Spirit Award Nominations!

by Nathaniel R

Zola leads the nominations with The Novice and The Lost Daughter in runners up position

Zola, A24's raucuous stripper roadtrip comedy led the 37th annual Film Independent Spirit Awards with 7 nominations. A24 also scored with  C'mon C'mon (3 nods) Red Rocket (2 nods) and The Humans (1 nod) putting them in the lead for distributors. Netflix was in second place with 9 citations, 4 of those for The Lost Daughter. The big surprise, though, was arguably the very strong showing by IFC Film's horror entry The Novice which received 5 nominations.

It wasn't all good news. Passing was given the short end of the stick yet again (why can't people see its brilliance?) and due to the vagaries of juried nominations there are always a few odd omissions to consider. Full list of nominations with commentary after the jump... If there's a link it goes to our review of that picture.

BEST FEATURE 

• A Chiara (NEON)
• C'mon C'mon (A24)
• The Lost Daughter (Netflix)
• The Novice (IFC Films)
• Zola (A24)

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD - (essentially Best Feature on a microbudget)

• Cryptozoo (Magnolia)
• Jockey (Sony Pictures Classics)
• Shiva Baby (Utopia)
• Sweet Thing (Distribrutor???)
• This is Not a War Story (HBOMax)

Nice to see Shiva Baby show up here. People who see it tend to enjoy it but with 1000s upon 1000s of options on streaming these days, any awards notice helps for tiny pictures. We confess we hadn't heart of Sweet Thing. 

ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD (essentially best ensemble -- given to a film's director, casting director, and cast)

• Mass Director: Fran Kranz; Casting Directors: Henry Russell Bergstein, Allison Estrin; Cast: Reed Birney, Ann Dowd, Jason Isaacs, Martha Plimpton, Brenda Wool, Kagen Albright, Michelle N Carter

This is an impeccable choice for this particular award, since the entire film's success if due to the cumulative power of its ensemble acting. 

BEST DIRECTOR

• Mike Mills, C'mon C'mon
• Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Lost Daughter
• Lauren Hattaway, The Novice
• Ninja Thyberg, Pleasure
• Janicza Bravo, Zola 

Pleasure sure has had a frustrating journey to awards. We began hearing about it a long while back since it's been on the festival circuit for awhile but it has yet to open in the US. NEON has distribution rights but no release date for it yet.

BEST FEMALE LEAD 

• Isabelle Furhman, The Novice
• Brittany S Hall, Test Pattern
• Patty Harrison, Together Together
• Taylour Paige, Zola
• Kali Reis, Catch the Fair One

It's strange not to see Olivia Colman here since they embraced The Lost Daughter in a major way but on the other hand we're not surprised by the Tessa Thompson exclusion as they obviously only sorta liked Passing (what's wrong with them?). The Spirits treated Passing exactly how they treated another critical darling a few years back that you'd have thought would be up their alley -- remember when Can You Ever Forgive Me only got one craft nod and the supporting acting citation but missed in Best Feature and for its leading actress?  

BEST MALE LEAD 

• Clifton Collins Jr, Jockey
• Frankie Faison, The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain
• Michael Greyeyes, Wild Indian
• Udo Kier, Swan Song
• Simon Rex, Red Rocket

No Joaquin Phoenix for C'mon C'mon despite the best feature citation. He can join Olivia Colman in the surprise snub category. We're thrilled to see Udo Kier here though since it would have been a pity had nobody at all honored him this year for what could have easily been a major awards run moment for him had the film been a bit "bigger" in terms of budget, distribution, and critical attention. 

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE

• Jesse Buckley, The Lost Daughter
• Amy Forsyth, The Novice
• Ruth Negga, Passing
• Revika Reustle, Pleasure
• Suzanna Son, Red Rocket

Ruth Negga is so genius in Passing so we're relieved that she's here. When someone is genius the least you can do is nominate them, you know?

At the risk of sounding like a broken record as I've already said this once... it's strange that groups keep singling out Suzanna Son instead of Bree Elrod for Red Rocket, since the latter has a more complex character and feel's more like an actor's actor. On the other hand awards bodies of all kinds do love their ingenue parts. And Suzanna Son is good too.

BEST SUPPORTING MALE

• Colman Domingo, Zola
• Meeko Gattuso, Queen of Glory
• Troy Kotsur, CODA
• Will Patton, Sweet Thing
• Chaske Spencer, Wild Indian

Yay for our long-loved Colman Domingo. And we're happy that Troy Kotsur is happening. We thought he was more of a longshot but he's been doing well and, as the best performance in his well-liked movie, maybe an Oscar nomination could happen (Cross your fingers) 

BEST SCREENPLAY

• C'mon C'mon - Mike Mills
• The Lost Daughter - Maggie Gyllenhaal
• Swan Song - Todd Stephens
• Together Together - Nicole Beckwith
• Zola - Janicza Bravo & Jeremy O. Harris

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY

• Cicada - Matt Fifer and Sheldon Brown
• Mass - Fran Kranz
• Pig - Michael Sarnoski and Vanessa Block
• Test Pattern - Shatara Michelle Ford
• Wild Indian - Lyle Mitchell Corbine Jr

No Passing here is rude.  

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

• A Chiara - Tim Curtin
• Blue Bayou - Ante Chang and Matthew Chuang
• The Humans - Lol Crawley
• Passing - Edu Grau
• Zola - Ari Wegner

Intriguing choices. 

BEST EDITING 

• A Chiara - Affonso Gonçalvez
• The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain - Enrico Natale
• The Novice - Lauren Hadaway and Nathan Nugent
• The Nowhere Inn - Ali Greer
• Zola - Joi McMillion

BEST DOCUMENTARY

• Ascension (Paramount+)
• Flee (NEON)
• In the Same Breath (HBOMax)
• Procession (Netflix)
• Summer of Soul (Searchlight)

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM

• Compartment No 6 (Finland)
• Drive My Car (Japan)
• Parallel Mothers (Spain)
• Pebbles (India)
• Petite Maman (France)
• Prayers for the Stolen (Mexico)

Parallel Mothers continues to do well. Pity it can't run for this category at the Oscars. Love seeing Petite Maman here too though it's in the same boat for Oscar. 

BEST FIRST FEATURE

• 7 Days - Roshan Sethi
• Holler - Nicole Riegel
• Queen of Glory - Nana Mensah
• Test Pattern - Shatara Michelle Ford
• Wild Indian - Lyle Mitchelle Corbine, Jr.

PRODUCERS AWARD (for creativity, tenacity, and vision producing indies) 

• Brad Becker-Parton
• Pin-Chin Liu
• Lizzie Shapiro

SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD  (Director who has not yet received appropriate recognition)

• Alex Camilleri, Luzzu
• Michael Sarnoski, Pig
• Gillian Wallace Horvat, I Blame Society

This category has often felt kind of amusing. It's a great idea in theory but it's also kind of a self-own to have a category expressly about filmmakers not receiving recognition... and then not recognizing them outside of that category. 

TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD (Emerging Documentary Filmmakers)

• Jessica Beshir, Faya Dayi
• Debbie Lum, Try Harder!
• Angelo Madsen Minax, North by Current

TELEVISION CATEGORIES

NEW NON-FICTION SERIES

• Black and Missing
• The Choe Show
• The Lady and the Dale
• Nuclear Family
• Philly D.A.

NEW SCRIPTED SERIES

• Blindspotting
• It's a Sin
• Reservation Dogs
• The Underground Railroad
• The White Lotus

BEST FEMALE PERFORMANCE IN A SCRIPTED SERIES

• Deborah Ayorinde, THEM: Covenant
• Jasmine Cephas Jones, Blindspotting
• Thuso Mbedu, Underground Railroad
• Anjana Vasan, We Are Lady Parts
• Jana Schmieding, Rutherford Falls

Where is Jennifer Coolidge??? 

BEST MALE PERFORMANCE IN A SCRIPTED SERIES

• Olly Alexander, It's a Sin
• Murray Bartlett, the White Lotus
• Michael Greyeyes, Rutherford Falls
• Lee Jung-Jae, Squid Game
• Ashley Thomas, THEM: Covenant

As someone who loved It's a Sin, I confess I dont get the various Olly Alexander citations from awards bodies. A serviceable enough lead, for sure, but hardly the MVP of his own series.

BEST ENSEMBLE CAST IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES

• Reservation Dogs (Devery Jacobs, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Lane Factor, Paulina Alexis, Sarah Podemski, Zahn McClarnon, Lil Mike, FunnyBone)

Comments

[Tom M]

Please explain to me why Passing isn’t even scoring big nods here?!?! One of my favorite movies of the year and it feels like everyone is sleeping on it except for nominations for Ruth Negga (who is absolutely deserving).

[César Gaytán]

This list is exciting, at least is really more "independent" from Oscar tastes in comparison from recent years.

But now I'm a little in shock about the news about Veronica Forqué. I hope this site will remember her as she deserves.

[Greg F]

Yes, where is the Passing love outside of Negga??

Surprised to see Colman miss too, given how well the film did overall and Buckley got in

[Dan H]

This seems like the first time in a long time that the Independent Spirit Awards is actually offering a full slate of what most people mean by the term independent films. I too am surprised at the absence of PASSING. It really seems to have that old independent film vibe you used to see in Sundance Film Festival competition films back in the 80s and early 90s and is certainly deserving.

[eurocheese]

Swan Song! Jockey! Mass!

I love that for the most part, they're not going with potential Oscar players. Well done.

[Lucky]

Sad for Riley Keough but Zola got everything, so yay. Thought Rebecca Hall was going to be everywhere, I hope she gets in at the Oscars for Screenplay. I was rooting for Tessa Thompson as well.

[Mr Ripley79]

Why are Mass's actors not being recognised much?

[Peggy Sue]

Happy for Martha Plimpton.

[Pam]

Ensemble awards for MASS and RESERVATION DOGS makes me so happy! (I wonder how Fran Kranz feels, since the idea for the screenplay came to him after Sandy Hook, which happened 9 years ago today.)

Why isn't Tessa Thompson in the mix for PASSING? She was literally in every scene. The movie does not work without her. I love Ruth Negga and her body of work (anyone remember her in Five Daughters?) but Tessa is just as stellar in this film.

[McGill]

I see that Michael Greyeyes has double nominations at both the Gotham awards and the Spirit awards for “Wild Indian” and “Rutherford Falls”.

Sadly I have seen neither, but I do admire Michael Greyeyes. He’s such an interesting actor/ dancer/ choreographer/ director.

I do love actor/ dancers with their concise, distinctive, evocative movement. So many actors can’t move at all. It’s like they are posing for a series of selfies.

[Glenn Dunks]

Most of these were already on my radar as still needing to see (Test Pattern, Chamberlain, Wild Indian) although I too had never heard of Sweet Thing or This is Not a War Story so I'm keen to look into those (the Cassavetes category is always my favourite, although JOCKEY isn't great and CRYPTOZOO only goes so far--SHIVA BABY is wonderful though and I reckon it'll win).

[Ozzie T]

This is a thrilling set of nominations - so many new titles to see!

(Btw, The producer’s name is Pin-ChUn, not Pin-Chin…)