The Independent Spirit Award nominations came out a few days ago, and there weren't too many surprises, with buzzed-about indies such as Another Earth and The Artist receiving nominations. One person who wasn't pleased with the noms, however, is filmmaker/full-time podcaster Kevin Smith, who took to Twitter earlier this week to lambast the Spirit awards for not nominating anyone from his horror film Red State:
I know it's easy to sometimes be myopic about your own work, but I'm pretty sure Kevin was the only person expecting any nominations for Red State, aside from maybe a Razzie or two. Reviews for the film were decidedly mixed -- leaning toward the low side -- with Red State currently sitting at 58% fresh on RottenTomatoes. (Check out reviews by both Mack and Katey.) According to Box Office Mojo, it's grossed around $1.1 million, with IMDb Pro pegging its estimated budget at $4 million. So not exactly a runaway success.
The film certainly set tongues wagging when it premiered at Sundance, but that was more about the fervor over Smith canceling the "auction" for the rights to the film, then buying them himself for twenty bucks and announcing he would self-distribute it via his Smodcast Pictures. It was an old-fashioned publicity stunt in the P.T. Barnum fashion, but it rubbed some folks the wrong way. And while Smith's Sundance shenanigans definitely got the movie more attention than it otherwise would have received, that buzz soon faded. Red State is mostly an odd little cinematic footnote, and while I'm sure it has some die-hard fans out there, I can't imagine why Smith would honestly be surprised that the film wasn't nominated.
I've been a Smith fan since high school, but he doesn't always make it easy these days, especially when he's ranting on Twitter about something that just seems silly. Maybe the angry tweet is just another calculated publicity stunt? Or maybe Smith really is so immersed in his own little bubble that he genuinely thinks Red State was not only deserving of an Independent Spirit nomination, but likely to receive one.
