Todd Haynes’ 1950s-set lesbian romance Carol – starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara as secret lovers – is leading the pack in the race for Independent Spirit Awards, as the nominations are released for the film awards ceremony that honours lower-budget productions.

The two stars are up against each other in the Best Female Lead category, with Haynes in the running for Best Director and the film itself up for Best Feature. Carol is also nominated for Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography.

Close behind Carol is Cary Fukunaga’s Beasts of No Nation, a fictional drama about a child soldier, with five nominations, including British actor Idris Elba, in the Best Supporting Male category. The only other British actor recognised was Bel Powley, who’s up against the Carol actresses for the Best Female Lead, for her role in The Diary of a Teenage Girl – one of the films three nominations.

Spotlight – about the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation into sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, Anomalisa – Charlie Kaufman’s dark, animated love story, and Tangerine – about trans-sexual sex workers in Los Angeles, each secured four nominations.

The Spirit Awards, which are handed out a day before the Academy Awards, often feature many of the same nominees; last year, for example, Birdman, Still Alice and Whiplash featured strongly in both. But this set of nominees recognises more actors and directors from outside the mainstream. Best Male Lead in particular is a category that sees a combination of previously unknown performers and actors not used to featuring among award nominations – Abraham Attah for Beasts of No Nation and Koudous Seihon for Mediterranea are up against Christopher Abbott for James White, Ben Mendelsohn for Mississippi Grind and Jason Segel for The End of the Tour. But Spotlight, which has been touted for Oscar success, failed to get any individual acting nominations, although it was honoured with the Robert Altman Award for its ensemble cast.

The nominees – and winners – are selected by Film Independent, a Los Angeles-based organisation representing film-makers, actors, critics, festival programmers. The awards will be handed out at a ceremony in a beach-side marquee in Santa Monica, on 27th February next year.

THE FULL LIST OF INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARD NOMINATIONS:

BEST FEATURE
ANOMALISA – PRODUCERS: Duke Johnson, Charlie Kaufman, Dino Stamatopoulos, Rosa Tran
BEASTS OF NO NATION – PRODUCERS: Daniel Crown, Idris Elba, Cary Joji
Fukunaga, Amy Kaufman, Daniela Taplin Lundberg, Riva Marker
CAROL – PRODUCERS: Elizabeth Karlsen, Christine Vachon, Stephen Woolley
SPOTLIGHT – PRODUCERS: Blye Pagon Faust, Steve Golin, Nicole Rocklin, Michael Sugar
TANGERINE – PRODUCERS: Sean Baker, Karrie Cox, Marcus Cox, Darren Dean, Shih-Ching Tsou

BEST FIRST FEATURE
THE DIARY OF A TEENAGE GIRL – DIRECTOR: Marielle Heller – PRODUCERS: Miranda Bailey, Anne Carey, Bert Hamelinck, Madeline Samit
JAMES WHITE – DIRECTOR: Josh Mond – PRODUCERS: Max Born, Antonio Campos, Sean Durkin, Melody Roscher, Eric Schultz
MANOS SUCIAS – DIRECTOR: Josef Kubota Wladyka – PRODUCERS: Elena Greenlee, Márcia Nunes
MEDITERRANEA – DIRECTOR: Jonas Carpignano – PRODUCERS: Jason Michael Berman, Chris Columbus, Jon Coplon, Christoph Daniel, Andrew Kortschak, John Lesher, Ryan Lough, Justin Nappi, Alain Peyrollaz, Gwyn Sannia, Marc Schmidheiny, Victor Shapiro, Ryan Zacarias
SONGS MY BROTHERS TAUGHT ME – DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Chloé Zhao – PRODUCERS: Mollye Asher, Nina Yang Bongiovi, Angela C. Lee, Forest Whitaker

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
CARY JOJI FUKUNAGA – Beasts of No Nation
MICHAEL GIOULAKIS – It Follows
ED LACHMAN – Carol
REED MORANO – Meadowland
JOSHUA JAMES RICHARDS – Songs My Brothers Taught Me

BEST EDITING
RONALD BRONSTEIN, BENNY SAFDIE – Heaven Knows What
TOM MCARDLE – Spotlight
NATHAN NUGENT – Room
JULIO C. PEREZ IV – It Follows
KRISTAN SPRAGUE – Manos Sucias

BEST DIRECTOR
SEAN BAKER – Tangerine
CARY JOJI FUKUNAGA – Beasts of No Nation
TODD HAYNES – Carol
DUKE JOHNSON, CHARLIE KAUFMAN – Anomalisa
TOM MCCARTHY – Spotlight
DAVID ROBERT MITCHELL – It Follows

BEST SCREENPLAY
CHARLIE KAUFMAN – Anomalisa
DONALD MARGULIES – The End of the Tour
TOM MCCARTHY, JOSH SINGER – Spotlight
PHYLLIS NAGY – Carol
S. CRAIG ZAHLER – Bone Tomahawk

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
JESSE ANDREWS – Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
JONAS CARPIGNANO – Mediterranea
EMMA DONOGHUE – Room
MARIELLE HELLER – The Diary of a Teenage Girl
JOHN MAGARY (story by RUSSELL HARBAUGH & MYNA JOSEPH) – The Mend

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD
(Award given to the best feature made for under $500,000; award given to the writer, director, and producer)
ADVANTAGEOUS – WRITER/DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Jennifer Phang – WRITER/PRODUCER: Jacqueline Kim – PRODUCERS: Robert Chang, Ken Jeong, Moon Molson, Theresa Navarro
CHRISTMAS, AGAIN – WRITER/DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Charles Poekel
HEAVEN KNOWS WHAT – DIRECTORS: Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie – WRITERS: Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie – PRODUCERS: Oscar Boyson, Sebastian Bear McClard
KRISHA – WRITER/DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Trey Edward Shults – PRODUCERS: Justin R. Chan, Chase Joliet, Wilson Smith
OUT OF MY HAND – WRITER/DIRECTOR: Takeshi Fukunaga – WRITER/PRODUCER: Donari Braxton – PRODUCER: Mike Fox

BEST MALE LEAD
CHRISTOPHER ABBOTT – James White
ABRAHAM ATTAH – Beasts of No Nation
BEN MENDELSOHN – Mississippi Grind
JASON SEGEL – The End of the Tour
KOUDOUS SEIHON – Mediterranea

BEST FEMALE LEAD
CATE BLANCHETT – Carol
BRIE LARSON – Room
ROONEY MARA – Carol
BEL POWLEY – The Diary of a Teenage Girl
KITANA KIKI RODRIGUEZ – Tangerine

BEST SUPPORTING MALE
KEVIN CORRIGAN – Results
PAUL DANO – Love & Mercy
IDRIS ELBA – Beasts of No Nation
RICHARD JENKINS – Bone Tomahawk
MICHAEL SHANNON – 99 Homes

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE
ROBIN BARTLETT – H.
MARIN IRELAND – Glass Chin
JENNIFER JASON LEIGH – Anomalisa
CYNTHIA NIXON – James White
MYA TAYLOR – Tangerine

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM
EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT (Colombia) – DIRECTOR: Ciro Guerra
GIRLHOOD (France) – DIRECTOR: Céline Sciamma
MUSTANG (France, Turkey) – DIRECTOR: Deniz Gamze Ergüven
A PIGEON SAT ON A BRANCH REFLECTING ON EXISTENCE (Sweden) – DIRECTOR: Roy Andersson
SON OF SAUL (Hungary) – DIRECTOR: László Nemes

BEST DOCUMENTARY
(T)ERROR – DIRECTORS/PRODUCERS: Lyric R. Cabral, David Felix Sutcliffe – PRODUCER: Christopher St. John
BEST OF ENEMIES – DIRECTORS/PRODUCERS: Robert Gordon, Morgan Neville
HEART OF A DOG – DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Laurie Anderson – PRODUCER: Dan Janvey
THE LOOK OF SILENCE – DIRECTOR: Joshua Oppenheimer – PRODUCER: Signe Byrge Sørensen
MERU – DIRECTORS/PRODUCERS: Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi – PRODUCER: Shannon Ethridge
THE RUSSIAN WOODPECKER – DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Chad Gracia – PRODUCERS: Ram Devineni, Mike Lerner

ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD
SPOTLIGHT
DIRECTOR: Tom McCarthy
CASTING DIRECTORS: Kerry Barden, Paul Schnee
ENSEMBLE CAST: Billy Crudup, Paul Guilfoyle,
Neal Huff, Brian d’Arcy James, Michael Keaton,
Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo, Liev Schreiber,
Jamey Sheridan, John Slattery, Stanley Tucci