The gay love story Call My By Your Name has topped the list of nominations for the 2018 Independent Spirit Awards. It’s up for six awards, including Best Feature, Best Director, Best Lead Actor for Timothée Chalamet and Best Supporting actor for Armie Hammer.
Jordan Peele’s social nightmare Get Out is up for five Spirits, including Best Feature and Best Lead Actor for Britain’s Daniel Kaluuya. Peele himself is in the running for the Best Director and Best Screenplay awards.
There are also five nominations for the low-key crime thriller, Good Time. Benny Safdie is up for Best Supporting Actor and jointly shares a directing nomination with his brother Josh and an editing nomination with Ronald Bronstein. The film’s star, another British actor Robert Pattinson, is in the running for the Best Lead Actor, against Chalamet, Kaluuya, Harris Dickinson for Beach Rats and James Franco for playing Tommy Wiseau, the director of what’s widely regarded as the worst film of all time, The Room, in his biopic The Disaster Artist.
The actress Greta Gerwig has earned one of Lady Bird’s four nominations for her first solo outing as a director. The drama The Rider is also nominated for four categories, including Best Feature.
Sean Baker’s critically praised Florida Project has secured only two nominations, but they’re in the key categories of Best Director and Best Director.
One of the awards handed out by the LA-based independent film-makers’ organisation Film Independent does not go through a nomination and voting process; it’s already been decided that the Robert Altman Award, which honours a director, casting director and ensemble cast, will go to Dee Rees’s 1940s civil rights drama Mudbound.
Typically, the nominations list throws up the usual quirks. Firstly, there’s the issue arising from international co-productions at what purport to be domestic awards events. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is up for 3 Spirit Awards in the US, while next month it’ll be in the running in 11 categories at the British Independent Film Awards, or BIFAs.
And secondly, while the Spirits, like the BIFAs, have a category for the Best International Film, that throws up its own peculiarities. Alongside the British film Lady Macbeth on the nominations list is I am Not a Witch – labelled by the Spirits organisers as Zambian, but it was largely funded by the BFI and features alongside Lady Macbeth and Three Billboards on BIFA’s Best Independent British Film shortlist.
The winners – chosen by film-making professionals who belong to the LA-based Film Independent organisation – will be announced at a ceremony in a marquee on Santa Monica beach on 3rd March 2018. The event is always timed to take place on the day before the Oscars, to ensure that the biggest stars – or at least those most in demand by the press – are in town to appear on the red carpet and draw attention to an awards ceremony which is honouring films which most audiences won’t have seen.
Here is the full list of nominations:
BEST FEATURE
Call Me by Your Name
Producers: Peter Spears, Luca Guadagnino, Emilie Georges, Rodrigo Teixeira, Marco Morabito, James Ivory, Howard Rosenman
Producers: Sean Baker, Chris Bergoch, Kevin Chinoy, Andrew Duncan, Alex Saks, Francesca Silvestri, Shih-Ching Tsou
Get Out
Producers: Jason Blum, Edward H. Hamm Jr., Sean McKittrick, Jordan Peele
Lady Bird
Producers: Eli Bush, Evelyn O’Neill, Scott Rudin
The Rider
Producers: Mollye Asher, Bert Hamelinck, Sacha Ben Harroche, Chloé Zhao
BEST FIRST FEATURE
Columbus
Director: Kogonada
Producers: Danielle Renfrew Behrens, Aaron Boyd, Giulia Caruso, Ki Jin Kim, Andrew Miano, Chris Weitz
Ingrid Goes West
Director: Matt Spicer
Producers: Jared Ian Goldman, Adam Mirels, Robert Mirels, Aubrey Plaza, Tim White, Trevor White
Menashe
Director/Producer: Joshua Z. Weinstein
Producers: Yoni Brook, Traci Carlson, Daniel Finkelman, Alex Lipschultz
Oh Lucy!
Director/Producer: Atsuko Hirayanagi
Producers: Jessica Elbaum, Yukie Kito, Han West
Patti Cake$
Director: Geremy Jasper
Producers: Chris Columbus, Michael Gottwald, Dan Janvey, Daniela Taplin Lundberg, Noah Stahl, Rodrigo Teixeira
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.)
Dayveon
Writer/Director/Producer: Amman Abbasi
Writer: Steven Reneau
Producers: Lachion Buckingham, Alexander Uhlmann
Writer/Director: David Lowery
Producers: Adam Donaghey, Toby Halbrooks, James M. Johnston
Life and nothing more
Writer/Director: Antonio Méndez Esparza
Producers: Amadeo Hernández Bueno, Alvaro Portanet Hernández, Pedro Hernández Santos
Most Beautiful Island
Writer/Director/Producer: Ana Asensio
Producers: Larry Fessenden, Noah Greenberg, Chadd Harbold, Jenn Wexler
The Transfiguration
Writer/Director: Michael O’Shea
Producer: Susan Leber
BEST DIRECTOR
Sean Baker
The Florida Project
Jonas Carpignano
A Ciambra
Luca Guadagnino
Call Me by Your Name
Jordan Peele
Get Out
Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie
Chloé Zhao
The Rider
BEST SCREENPLAY
Greta Gerwig
Lady Bird
Azazel Jacobs
The Lovers
Martin McDonagh
Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri
Jordan Peele
Get Out
Mike White
Beatriz at Dinner
BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
Kris Avedisian
Story By: Kyle Espeleta, Jesse Wakeman
Donald Cried
Emily V. Gordon, Kumail Nanjiani
The Big Sick
Ingrid Jungermann
Women Who Kill
Kogonada
Columbus
David Branson Smith, Matt Spicer
Ingrid Goes West
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Thimios Bakatakis
The Killing of a Sacred Deer
Elisha Christian
Columbus
Hélène Louvart
Beach Rats
Sayombhu Mukdeeprom
Call Me by Your Name
Joshua James Richards
The Rider
BEST EDITING
Ronald Bronstein, Benny Safdie
Good Time
Walter Fasano
Call Me by Your Name
Alex O’Flinn
The Rider
Gregory Plotkin
Get Out
Tatiana S. Riegel
I, Tonya
BEST FEMALE LEAD
Salma Hayek
Beatriz at Dinner
Frances McDormand
Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri
Margot Robbie
I, Tonya
Saoirse Ronan
Lady Bird
Shinobu Terajima
Oh Lucy!
Regina Williams
Life and nothing more
BEST MALE LEAD
Timothée Chalamet
Call Me by Your Name
Harris Dickinson
Beach Rats
James Franco
The Disaster Artist
Daniel Kaluuya
Get Out
Robert Pattinson
Good Time
BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE
Holly Hunter
The Big Sick
Allison Janney
I, Tonya
Laurie Metcalf
Lady Bird
Lois Smith
Marjorie Prime
Taliah Lennice Webster
Good Time
BEST SUPPORTING MALE
Nnamdi Asomugha
Crown Heights
Armie Hammer
Call Me by Your Name
Barry Keoghan
The Killing of a Sacred Deer
Sam Rockwell
Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri
Benny Safdie
Good Time
ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD – Given to one film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast
Director: Dee Rees
Casting Directors: Billy Hopkins, Ashley Ingram
Ensemble Cast: Jonathan Banks, Mary J. Blige, Jason Clarke, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Mitchell, Rob Morgan, Carey Mulligan
BEST DOCUMENTARY (Award given to the director and producer)
The Departure
Director/Producer: Lana Wilson
Faces Places
Directors: Agnés Varda, JR
Producer: Rosalie Varda
Last Men in Aleppo
Director: Feras Fayyad
Producers: Kareem Abeed, Søeren Steen Jespersen, Stefan Kloos
Motherland
Director/Producer: Ramona S. Diaz
Producer: Rey Cuerdo
Quest
Director: Jonathan Olshefski
Producer: Sabrina Schmidt Gordon
BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM (Award given to the director)
BPM (Beats Per Minute)
France
Director: Robin Campillo
A Fantastic Woman
Chile
Director: Sebastián Lelio
I Am Not a Witch
Zambia
Director: Rungano Nyoni
Lady Macbeth
U.K.
Director: William Oldroyd
Loveless
Russia
Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev
BONNIE AWARD – Bonnie Tiburzi Caputo joined American Airlines in 1973 at age 24, becoming the first female pilot to fly for a major U.S. airline. In her honor, the inaugural Bonnie Award will recognize a mid-career female director with a $50,000 unrestricted grant, sponsored by American Airlines.
So Yong Kim
Lynn Shelton
Chloé Zhao
JEEP TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD – The 23rd annual Truer Than Fiction Award, funded by the Jeep brand, is presented to an emerging director of non-fiction features who has not yet received significant recognition. The award includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant funded by the Jeep brand.
Shevaun Mizrahi
Director of Distant Constellation
Jonathan Olshefski
Director of Quest
Jeff Unay
Director of The Cage Fighter
KIEHL’S SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD – The 24th annual Someone to Watch Award, funded by Kiehl’s Since 1851, recognizes a talented filmmaker of singular vision who has not yet received appropriate recognition. The award includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant funded by Kiehl’s Since 1851.
Amman Abbasi
Director of Dayveon
Justin Chon
Director of Gook
Kevin Phillips
Director of Super Dark Times
PIAGET PRODUCERS AWARD – The 21st annual Producers Award, funded by Piaget, honors emerging producers who, despite highly limited resources, demonstrate the creativity, tenacity and vision required to produce quality, independent films. The award includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant funded by Piaget.
Giulia Caruso & Ki Jin Kim
Ben LeClair
Summer Shelton
In addition, Visit Seattle will fund the Seattle Story Award, which is still open for nominations. The winning filmmaker will exhibit innovation, diversity and uniqueness of vision while having a history of transforming perspectives through rich stories. The recipient will receive a $25,000 cash grant to create a short film inspired by Seattle’s independent spirit. This film will premiere during the Spirit Awards broadcast.