Congrats to Chalk!

The Indie Spirit Award nominations were announced today. I found one Austin-related surprise: Chalk is nominated for the John Cassavetes award, which is given to the best feature made for under $500K. Chalk, a feature film about an average school year from the point of view of the teachers, was shot in Austin. The movie was directed by Mike Akel and co-written by Akel and Chris Mass. It's been winning awards left and right at film festivals this year, including the narrative feature audience award at Austin Film Festival. I saw Chalk at AFF this year (review here) and thought it was a lot of fun to watch, especially in an audience full of teachers. Let's hope this nomination helps the film secure distribution.