film independent spirit awards

RSVIP: Oscar Countdown: 26th Film Independent Spirit Awards

Filed under: Events

Day Five: The countdown is complete. Saturday, for reporters, the day before the Academy Awards, began at 9:00 a.m. at Santa Monica Beach. Public parking lot 5, reserved for the press, was a half-mile walk to the behemoth lunch tent pitched beside the beach. Wind off the ocean bit hard. Even towering palm trees looked cold as their branches whipped in gusts that littered Ocean Avenue with browning fronds.

The tent for the Film Independent Spirit Awards was a white plastic Quonset hut the size of an office complex. A crane huddled beside the white plastic structure that rippled in the wind. But apparently it was strong enough to hold the man standing on it three stories in the air, drawing a rope over the top.

Driving wind cut across the choppy surf, accumulating fine sand on the cement bike path. In our bones, we could feel the raw, salty proximity to the briny sea. One foreign female journalist in a short black sequined dress had goose bumps on her legs that resembled hives.
Waiting while staffed dried rain that had poured into the tent the night before, the press struggled for an hour in the bitter chill.

By 11:00 a.m.,the gray carpet arrivals corridor was flanked on one side by metal stanchions and a thousand journalists. Open at both ends it had flaps cut into the side facing the Pacific, creating a mild wind-tunnel.

"I love the weather," said director John Waters, above, a host at previous events, wearing Comme des Garcon and pants decorated with camouflage paint. "It's like a face lift." Actor Rainn Wilson, too, said he was relaxed "not to be hosting this time."

Tags: film independent spirit awards, indy spirit awards, james franco, kate walsh, natalie portman, nicole kidman, rsvip, spirit awards, vanessa hudgens