It’s hard to believe that we’re already at this point in awards season, but alas time makes fools of us all and the 2019 Independent Spirit Award nominations were announced by Gemma Chan and Molly Shannon in a press conference earlier today.
2018 so far has felt like a year with a lot of wide open categories and few sure things, and the reveal of the Independent Spirit Award nominees did little to dispel that narrative. Nominations were spread widely across a variety of films, with none really pulling out far ahead of any others in terms of sheer numbers.
The most nominated films of 2018 were We the Animals with five nominations (Best Supporting Male – Raul Castillo, Best First Feature, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, and the Someone to Watch Award – Jeremiah Zagar), Eighth Grade with four (Best Lead Female – Elsie Fisher, Best Supporting Male – Josh Hamilton, Best Feature, and Best First Screenplay), First Reformed with four (Best Lead Male – Ethan Hawke, Best Feature, Best Director, and Best Screenplay), and You Were Never Really Here with four (Best Feature, Best Director, Best Lead Male – Joaquin Phoenix, and Best Editing), but many other films received a handful of nominations as well.
And while the Independent Spirit Award Nominations aren’t always great at predicting who the eventual Oscar winners will be, it’s certainly clear that this year in particular seems as though we could see an Academy Award ceremony where no one film walks away with everything. There are so many excellent films that we could see staying competitive until fairly late in the race.
It’s also gratifying to see the diversity of talent being honored at the Independent Spirit Awards. For the first time possibly ever, female filmmakers represent a majority of nominees in the Best Director category, and the acting categories have avoided another #Oscarssowhite fiasco by reflecting the incredible work done by people of color this year. Reginas received a double nomination, with Hall being honored for her lead performance in Support the Girls, and King for her supporting role in If Beale Street Could Talk, the latter of which is looking more and more likely to be her first Oscar win.
But like all award shows, there are always a few surprises. After significant buzz about Melissa McCarthy’s performance in Can You Ever Forgive Me?, she and the film have come up short here, only nominated for Richard E. Grant’s supporting performance and best screenplay. Blackkklansman walking away with only one nomination for Adam Driver could be an indicator of its Oscar potential (or lack thereof), and Mid90s getting snubbed for Best First Feature seems to speak particularly loudly of the film’s award chances moving forward.
While these nominations can’t tell us who will win, they may have a bit more success at letting us know which films have been unofficially written off. But only time will tell. The Independent Spirit Awards will be held in Santa Monica on February 23rd (the day before their much fancier cousin, the Academy Awards), and will be broadcast live on IFC.
The full list of nominations 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
