Spirit Awards

The Spirit Awards are coming up, and I'm sure to watch, because they are much more in line with the kind of films I make, indie and low-budget.

Also, the event on Saturday night is a lot more casual and entertaining than the Oscars. I have a lot of friends who are there with films or as distributors and I always feel like I belong there.

However, the indie world has big black blinders when it comes to animation. Perhaps they assume that all the animated feature films are made by the giant Hollywood Studios with humongous budgets of 200 million.

Not so fast—there is now a wave of low budget animated features hitting the cinemas. "Mary and Max", "My Dog Tulip", "Sita Sings the Blues", "Persepolis", "Chico and Rita", "The Illusionist" and of course the best of the lot, "Idiots and Angels". And for the Spirit Awards to ignore this fast growing, ever-popular genre is criminal. Sure, we don't have big Hollywood actors or great indie directors, but to shut out such a creative movement is a shame.

So, all my dear readers out there, please send letters to the IFC-West (http://www.ifc.com/contact/, http://www.filmindependent.org/content/contact-us)

and register your complaints. Force them to acknowledge animation as a vital force in the indie world—Give us a competition category!

Thank you,

Bill P