The Kid with a Bike is an independent French film written and directed by brothers Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne about an abandoned adolescent boy who refuses to believe his father has left him. Doing everything he can to find him ends up being an emotional journey. The Kid with a Bike won the Grand Prize of the Jury award at the Cannes Film Festival and is nominated for Best Foreign film at this year’s Independent Spirit Awards and Golden Globes.

The film opens with a young boy named Cyril Catoul (Thomas Doret) who is attempting to call his father’s phone number but the number is not in service. He does not want to believe that his father has abandoned him. After repeated failed attempts he makes a run for it out of the foster care farm. The counselors barely catch Cyril when he is about to climb over the fenced in wall. All he wants to do is find his father.

Cyril is reunited with his lost bike when a kind stranger named Samantha (Cécile De France) returns it to him. Immediately, he hops on the bike to show off his tricks with it. He asks where Samantha found it and she insisted that the neighborhood boy bought it from Cyril’s father. But Cyril does not believe that his own father would sell the bike. To him it is obvious that someone in the neighborhood stole it to make some money selling it back.

Now equipped with his bike, Cyril rides around to all the local establishments that he and his father have visited in hopes that one of them would know of his father’s whereabouts. He tries a bakery, automotive shop and pub but no one has seen him in the last month nor knows where he would have gone.

Coming up empty handed on leads for where his father could be, he seeks help from the only person that he knows to trust, Samantha. She agrees to watch him on the weekends but will prove to be more challenging than it seems. Watching over any adolescent is not easy but it is exponentially more difficult when the child is in the troubled state Cyril is in.

With the help of Samantha he finally meets up with his father. They locate him at a restaurant that his is working at but seems very standoff-ish to Cyril when asked why he did not come back for him. He seems to want little to do with Cyril. He does not even give him a phone number that Cyril can call, instead says that he will have to call him. Cyril is okay with all of his father’s excuses, he is just happy to see him again.

It is sad when a father wants nothing to do with his own son and that is exactly the case here. Guy pulls Samantha aside after they stop by the restaurant. He tells her he can no longer see Cyril anymore. She suggests bringing his son even just once a month but still Guy refuses. Guy is coward enough not to tell Cyril the truth, instead he instructs Samantha to break the news. Samantha does not oblige and forces Guy to tell Cyril directly.

Obviously the news is devastating to the little boy. He fells abandoned and not wanted. Without a father figure in his live he is in danger of hanging around the wrong crowd. Which is exactly what happens when a local gang leader takes him under his wing. Samantha must give it her all to protect Cyril from negative influences.

We were never given the full background on Samantha which is a shame. She seemed to thoughtlessly accept Cyril into her life. When the first impression of Cyril was him bursting into a hospital lobby running from counselors it seems a little far-fetched that the next thing she does is locate and buy the kid’s old bike for him. One thing is for certain, there needs to be more Samantha’s in the world.

That being said, The Kid with a Bike feels more like a fairy tale than anything else. It does a great job identifying you with the young boy who just wants his father to be in his life. But ultimately it lacks in details and background information and it will make you wonder where the boy’s mother was this whole time.

The 2012 Film Independent Spirit Award nominations were announced today by presenters Anthony Mackie and Kate Beckinsale kicking off the award season. Of the total 277 total film submissions The Artist and Take Shelter raked in the most nominations this year with five in total. Close behind them with 4 nominations were films Martha Marcy May Marlene, The Descendants, and Drive. I would say the front-runner for awards this year is The Artist but all of the films above will have a shot of being represented here as well as at the Oscars.

Michelle Williams gets her second nomination Best Female Lead nomination in a row with her role in My Week With Marilyn (last year’s nomination was for Blue Valentine). She was not the one to get a repeat nomination for the second year in a row as John Hawkes also received a nomination for Martha Marcy May Marlene for Best Supporting Male (John Hawkes won the award last year for Winter’s Bone).

In order to qualify for Spirit Awards a film has to be made for under $20 million, which would explain the absence of Tree Of Life among the nominations, which is a little disappointing as it has been my favorite film of 2011 so far (I still have a fair amount to see still though). Although I have not seen them yet, I am a little disappointed that Alps and The Skin I Live In did not make the cut for a nomination in the Best Foreign Film category (need to have at least 1 U.S. producer to qualify for the other awards).

The winners will be announced at the 27th annual Film Independent Spirit Awards on February 25th and the broadcast will air at 10 p.m. ET/PT on IFC.

50/50 – Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Ben Karlin
Beginners – Miranda de Pencier, Lars Knudsen, Leslie Urdang, Jay Van Hoy, Dean Vanech
Drive – Michel Litvak, John Palermo, Marc Platt, Gigi Pritzker, Adam Siegel
Take Shelter – Tyler Davidson, Sophia Lin
The Artist – Thomas Langmann, Emmanuel Montamat
The Descendants – Jim Burke, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor

Mike Mills – Beginners
Nicolas Winding Refn – Drive
Jeff Nichols – Take Shelter
Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist
Alexander Payne – The Descendants

Another Earth – Directed by Mike Cahill; Producers: Mike Cahill, Hunter Gray, Brit Marling, Nicholas Shumaker
In The Family – Directed by Patrick Wang; Producers: Robert Tonino, Andrew van den Houten, Patrick Wang
Margin Call – Directed by J.C. Chandor; Producers: Robert Ogden Barnum, Michael Benaroya, Neal Dodson, Joe Jenckes, Corey Moosa, Zachary Quinto
Martha Marcy May Marlene – Directed by Sean Durkin; Producers: Antonio Campos, Patrick Cunningham, Chris Maybach, Josh Mond
Natural Selection – Directed by Robbie Pickering; Producers: Brion Hambel, Paul Jensen

Demian Bichir – A Better Life
Jean Dujardin – The Artist
Ryan Gosling – Drive
Woody Harrelson – Rampart
Michael Shannon – Take Shelter

Lauren Ambrose – Think Of Me
Rachel Harris – Natural Selection
Adepero Oduye – Pariah
Elizabeth Olsen – Martha Marcy May Marlene
Michelle Williams – My Week With Marilyn

Albert Brooks – Drive
John Hawkes – Martha Marcy May Marlene
Christopher Plummer – Beginners
John C. Reilly – Cedar Rapids
Corey Stoll – Midnight In Paris

Jessica Chastain – Take Shelter
Angelica Huston – 50/50
Janet McTeer – Albert Nobbs
Harmony Santana – Gun Hill Road
Shaileen Woodley – The Descendants

Bellflower – Written and directed by Evan Glodell; Producers: Evan Glodell, Vincent Grashaw
Circumstance – Written and directed by Maryam Keshavarz; Producers: Karin Chien, Maryam Keshavarz, Melissa M. Lee
Hello Lonesome – Written and directed and produced by Adam Reid
Lovers of Hate – Written and directed by Dee Rees; Producer: Nekisa Cooper
The Dynamiter – Writters: Matthew Gordon and Brad Ingelsby; Directed by Matthew Gordon; Producers: Kevin Abrams, Matthew Gordon, Merilee Holt, Nate Tuck, Amile Wilson

An African Election – Jarreth J. Merz, Kevin Merz
Bill Cunningham New York – Richard Press
The Interrupters – Steve James
The Redemption of General Butt Naked – Daniele Anastasion, Eric Strauss
We Were Here – David Weissman, Bill Weber

A Separation – Asghar Farhadi
Melancholia – Lars von Trier
Shame – Steve McQueen
The Kid With A Bike – Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
Tyrannosaur – Paddy Considine

Joel Hodge – Bellflower
Benjamin Kasulke – The Off Hours
Darius Khondji – Midnight In Paris
Guillaume Schiffman – The Artist
Jeffrey Waldron – The Dynamiter

Joseph Cedar – Footnote
Michel Hazanivicius – The Artist
Tom McCarthy – Win Win
Mike Mills – Beginners
Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon & Jim Rash – The Descendants

Mike Cahill & Brit Marling – Another Earth
J.C. Chandor – Margin Call
Patreck DeWitt – Terri
Phil Johnston – Cedar Rapids
Will Reiser – 50/50

Margin Call
Director: J.C. Chandor
Ensemble Cast: Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Penn Badgley, Simon Baker, Mary McDonnell, Demi Moore

Chad Burris – Mosquita y Mari
Sophia Lin – Take Shelter
Josh Mond – Martha Marcy May Marlene

Heather Courtney – Where Soldiers Come From
Danfung Dennis – Hell and Back Again
Alma Har’El – Bombay Beach

Simon Arthur – Silver Tongues
Mark Jackson – Without
Nicholas Ozeki – Mamitas

Cannes Film Festival came to a close Sunday night and announced the winners of Palme d’Or, Grand Prix, Best Director and other high status awards. Kirsten Dunst won Best Actress in Lars von Trier’s film Melancholia and thanked the director after a very controversial comment he made about Nazi’s during a press conference that caused a lot of media attention last week. The top prize, Palme d’Or, went out to The Tree of Life directed by Terrence Malick which stars Brad Pitt and Sean Penn.

See the full list of nominations.

The Tree of Life, (director Terrence Malick)

The Kid with a Bike, (directors Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, (director Nuri Bilge Ceylan)

Nicolas Winding Refn, Drive

Joseph Cedar, Hearat Shulayim

Las Acacias, (director Pablo Gorgelli)

Polisse, (director Maiwenn)

Kirsten Dunst, Melancholia

Jean Dujarin, The Artist

Cross Country, (director Marina Viroda)

Arirang, (director Kim Ki-Duk)
Stopped on Track, (director Andreas Dresen)

Elena, (director Andrey Zvyaginstev)