Spirit Award Nods: "Never Rarely Sometimes Always" and "Minari" lead the nominations
Tuesday, January 26, 2021 at 1:07PM 
Chauncy and Barry helping announce the Spirit nominationsby Nathaniel R
Nominations for the 36th annual Independent Spirit Awards have been announced. Spirit winners Olivia Wilde (Booksmart) and Barry Jenkins (Moonlight) as well as actress Laverne Cox announced the nominations.
BEST FEATURE
- First Cow (Neil Kopp, Vincent Savino, Anish Savjani)
Received 3 nominations - Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (Todd Black, Denzel Washington, Dany Wolf)
Received 5 nominations - Minari (Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Christina Oh)
Received 6 nominations - Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Sara Murphy, Adele Romanski)
Received 7 nominations - Nomadland (Mollye Asher, Dan Janveey, Frances McDormand, Peter Spears, Chloe Zhao)
Received 5 nominations
A Full list of Film Independent Spirit nominees and commentary follow after the jump...
To be eligible for the Spirits your production budget needs to be under $22 million. Still. Should a low budget alone shouldn't qualify you?
Ma Rainey -- which we love so this isn't a complaint about qualify -- is, after all, an in-house all-star Netflix production. Netflix isn't exactly "indie" even though they pick up a lot of indie product. Promising Young Woman and Sound of Metal were the obvious misses here in the top category given their nominations elsewhere. Other films that scored multiple nominations that missed the big category were The Assistant, Miss Juneteenth, and I Carry You With Me. STIFFED ALTOGETHER? Some notable eligible productions that received zero nominations: The Nest, Relic, I'm thinking of ending things, Swallow, Fourteen, Pieces of a Woman, and The Surrogate (most of which had at least one nomination at the semi-parallel East Coast indie prizes the Gothams). Vast of Night is also missing but, due to festival appearances, it was eligible last year.
BEST DIRECTOR
Emerald Fennel's cameo in her own film "Promising Young Woman"
- Lee Isaac Chung, Minari
Three Spirit nominations now in his career - he was first nominated for the "Someon to Watch" award for Munyurangabo in 2007 - Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman
Her debut feature as a director netted her her first two Spirit nominations this year. - Eliza Hittman, Never Rarely Sometimes Always
Three Spirit nominations now in her career - she was first nominated for the "Cassavattes" award for It Felt Like Love in 2014 - Kelly Reichardt, First Cow
Seven Spirit nominations for her much-lauded career. She previously won the "Bonnie" for mid-career female directors. Has not won any of her film-specific nominations previously. She was thrice nominated for her debut film River of Grass in 1995. - Chloé Zhao, Nomadland
Seven Spirit nominations for her fairly new but much-lauded career. She previously won the "Bonnie" for mid-career female directors. Has not won any of her film-specific nominations previously. Her first nomination was for the "Someone to Watch Award" for Songs My Brothers Taught Me in 2015.
Female filmmakers really lead the conversation this year, with all of these women frequently honored in critics awards before this and/or at the Gothams. But happy to see Lee Isaac Chung here as his direction of Minari has not been getting the credit it deserves; this is only his second notable honor as a director after the Gold List honor yesterday.
BEST FIRST FEATURE
- I Carry You With Me (Heidi Ewing, Edher Campos, Mynette Louie, Gabriela Maire)
- The 40 Year Old Version (Radha Blank, Inuka Bacote-Capiga, Jordan Fudge, Rishi Rajani, Jennifer Semler, Lena Waithe)
- Miss Juneteenth (Channing Godfrey Peoples, Toby Halbrooks, Jeanie Igoe, James M Johnston, Theresa Steele Page, Neil Creque Williams)
- Nine Days (Edson Oda, Jason Michael Berman, Mette-Marie Kongsved, Matthewe Linder, Laura Tunstall, Datari Turner)
- Sound of Metal (Darius Marder, Bill Benz, Kathy Benz, Bert Hamelinck, Sacha Ben Harroche)
Nine Days opted out of the current awards season by moving its release well into 2021... but at the Spirits you can become eligible merely with festival releases which is what happened there via Sundance in January of 2020.
JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD – Films made for under $500,000. Award gose to the writer, director, and producer
- Killing of Two Lovers (Robert Machian, Scott Christopherson, Clayne Crawford)
- La Leyende Negra (Patricia Vidal Delgado)
- Lingua Franca (Isabel Sandoval)
- Residue (Merawi Gerima)
- Saint Frances (Alex Thompson, Kelly O'Sullivan, James Choi, Pierce Cravens, Ian Keiser, Eddie Linker, Raphael Nash, Roger Welp)
This can be a good category to discover things you've never heard of. Or prompt you to see things you have heard about but haven't gotten around to (hi, Lingua Franca)
BEST SCREENPLAY
- Bad Education (Mike Makowsky)
- The Half of It (Alice Wu)
- Minari (Lee Isaac Chung)
- Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Eliza Hittman)
- Promising Young Woman (Emerald Fennell)
Good category
BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
- The Assistant (Kitty Green)
- Lapsis (Noah Hutton)
- Miss Juneteenth (Channing Godfrey Peoples)
- Palm Springs (Andy Siara)
- Straight Up (James Sweeney)
Yay, Palm Springs. People aren't taking it seriously because it's a comedy but it's a great comedy so it should be taken seriously.
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
cool nomination for "She Dies Tomorrow" and its trippy siren light color gels
- The Assistant (Michael Latham)
- Bull (Shabier Kirchner)
- Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Helene Louvart)
- Nomadland (Joshua James Richards)
- She Dies Tomorrow (Jay Keitel)
Love that this category stays indie. A great place to see young cinematographers on the rise. Kirchner also shot Small Axe so he's been winning lots of praise this year. Richards is surely headed to an Oscar nomination this year after receiving lots of industry attention, including an ASC nomination for The Rider.
BEST EDITING
- I Carry You With Me (Enat Sidi)
- Invisible Man (Andy Canny)
- Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Scott Cummings)
- Nomadland (Chloe Zhao)
- Residue (Merawi Gerima)
It's always interesting when a John Cassavettes nominated picture shows up in one of the main categories. VERY happy about the I Carry You With Me nomination, as well, as that was surely a difficult blending storytelling task via the editing.
BEST FEMALE LEAD
- Nicole Beharie, Miss Juneteenth
- Viola Davis, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
- Sidney Flanigan, Never Rarely
- Julia Garner, The Assistant
- Frances McDormand, Nomadland
- Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman
It's the one category that got an extra nomination slot! We don't know the Spirit Awards rules so we'll assume there was a fifth place tie or close enough.
BEST MALE LEAD
- Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal
- Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
- Adarsh Gourav, The White Tiger
- Rob Morgan, Bull
- Steven Yeun, Minari
Adarsh Gourav is the surprise here but he is wonderful in The White Tiger.
BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE
- Alexis Chikaeze - Miss Juneteenth
- Han Yeri - Minari
- Valerie Mahaffey - French Exit
- Talia Ryder -Never Rarely Sometimes Always
- Young Yuh-jung - Minari
Wow. So happy for Valerie Mahaffey as that is very unexpected given the lack of buzz for her or the film.
BEST SUPPORTING MALE
- Colman Domingo, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
- Orion Lee, First Cow
- Paul Raci, Sound of Metal
- Glynn Turman, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
- Benedict Wong, Nine Days
Very surprised to see Colman Domingo here (though I'm a huge fan). And Benedict Wong too. It's nice to see him step away from his teeny-tiny but surely lucrative role in the MCU and do an indie. Raci might be headed to an Oscar nominatiom, and Turman could do, if some of the category fraudsters get out of the way.
ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD – Given to one film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast
- One Night in Miami - Regina King, Kimberly R Hardin, Kingsley, Eli, Aldis, Leslie
BEST DOCUMENTARY
- Collective
- Crip Camp
- Dick Johnson is Dead
- The Mole Agent
- Time
Two of these (Collective & The Mole Agent) are double-eligible at the Oscars this year for Best Documentary Feature and Best International Feature
BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM
Quo Vadis, Aida is starting to look like a formidable Oscar contender
- Bacurau (Brazil)
- The Disciple (India)
- Night of the Kings (Ivory Coast)
- Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time (Hungary)
- Quo Vadis Aida (Bosnia and Hezegovina)
Only Bacurau and The Disciple are ineligible for Oscar's upcoming International Feature race.
BEST NEW SCRIPTED SERIES
- A Teacher
- I May Destroy You
- Little America
- Small Axe
- Unorthodox
The Spirits have added TV awards for the first time. Five of them to be exact.
BEST NEW NON-SCRIPTED OR DOCUMENTARY SERIES
- Atlanta's Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children
- City So Real
- Immigration Nation
- Love Fraud
- We're Here
I love We're Here so sooooo much. It's so smart and humane and non-hyper about itself.
BEST MALE PERFORMANCE IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES
- Adam Ali, Little America
- Nicco Annan, P-Valley
- Conphidance, Little America
- Amit Rahav, Unorthodox
- Harold Torres, ZeroZeroZero
BEST FEMALE PERFORMANCE IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES
- Elle Fanning, The Great
- Shira Haas, Unorthodox
- Abby McEnany, Work in Progress
- Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Never Have I Ever
- Jordan Kristine Seamon, We Are Who We Are
BEST ENSEMBLE IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES
- I May Destroy You -- Michaela Cole, Paapa Essiedu, Wruche Opia, and Steven White
BONNIE AWARD – This prize recognizes a midcareer female director with a $ grant
-
HMMM. they didn't announce these for the first time that we can recall. Perhaps they discontinued this award? Maybe they feel it's a moot point now that female directors are being regularly lauded? But still two years of regular honors for female directors doesn't suggest to us that the problem is all solved now. So they might want to think about keeping this going for a few more years. What's more "midcareer" grants are very cool things since it's not just emerging filmmakers who struggle but artists who keep plugging away, too!
PRODUCERS AWARD – Another prize with grant $ as the reward
- Kara Durrett
- Lucas Joaquin
- Gerry Kim
They never mention specific films for this prize so here's a few detail. Durrett is from Ohio originally and has been producing for a handful of years now. Her highest profile project to date was Save Yourselves (2020), a sci-fi comedy. Lucas Joaquin is from Georgia originally and has been producing for about a decade. He started very strong out of the gate with both Beasts of the Southern Wild and Keep the Lights On (2012). Recent projects include Evening Hour, Seelah and the Spades, and Blow the Man Down. Gerry Kim has worked extensively in location management for television and his producing career stared with documentaries a dozen or so years ago. His most recent project was the Mexican submission for the Oscar I'm No Longer Here which is currently streaming on Netflix.
SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD – Another grant $ prize this one to directors that still haven’t really broken through.
- David Midell, Killing of Kenneth Chamberlin
- Ekwa Msangi, Farewell Amor
- Annie Silverstein, Bull
TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD – Grant $ for an emerging documentarian
- Cecilia Aldoronado, Landfall
- Elegance Bratton, Pier Kids
- Elizabeth Lo -Stray
THE NOMINATION VIDEO
We love Barry (who appeared with his adorably large pup, "Chauncy Wang-Jenkins") but he sure could you pointers on how to announce a list of names from Laverne Cox, who enunciated each name clearly and passionately as if it was super important to the nominees themselves... and it is!
What were you most surprised about seeing these nominees?
Reader Comments (31)
Man, PIECES OF A WOMEN is really on a downward spiral with the awards bodies.
Glad to see Domingo here. I thought he was excellent, and I've been a bit surprised that Turman has been getting all the supporting actor buzz for their film.
Seeing Valarie Mahaffey makes me think that Michelle Pfeiffer's chances are pretty much over. It's obvious that spirit voters saw her film and found 6 other performances that were better. Hard to see her making a serious play for a nomination when she keeps missing precursors.
Vanessa Kirby will be remembered as the great snub of 2021. Exceptional performance by an actress who is only getting started.
I think Domingo will sneak into the best supporting actor race and very deservedly so
If Bad Education was eligible for Screenplay, was Hugh Jackman also eligible? If so, it's too bad he missed.
I'm sorry Brian Dennehy missed the Supporting line-up for Driveways as well (especially because, as you said, Ma Rainey isn't really independent, whereas Driveways is the very definition of the word). But oh well, most of these are quite good.
Riz Ahmed and Carey Mulligan just won National Board of Review! How thrilling. Hope this solidifies their respective positions in the Oscar lead categories. Still so much time left though.
Wow. It has not been a good couple of weeks for Kirby. I have taken her out of my top 5 and I am this close to taking Burstyn out as well.
jules - Driveways was eligible for 2019. Dennehy didn't get a nomination, but Hong Chau was nominated for Best Actress and it received a nomination for Best 1st Screenplay
It seems strange that Bad Education and The Invisible Man only received one nomination each, in categories that you wouldn't really expect, and then miss out on the nominations you would. No Best Actor for Hugh Jackman? No Best Actress - in a field of 6 even - for Elisabeth Moss?
I joined Indie Spirit so I get to vote, and can't wait for the streamers, since I've seen so little. Still, I did see First Cow and Never ... and loved them both. The only other one I've seen is Ma Rainey - Viola Davis is a volcanic force of nature, but the film itself is very uneven. And I still consider her Supporting. Oh well, looks like I've been outvoted.
Is Han Yeri competing in supporting rather than lead for all awards now? She honestly might have a better shot in supporting.
Shocked that Michaela COEL (correct spelling) did not get an individual performance nomination for I May Destroy You, especially considering who did get nominated.
Coel got the Ensemble Cast nom. Like the Robert Altman award for films actors can't be nominated when they win the Ensemble.
Working stiff : but she got the ensemble award which I believe disqualifies one from an individual acting nomination.
Great list. I'm happy to see notices for films that I loved but have been mostly ignored this year like "Palm Springs," "The 40 Year Old Version," "The Half of It," and "White Tiger."
Huh.
Honestly, the film year has been pretty whatever to me, so indifferent to the nominations. Cool to see TV recognition, though!
Sadly, it's a shame they couldn't find room for Nick Robinson. His work in A Teacher is so much more difficult than he makes it look. There is at least one sequence late in the show, admittedly the technical aspects help tremendously, too, where he was downright stunning.
Didn't expect much out of a Teacher in general but I was knocked out by how good it was without needing to be.
Also, Normal People was produced by Hulu but it counts as a UK production? I ask since it's absent here, and that's another show I'd imagine the Spirits warming up to if eligible.
@ leon & Michael R: Well, in that case...
Guys, I don't think Vanessa Kirby is going to be out of the five nominees for the Academy Best Actress, honestly. She and Frances McDormand are safe. Plus Viola Davis. The other two? Carey Mulligan deserves a nomination. And is paving her way. There are still other films to be released that will influence the final result. But I don't think Vanessa Kirby is out of the picture at all.
Nathaniel: I also didn't love Barry's lazy pronunciation. But nothing was worse than when Tiffany Haddish announced the Oscar nominations 3 years ago. Gosh that was cringeworthy!
Feline Justice : I still think she has a decent shot but she keeps missing everywhere. This should have been an easy get for her today. If she misses Globe and/or SAG I feel she's done.
Love the mention for We're Here as well.
Wow...no Vanessa Kirby or Ellen Burstyn. I still think Oscar will include them both!
I like the Actress pics not so much the supporting men apart from Raci.
I think the problem with the Bonnie Award this year is that its funder, American Airlines, is barely surviving like all airlines are under COVID. Probably lost its funding.
The Best Actor nominees list is all POC, no white men. Love it.
Kelly -- that makes sense.
Nicole Beharie!!!
The Assistant was kind of meh. Not bad but didn't really stand out to me.
So happy to see STRAIGHT UP get a nomination here. One of my favorites of 2020, and the dialogue is so witty and fast-paced like what I’ve heard about GILMORE GIRLS (which the two lead characters love).
Nathaniel: You listed The Vast of Night as a surprise omission but it was actually eligible for last year's Spirit Awards where it was only nominated for Best First Screenplay (which it sadly lost).
Meanwhile, I really am stunned that I'm Thinking of Ending Things got nothing. It didn't work for me but it's got the snob appeal for sure, showing up on lots of Top 10 lists.
I think this slate of nominations is mostly good. Not the most exciting compared to years past, but it could be worse. I really don't get the John Magaro snub in Best Actor though. I hope First Cow sweeps but I feel like it won't.
And I think Han Ye-Ri should switch to a Supporting Actress campaign for The Oscars. There is definitely room for her in that category.
Charlea -- ooh, thanks for the note. I shall fix.
What's independent about projects made for Netflix or Amazon Prime? Seriously, the Spirit Awards need to lower the budget threshold to, say, 4 million dollars, or their relevance is going to evaporate pretty quickly. Oscar's starting to embrace high low budget films in a real way. BAD EDUCATION and MA RAINEY should not be here. They're basically the TERMS OF ENDEARMENTs and SOLDIER'S STORYs of our time.
Dan -- i agree. I've long thought that where they shine is in the john cassavettes style prizes... although those would get much less attention. But i think the budget should be under $20 million and in house productions shouldn't be eligible because they truly are NOT independent but fully funded by a corporation. I would say it's fine if they're festival pickups for big corporations of course because they began life as independent films.