Women Rule the Indie Spirit Nominations, But Will Oscars Follow?
The nominations for Film Independent’s 34th Independent Spirit Awards are in. The always-idiosyncratic nominations committees steer toward low-budget indie American movies (there’s supposedly a $20-million budget cap), which explains why ineligible titles include too-expensive “Vice,” Belgian-directed “Beautiful Boy,” French-directed “The Sisters Brothers,” and British movie “Mary Queen of Scots,” among others, and how Alfonso Cuarón’s “Roma” (Mexico, Netflix) wound up in the stellar international film category which also includes likely Oscar-contenders “Burning” (South Korea, Well Go USA), “The Favourite” (UK, Fox Searchlight), and Palme d’Or winner “Shoplifters” (Japan, Magnolia).
Spirit nominations do offer some guidance for other awards shows, from the Screen Actors Guild to the Oscars: back in March, Frances McDormand, Allison Janney, and Sam Rockwell all landed Spirit wins in the blustery white tent in Santa Monica the day before accepting their inevitable Oscars. Original Screenplay Oscar winner Jordan Peele took home the Best Feature Indie Spirit for “Get Out”; before that, the previous four winners of that prize all went on to win the Best Picture Oscar: “Moonlight,” “Spotlight,” “Birdman,” and “12 Years a Slave.”
For the 2019 Indie Spirit Awards, Jeremiah Zagar’s Sundance breakout “We the Animals” (The Orchard) led the field with five Spirit nominations (not including Best Feature), followed by Bo Burnham’s “Eighth Grade” (A24), veteran Paul Schrader’s “First Reformed” (A24), and Brit Lynne Ramsay’s “You Were Never Really Here” (Amazon Studios) with four each including Best Feature.
“If Beale Street Could Talk” (Annapurna) landed three nods (Best Feature and Director for Barry Jenkins and Supporting Actress for Regina King) that give it a push in the Oscar race.
Read More: ‘Roma’: Here’s How Alfonso Cuarón Can Really Disrupt the Oscar Race
The nominating committees rewarded a number of films created by women. Along with Ramsay’s “You Were Never Really Here,” Debra Granik’s “Leave No Trace” (Bleecker Street) — one of the best-reviewed films of the year — landed three nominations including Best Feature, Director, and Supporting Actress (Thomas McKenzie) but not Ben Foster, while Tamara Jenkins’ “Private Life” (Netflix) landed nods for Directing, Screenplay, and Supporting Female Actor Kayli Carter, but not Best Feature or nominations for its leading stars, Kathryn Hahn and Paul Giamatti. Schrader is the only white male in the directing category.
Landing a Screenplay nod was Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty’s “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” (Fox Searchlight) which is a strong Oscar contender for Adapted Screenplay. While Richard E. Grant also scored a Supporting Actor slot, the Marielle Heller movie was overlooked when it came to Director, Feature, or Best Actress recognition for star Melissa McCarthy. That movie could have used some support.
A24 had a good day, landing a total of a dozen nominations for “Eighth Grade,” “First Reformed,” “Hereditary” (Best First Feature for Ari Aster), “Mid90s” (Best Editing for Nick Houey), and “Never Goin’ Back” (John Cassavetes Award for low-budget filmmaking).
Netflix received seven nominations while Annapurna took six, for “If Beale Street Could Talk,” “Sorry to Bother You” (Best First Feature and Screenplay for Boots Riley), and its upcoming crime drama “Destroyer” — filmmaker Karyn Kusama will compete with Granik and Jenkins for the Bonnie Award for female director.
Amazon Studios landed four for “You Were Never Really Here,” and cinematography for Luca Guadagnino’s horror remake “Suspiria,” which also landed the Robert Altman award, which took it out of the running for directing and acting awards. Fox Searchlight has three (“Can You Ever Forgive Me?” and “The Favourite”), and IFC scored three for “Wildlife.”
Among the Best Actress contenders, Glenn Close (Sony Pictures Classics’ “The Wife”) is the most likely Oscar contender, followed by Carey Mulligan (“Wildlife”) with Toni Collette helped by this callout for her role in “Hereditary.” Long shots for Oscars include “Eighth Grade” lead Elsie Fisher, Helena Howard (“Madeline’s Madeline”), and comedienne Regina Hall (“Support the Girls”).
Left out was Keira Knightley (“Colette”), Julia Roberts (“Ben is Back”), Nicole Kidman (“Destroyer”), Laura Dern (“The Tale”), Kathryn Hahn (“Private Life”), newcomer Kiki Layne (“If Beale Street Could Talk”), Felicity Jones (“On the Basis of Sex”) and Charlize Theron (“Tully”).
“First Reformed” star Ethan Hawke also gets a leg up in the Best Actor race, along with Joaquin Phoenix, who won Best Actor at Cannes for “You Were Never Really Here.” Lucas Hedges missed the boat for both “Boy Erased” and “Ben is Back,” along with veteran actors Robert Redford (“The Old Man & the Gun”) and Willem Dafoe (“At Eternity’s Gate”), who both could have used some support.
While Adam Driver did land a Supporting Actor nomination for Spike Lee’s “The BlackKklansman” (Focus Features), his co-star John David Washington did not: the well-regarded summer hit was otherwise overlooked.
Among the documentaries, Oscar frontrunner “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” was nominated, but not box-office hits “Free Solo” and “RBG.” Getting a boost in a crowded field were “Of Fathers and Sons,” “Shirkers,” “Minding the Gap,” “Hale County, This Morning, This Evening,” and “On Her Shoulders;” the latter three also landed nods for the Truer than Fiction award.
This year’s Spirit Awards, voted on by some 7,000 members of Film Independent, take place on February 23, aired live on IFC.
The full nominations list is below.
Best Feature
EIGHTH GRADE
FIRST REFORMED
IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK
LEAVE NO TRACE
YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE
Best Director
Debra Granik, LEAVE NO TRACE
Barry Jenkins, IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK
Tamara Jenkins, PRIVATE LIFE
Lynne Ramsay, YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE
Paul Schrader, FIRST REFORMED
Best First Feature
HEREDITARY
SORRY TO BOTHER YOU
THE TALE
WE THE ANIMALS
WILDLIFE
Best Female Lead
Glenn Close, THE WIFE
Toni Collette, HEREDITARY
Elsie Fisher, EIGHTH GRADE
Regina Hall, SUPPORT THE GIRLS
Helena Howard, MADELINE’S MADELINE
Carey Mulligan, WILDLIFE
Best Male Lead
John Cho, SEARCHING
Daveed Diggs, BLINDSPOTTING
Ethan Hawke, FIRST REFORMED
Christian Malheiros, SÓCRATES
Joaquin Phoenix, YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE
Best Supporting Female
Kayli Carter, PRIVATE LIFE
Tyne Daly, A BREAD FACTORY
Regina King, IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK
Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie, LEAVE NO TRACE
J. Smith-Cameron, NANCY
Best Supporting Male
Raúl Castillo, WE THE ANIMALS
Adam Driver, BLACKKKLANSMAN
Richard E. Grant, CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?
Josh Hamilton, EIGHTH GRADE
John David Washington, MONSTERS AND MEN
Best Screenplay
Richard Glatzer (Writer/Story By), Rebecca Lenkiewicz & Wash Westmoreland, COLETTE
Nicole Holofcener & Jeff Whitty, CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?
Tamara Jenkins, PRIVATE LIFE
Boots Riley, SORRY TO BOTHER YOU
Paul Schrader FIRST REFORMED
Best First Screenplay
Bo Burnham, EIGHTH GRADE
Christina Choe, NANCY
Cory Finley, THOROUGHBREDS
Jennifer Fox, THE TALE
Quinn Shephard (Writer/Story By) and Laurie Shephard (Story By), BLAME
Best Cinematography
Ashley Connor, MADELINE’S MADELINE
Diego Garcia, WILDLIFE
Benjamin Loeb, MANDY
Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, SUSPIRIA
Zak Mulligan, WE THE ANIMALS
Best Editing
Joe Bini, YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE
Keiko Deguchi, Brian A. Kates & Jeremiah Zagar, WE THE ANIMALS
Luke Dunkley, Nick Fenton, Chris Gill & Julian Hart, AMERICAN ANIMALS
Anne Fabini, Alex Hall and Gary Levy, THE TALE
Nick Houy, MID90S
John Cassavetes Award
A BREAD FACTORY
EN EL SÉPTIMO DÍA
NEVER GOIN’ BACK
SÓCRATES
THUNDER ROAD
Robert Altman Award
SUSPIRIA
Best Documentary
HALE COUNTY THIS MORNING, THIS EVENING
MINDING THE GAP
OF FATHERS AND SONS
ON HER SHOULDERS
SHIRKERS
WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR?
Best International Film
BURNING (South Korea)
THE FAVOURITE (United Kingdom)
HAPPY AS LAZZARO (Italy)
ROMA (Mexico)
SHOPLIFTERS (Japan)
Piaget Producers Award
Jonathan Duffy and Kelly Williams
Gabrielle Nadig
Shrihari Sathe
Someone to Watch Award
Alex Moratto, SÓCRATES
Ioana Uricaru, LEMONADE
Jeremiah Zagar, WE THE ANIMALS
Truer Than Fiction Award
Alexandria Bombach, ON HER SHOULDERS
Bing Liu, MINDING THE GAP
RaMell Ross, HALE COUNTY THIS MORNING, THIS EVENING
Annual Bonnie Award
Debra Granik
Tamara Jenkins
Karyn Kusama
You may also like
