Spirit Award Nominations!
Tuesday, December 14, 2021 at 10:03AM
NATHANIEL R in Cmon Cmon, Spirit Awards, The Lost Daughter, The Novice, Zola, precursor awards

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 

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

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)

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

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 

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 

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

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

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

 

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY

No Passing here is rude.  

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Intriguing choices. 

BEST EDITING 

 

BEST DOCUMENTARY

 

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM

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

 

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

 

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

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)

 

TELEVISION CATEGORIES

NEW NON-FICTION SERIES

 

NEW SCRIPTED SERIES

 

BEST FEMALE PERFORMANCE IN A SCRIPTED SERIES

Where is Jennifer Coolidge??? 

BEST MALE PERFORMANCE IN A SCRIPTED SERIES

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

 

 

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