Precious Up for Spirit Awards

Precious, starting on what its producers must hope will be eventual awards-season dominance, was nominated for five Independent Spirit Awards Tuesday: Best Feature, Best Director, Best First Screenplay, Best Female Lead and Best Supporting Female. The Last Station, the James McAvoy-starring drama about Leo Tolstoy, matched Precious' haul with five, including Best Feature and Best Supporting Male for Christopher Plummer's role as the Russian author; rounding out the best picture nominations are Sin Nombre, Amreeka and (500) Days of Summer. To be eligible for the awards, films must be at least 70 minutes in length and cost less than $20 million, and must have screened at a major film festival or spent at least a week in a commercial theater. This year, in celebration of the awards' 25th anniversary, the ceremony will move from its traditional home under a tent on the beach in Santa Monica to a tent on the event deck L.A. Live. The ceremony, scheduled for Friday, March 5, will be broadcast live on IFC.