Though the 85th Academy Awards are a mere day away, tonight an awards ceremony of a different sort took place to celebrate the best of independent film.  Unsurprisingly, Oscar player Silver Linings Playbook took home the most awards of the night with four wins, including Best Picture, Best Director for David O. Russell, Best Actress for Jennifer Lawrence, and Best Screenplay for Russell.  The crowdpleasing pic beat out the likes of Beasts of the Southern Wild and Moonrise Kingdom for the top prize, but John Hawkes was named Best Actor for his swell work in The Sessions.  The Best First Feature prize deservingly went to The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

Hit the jump to read the full list of winners for the 2013 Independent Spirit Awards.

It looks as if Safety Not Guaranteed screenwriter Derek Connolly is carving out quite the creative home over at Disney.  Connolly made waves with the indie dramedy Safety Not Guaranteed earlier this year, and just this week we learned that Connolly and Safety director Colin Trevorrow have been drafted by The Mouse House to rewrite the remake of Flight of the Navigator.  Now it turns out that Connolly has actually been working at Pixar for the better part of this year, penning a new feature film for the animated studio.  Hit the jump for more details.

Hey, remember when we were getting all silly over the idea of Colin Trevorrow (Safety Not Guaranteed) directing Star Wars Episode VII? Well, it turns out that he’ll be writing and possibly directing Disney’s Flight of the Navigator reboot instead. Way back in 2009 when we reported of Disney’s plans for the remake, Brad Copeland (Wild Hogs) had been hired to pen the first draft. Now, Trevorrow will do a rewrite along with his Safety Not Guaranteed writer, Derek Connolly. Hit the jump for more on the project, including a comment from Connolly and another mysterious project the duo have in development at Disney.

The nominations for the 2013 Independent Spirit Awards have been announced, and Oscar hopefuls Silver Linings Playbook and Moonrise Kingdom lead the pack.  Both films picked up nominations for Best Feature, Director, and Screenplay with Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper landing acting noms for SLP and Bruce Willis garnering a swell Best Supporting Actor nomination for his work in Moonrise Kingdom.  Beasts of the Southern Wild, Bernie, and Keep the Lights On round out the Best Feature nominees, while The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Safety Not Guaranteed were singled out for the Best First Feature award.  Also, Matthew McConaughey pulled double nominations for his stellar work in this year’s Magic Mike and Killer Joe, landing a Best Supporting Actor and Best Actor nod, respectively.  Notably shut out of the race entirely was Leos Carax‘s critically-lauded Holy Motors.

Hit the jump to check out the full list of nominations.  The winners of the 2013 Spirit Awards will be announced on Saturday, February 23, 2013.

One of the breakout films of this year’s Sundance Film Festival was the indie comedy Safety Not Guaranteed.   That film is currently playing in select theaters (watch the trailer here), and the filmmakers behind Safety are lining up a follow-up project that’s not entirely dissimilar genre-wise.  Deadline reports that Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly are set to write an original script that Trevorrow will direct called The Ambassador.  Here’s the logline:

“The film is set in the United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs, which not only monitors the universe for signs of life, but is prepared to represent humanity if and when aliens arrive on earth. A shy, low-ranking staffer unwittingly makes first contact when he meets a mysterious beautiful woman and must risk more than his job when they are threatened by forces of this world and beyond.”

Hit the jump for more on this sci-fi follow-up.

One of the many films that premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival was director Colin Trevorrow‘s Safety Not Guaranteed.  Written by Derek Connolly, the film’s about a trio of magazine employees investigate a classified ad that seeks a partner for time travel. One employee develops feelings for the paranoid but compelling loner and tries to discover what he’s really up to.  It’s based on a real ad that was passed around the internet in 2005 and the movie stars Aubrey Plaza, Mark Duplass, Jake Johnson and Karan Soni.  Shortly after premiering, FilmDistrict bought the film, so you can look forward to seeing it at some point in the future.  For more on the film, you can read Matt’s review.

After seeing the movie, I got to sit down with Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly for an extended interview. We talked about premiering at Sundance, how they first met, casting, how they secured financing, filming multiple endings, using the brand new Sony F3 to shoot the film, and a lot more.  Hit the jump to watch the interview.