By Anthony D'Alessandro, Jill Goldsmith
December 14, 2021 7:21amDistributor A24 and Zola led nominations as the Film Independent Spirit Awards revealed their 37th annual nods in a pre-taped presentation hosted by Beanie Feldstein, Regina Hall and Naomi Watts. The Spirit Awards are skedded for Sunday, March 6, 2022 — live and in-person this year back on the beach in Santa Monica, and broadcast on IFC.
A24’s Zola, by Janicza Bravo and based on a Twitter chain from a riotous road trip, was recognized for Best Feature Director, Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Female Lead and Supporting Male. Mike Mills’ C’mon C’mon with Joaquin Phoenix took four nods including feature, director and screenplay. The distributor’s dominating 13 nods were rounded out by two for Sean Baker’s Red Rocket — for Best Male Lead, Simon Rex, and Best Supporting Female, Suzanna Son. The Humans, directed by Stephen Karam based on his one-act play, was nominated in cinematography.
Netflix and Neon took nine nods each, with the giant streamer’s tally buoyed by much decorated The Lost Daughter from Maggie Gyllenhaal based on the Elena Ferranti novel, and a pair of nods for Rebecca Hall’s Passing. Neon spread the wealth led by a wave of nominations for A Chiara (Best Feature, Editing, Cinematography) and including Pig, Pleasure, Flee for Best Documentary and Petite Maman for International Film.
IFC Films had eight nods led by multiple Tribeca Festival-award winner The Novice from first-time director Lauren Hadaway which opens this weekend in theaters and on demand.
It’s become a busy but odd awards season leading up to Oscar nominations that don’t roll around until Feb. 8. Box office coin is flowing to big budget wide releases, with older audiences that are the key demo for most of these films still reluctant to return to theaters and little data available about how they’re being consumed on streaming or VOD.
The Film Independent Spirit awards cap film budgets at $22.5 million or below to be eligible, which is why some other high-profile indie names aren’t in contention. A selection committee of more than 50 people culled 650 candidates to settle on the nods below, said president of Film Independent, Josh Welsh. Unlike other awards, all members of the nonprofit — “filmmakers and film lovers” alike — in good standing as of Dec. 21 can vote for the winners.
Welsh said 44% of the writers and directors nominated identify as women and 38% as BIPOC. Of the nominating committee, 63% identified as women, 5% as non-binary and 56% as BIPOC.
In other multiple nominations, Magnolia Pictures nabbed five nods, two apiece for Swan Song and Queen of Glory, one for Cryptozoo. Sony Pictures Classics had four nods, two for Jockey and two contenders for best international film, Parallel Mothers and Compartment No. 6.
Wild Indian swept Vertical Entertainment to four nods (Best First Feature, First Screenplay, Male Lead, Supporting Male). Kino Lorber took three nominations for Test Pattern, one for Luzzu.
Bleecker Street garnered two nods each for Together, Together and Mass.
And The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain from Gravitas Ventures saw a nod to Frankie Faison for Best Male Lead (fresh off his win for Outstanding Lead Performance at the Gotham Independent Film Awards Nov, 29) and another for Best Editing.
Check out this morning’s announcement here and the full list of nominees below:
BEST FEATURE
A Chiara
C’mon C’mon
The Lost Daughter
The Novice
Zola
BEST FIRST FEATURE
7 Days
Holler
Queen Glory
Test Pattern
Wild Indian
BEST FEMALE LEAD
Isabelle Fuhrman, The Novice
Brittany S. Hall, Test Pattern
Patti Harrison, Together Together
Taylour Paige, Zola
Kali Reis, Catch the Fair One
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
BEST DIRECTOR
Janicza Bravo, Zola
Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Lost Daughter
Lauren Hadaway, The Novice
Mike Mills, C’mon C’mon
Ninja Thyberg, Pleasure
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Ascension
Flee
In the Same Breath
Procession
Summer of Soul
BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE
Jessie Buckley, The Lost Daughter
Amy Forsyth, The Novice
Ruth Negga, Passing
Revika Anne Reustle, Pleasure
Suzanna Son, Red Rocket
BEST SUPPORTING MALE
Colman Domingo, Zola
Meeko Gattuso, Queen of Glory
Troy Kotsur, CODA
Will Patton, Sweet Thing
Chaske Spencer, Wild Indian
BEST SCREENPLAY
C’mon C’mon, Mike Mills
The Lost Daughter, Maggie Gyllenhaal
Swan Song, Todd Stephens
Together Together, Nikole Beckwith
Zola, Janicza Bravo, Jeremy O. Harris
BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
Lyle Mitchell Corbine, Jr., Wild Indian
Matt Fifer; Story by Sheldon D. Brown, Cicada
Shatara Michelle Ford, Test Pattern
Fran Kranz, Mass
Michael Sarnoski; Story by Vanessa Block, Michael Sarnoski, Pig
BEST EDITING
Affonso Gonçalves, A Chiara
Ali Greer, The Nowhere Inn
Lauren Hadaway, Nathan Nugent, The Novice
Joi McMillon, Zola
Enrico Natale, The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Ante Cheng, Matthew Chuang, Blue Bayou
Lol Crawley, The Humans
Tim Curtin, A Chiara
Edu Grau, Passing
Ari Wegner, Zola
BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM
Compartment No. 6
Finland/Russia
Director: Juho Kuosmanen
Drive My Car
Japan
Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Parallel Mothers
Spain
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Pebbles
India
Director: P S Vinothraj
Petite Maman
France
Director: Céline Sciamma
Prayers for the Stolen
Mexico
Director: Tatiana Huezo
ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD
(Given to one film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast)
Mass
Director: Fran Kranz
Casting Directors: Henry Russell Bergstein, Allison Estrin
Ensemble Cast: Kagen Albright, Reed Birney, Michelle N. Carter, Ann Dowd, Jason Isaacs, Martha Plimpton, Breeda Wool
JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD
Given to the best feature made for under $500,000 (Award given to the writer, director and producer. Executive Producers are not awarded.)
Cryptozoo
Writer/Director: Dash Shaw
Producers: Tyler Davidson, Kyle Martin, Jane Samborski, Bill Way
Jockey
Writer/Director/Producer: Clint Bentley
Writer/Producer: Greg Kwedar
Producer: Nancy Schafer
Shiva Baby
Writer/Director/Producer: Emma Seligman
Producers: Kieran Altmann, Katie Schiller, Lizzie Shapiro
Sweet Thing
Writer/Director: Alexandre Rockwell
Producers: Louis Anania, Haley Anderson, Kenan Baysal
This is Not a War Story
Writer/Director/Producer: Talia Lugacy
Producers: Noah Lang, Julian West
PRODUCERS AWARD
(The Producers Award, now in its 24th year, honors emerging producers who, despite highly limited resources, demonstrate the creativity, tenacity and vision required to produce quality independent films.)
Brad Becker-Parton , Pin-Chun Liu, Lizzie Shapiro
SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD
(The Someone to Watch Award, now in its 27th year, recognizes a talented filmmaker of singular vision who has not yet received appropriate recognition.)
Alex Camilleri, Luzzu
Michael Sarnoski, Pig
Gillian Wallace Horvat, I Blame Society
TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD
(The Truer Than Fiction Award, now in its 26th year, is presented to an emerging director of non-fiction features who has not yet received significant recognition.)
Angelo Madsen Minax, North By Current
Jessica Beshir, Faya Dayi
Debbie Lum, Try Harder!
TV CATEGORIES
BEST NEW NON-SCRIPTED OR DOCUMENTARY SERIES
Award given to the Creator, Executive Producer, Co-Executive Producer)
Black and Missing
Series By/Executive Producers: Soledad O’Brien, Geeta Gandbhir
Executive Producers: Jo Honig, Patrick Conway, Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller, Sara Rodriguez
The Choe Show
Creator/Exec Producer: David Choe
Executive Producers: Matt Revelli, Christopher C. Chen, Hiro Murai, Nate Matteson
The Lady and The Dale
Executive Producers: Mark Duplass, Jay Duplass, Mel Eslyn, Allen Bain, Andre Gaines, Nick Cammilleri, Alana Carithers, Zackary Drucker, Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller
Nuclear Family
Series By: Ry Russo-Young
Executive Producers: Liz Garbus, Julie Gaither, Jon Bardin, Leah Holzer, Peter Saraf, Alex Turtletaub, Jenny Raskin, Geralyn White Dreyfous, Lauren Haber, Maria Zuckerman, Christine Connor, Ryan Heller, Barbara Dobkin, Eric Dobkin, Andrea Van Beuren, Joe Landauer
Philly D.A.
Creators: Ted Passon, Yoni Brook, Nicole Salazar
Executive Producers: Dawn Porter, Sally Jo Fifer, Lois Vossen, Ryan Chanatry, Gena Konstantinakos, Jeff Seelbach, Patty Quillin
Co-Executive Producers: Nion McEvoy, Leslie Berriman
BEST NEW SCRIPTED SERIES (Award given to the Creator, Executive Producer, Co-Executive Producer)
Blindspotting
Creators/Executive Producers: Rafael Casal, Daveed Diggs
Executive Producers: Jess Wu Calder, Keith Calder, Ken Lee, Tim Palen, Emily Gerson Saines, Seith Mann
It’s a Sin
Executive Producers: Russell T Davies, Peter Hoar, Nicola Shindler
Reservation Dogs
Creators/Executive Producers: Sterlin Harjo, Taika Waititi
Executive Producer: Garrett Basch
The Underground Railroad
Creator/Executive Producer: Barry Jenkins
Executive Producers: Adele Romanski, Mark Ceryak, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Colson Whitehead, Richard Heus, Jacqueline Hoyt
We Are Lady Parts
Creator: Nida Manzoor
Executive Producers: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Surian Fletcher-Jones, Mark Freeland
BEST FEMALE PERFORMANCE IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES
Thuso Mbedu, The Underground Railroad
Anjana Vasan, We Are Lady Parts
Jana Schmieding, Rutherford Falls
Jasmine Cephas Jones, Blindspotting
Deborah Ayorinde, THEM: Covenant
BEST MALE PERFORMANCE IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES
Lee Jung-jae, Squid Game
Olly Alexander, It’s a Sin
Michael Greyeyes, Rutherford Falls
Murray Bartlett, The White Lotus
Ashley Thomas, THEM: Covenant
BEST ENSEMBLE CAST IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES
Reservation Dogs
Ensemble Cast: Devery Jacobs, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Lane Factor, Paulina Alexis, Sarah Podemski, Zahn McClarnon, Lil Mike, FunnyBone