Keep the Lights On, based on director Ira Sach’s tumultuous relationship with literary agent Bill Clegg, has been nominated for four Independent Spirit Awards, including Best Feature.
In addition to Sachs receiving a Best Director nod, he and Mauricio Zacharias scored in Best Screenplay. And star Thure Lindhardt (at right, in green) got a Best Actor nomination as Erik, who watches his successful young boyfriend (Zachary Booth) spiral into drug abuse and self- neglect.
It was a good year for queer flicks at the ISAs: Bernie, Richard Linklater’s quirky story of a closeted undertaker (Best Male Lead nominee Jack Black), also nabbed a Best Feature nod.
Queer filmmaker Johnathan Liseki got a Best First Screenplay nomination for Gayby, his heartfelt comedy about a gay man and a straight woman trying to have a child. And The Perks of Being a Wallflower, with out actor Ezra Miller playing a brash gay teen, graced the Best First Feature list.
On a more somber note, actor Wendell Pierce was nominate for Best Lead for playing a married man on the down-low with a teenage boy, in the intense drama Four.
And filmmaker/activist David France scored a Best Documentary nomination for How to Survive a Plague, which traces the rise of activist groups ACT UP and TAG in the early days of the AIDS epidemic.
Below, Sachs and Booth discuss Keep the Lights On with Queerty at the Sundance Film Festival.
The Independent Spirit Awards air February 23 on IFC.
