometimes funny and sometimes caused me to hit the “ahead 30 seconds” button, but the entire shindig was much less formal than the Oscars.

I’ve only recently discovered the IFC on my DirectTV lineup. I miss video-i so much (It seems to have gone off the air). IFC assuages that pain a little bit. Uncensored independent films. Thank goodness.