The Spirit Award Nominations are Here
Friday, November 16, 2018 at 2:06PM
NATHANIEL R in BlacKkKlansman, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, First Reformed, Gemma Chan, If Beale Street Could Talk, Leave No Trace, Molly Shannon, Oscars (18), Spirit Awards, We the Animals

by Nathaniel R

Gemma Chan (Crazy Rich Asians) and former Spirit Award winner Molly Shannon (Other People) announced the Spirit nominations for the 2018 film year. No film truly dominated the announcement because, while We the Animals led with 5 nominations (YAYYYY) it wasn't nominated in the top category. Eighth Grade, First Reformed, and You Were Never Really Here each had 4 nominations. The highest profile expected contenders with not so great results this morning were BlacKkKlansman (only Adam Driver was recognized) and Can You Ever Forgive Me? (the Screenplay and Richard E Grant only). 

so happy for this little gem!

An important note before the full list of nominees: Unlike other major awards bodies, film festival releases are (sometimes) eligible here, overseas films even if they're in english are (mostly) ineligible outside of foreign film, and anything over a $20 million budget is (usually) ineligible here, so the eligibility pool is slightly different. Some examples of 'not eligible' this year for those reasons are: The Hate U Give and Beautiful Boy (too expensive) The Rider (festivals and nominated last year), Roma and The Favorite (both foreign film only though The Favourite led the Gotham nods). The Spirit Awards has multiple nominating committees assigned to different categories. Even better they meet several times throughout the fall before selecting the nominees which is, we think, why the nominations sometimes have a better spread of titles (in terms of release dates) than the Oscars do.

 

The full list of nominees along with a few comments are after the jump...

FEATURE FILM

The big surprise here is surely You Were Never Really Here, which bowed at festivals in 2017 and was an early year release. Of these films only Eighth Grade didn't show up in Best Director (though Burnham was nominated for "First Film") 

LEAD FEMALE


Six nominees there so the voting must have been tight. Close, Hall, and Howard were the lone nominees from their films. You have to wonder what's happening to Melissa McCarthy though. She's now missed both the Gotham and Spirit nominations while Richard E Grant, her onscreen partner in crime is a solid presence in supporting. They're both just marvelous in the movie.

We're very pleased to see Colette and Mulligan here since they still seem like longshots for the Oscar nod.

LEAD MALE


Interestingly unexpected results. No Ben Foster for Leave No Trace? 

SUPPORTING FEMALE

 They even do category fraud at the Spirit Awards where it's hardly 'necessary' for honors. What on earth is McKenzie doing here when Leave No Trace rests entirely on her shoulders (she's onscreen even when Foster isn't!). 

We love it when the indie spirits go really indie. A Bread Factory, which we hadn't heard of, has made $17,325 in release from a distributor we hadn't heard of called "In the Family." Nancy had a slightly higher profile given the star (Andrea Riseborough) and made $80,000 from the distributor Samuel Goldwyn.

SUPPORTING MALE


Exciting category! Thrilled to see Castillo get some recognition. And how about that. Washington missed for BlacKkKlansman but you can pretend he didn't since he was nominated for acting this year.

ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD
Which honors the director, casting director, and ensemble cast. There are never nominees announced, only a winner.

A truly curveball choice as it isn't much of an "actor's picture" with the bulk of the cast outside Tilda (who plays three roles) and Dakota Johnson just sort of mulling about the edges of the frame giving people sinister looks. I mean they're really good sinister looks but this is a total headscratcher. 

FIRST FEATURE


Another truly exciting category. Any of them would look good on the Spirits as a future winner. 

DIRECTOR

The Spirit Awards are saying they don't mind the streaming only way of releasing movies with all these Private Life nominations. 

SCREENPLAY

A sentimental nod for the late Richard Glatzer (Still Alice, Grief) as he started work on Colette before he died. 

FIRST SCREENPLAY


CINEMATOGRAPHY

A shocker to see If Beale Street Could Talk miss here despite the Best Feature nomination. 

EDITING


An iconoclastic category since only one of the Spirit Awards Best Feature nominees is included (You Were Never Really Here) 

FOREIGN FILM

Gorgeous list! The Favourite and Happy as Lazarro are not eligible in the parallel category at the Oscars. The other three could find themselves nominees, though given the hoopla. 

DOCUMENTARY

Minding the Gap has really been cleaning up in documentary awards the past two weeks. It's available on Hulu if you're curious.  

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD
This is a feature film prize for truly independent movies made for under $500,000.

Tyne Daly! We love her. Why haven't we heard of "A Bread Factory"

 

BONNIE AWARD (mid career female director)
$50,000 grant. Not for a specific film though they directed Leave No Trace, Private Life, and Destroyer this year

 

PRODUCERS AWARD
This prize is not for a specific film though they produced Sorry to Bother You, Little Woods, and a bunch of small films, respectively this year.

 

SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD 
$25,000 grant for an emerging filmmaker

 

TRUER THAN FICTION
$25,000 grant for a documentary filmmaker

What do you make of the nominations?

 

 

 

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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