Nominees Announced for the 2021 Film Independent Spirit Awards

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film independent spirit awards nominees 2021

The 36th edition of the Film Independent Spirit Awards is set to air on Thursday 22 April.

Historically, the annual awards ceremony has taken place as a daytime event that preceeds the Academy Awards. However, this year the awards will be announced in a full evening show dedicated to the innovation of the exciting films that have graced our screens over the past year.

A new development of the ceremony has been introduced for 2021, as it will not only celebrate feature films, but will give awards to a range of TV shows and mini-series.

The Independent Spirit Awards has often overlapped their winners with that of the prestigious Academy Awards, such as the joint success of British director Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave in 2013 that won both the Spirit Award and the Academy Award for Best Picture. In this year’s nominations list there are some clear popular choices, such as Eliza Hittman’s Never Rarely Sometimes Always and Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman appearing in many categories. With such a high number of female-directed films in the nominations, the Spirit Awards are celebrating the incredible work of women, in stark contrast to the lack of female nominations at award ceremonies in previous years. Check out the full list of nominees below.


BEST FEATURE (Producer)

FIRST COW
Neil Kopp, Vincent Savino, Anish Savjani

MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM
Todd Black, Denzel Washington, Dany Wolf

MINARI
Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Christina Oh

NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS
Sara Murphy, Adele Romanski

NOMADLAND
Mollye Asher, Dan Janvey, Frances McDormand, Peter Spears, Chloé Zhao

BEST FIRST FEATURE (Director/Producer)

I CARRY YOU WITH ME
Heidi Ewing / Edher Campos, Mynette Louie, Gabriela Maire

THE FORTY-YEAR-OLD VERSION
Radha Blank / Inuka Bacote-Capiga, Jordan Fudge, Rishi Rajani, Jennifer Semler, Lena Waithe

MISS JUNETEENTH
Channing Godfrey Peoples / Toby Halbrooks, Tim Headington, Jeanie Igoe, James M. Johnston, Theresa Steele Page, Neil Creque Williams

NINE DAYS
Edson Oda / Jason Michael Berman, Mette-Marie Kongsved, Matthew Lindner, Laura Tunstall, Datari Turner

SOUND OF METAL
Darius Marder / Bill Benz, Kathy Benz, Bert Hamelinck, Sacha Ben Harroche

BEST DIRECTOR

Lee Isaac Chung, Minari

Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman

Eliza Hittman, Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Kelly Reichardt, First Cow

Chloé Zhao, Nomadland

BEST SCREENPLAY

Lee Isaac Chung, Minari

Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman

Eliza Hittman, Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Mike Makowsky, Bad Education

Alice Wu, The Half of It

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY

Kitty Green, The Assistant

Noah Hutton, Lapsis

Channing Godfrey Peoples, Miss Juneteenth

Andy Siara, Palm Springs

James Sweeney, Straight Up

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD (Best feature under $500,000, Director/Writer/Producer/)

THE KILLING OF TWO LOVERS
Robert Machoian / Scott Christopherson, Clayne Crawford

LA LEYENDA NEGRA
Patricia Vidal Delgado / Alicia Herder, Marcel Perez

LINGUA FRANCA
Isabel Sandova / Darlene Catly Malimas, Jhett Tolentino, Carlo Velayo

RESIDUE
Merawi Gerima

SAINT FRANCES
Alex Thompson / Kelly O’Sullivan / James Choi, Pierce Cravens, Ian Keiser, Eddie Linker, Raphael Nash, Roger Welp

BEST MALE LEAD

Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal

Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Adarsh Gourav, The White Tiger

Rob Morgan, Bull

Steven Yeun, Minari

BEST FEMALE LEAD

Nicole Beharie, Miss Juneteenth

Viola Davis, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Sidney Flanigan, Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Julia Garner, The Assistant

Frances McDormand, Nomadland

Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman

BEST SUPPORTING MALE

Colman Domingo, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Orion Lee, First Cow

Paul Raci, Sound of Metal

Glynn Turman, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Benedict Wong, Nine Days

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE

Alexis Chikaeze, Miss Juneteenth

Yeri Han, Minari

Valerie Mahaffey, French Exit

Talia Ryder, Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Yuh-jung Youn, Minari

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Jay Keitel, She Dies Tomorrow

Shabier Kirchner, Bull

Michael Latham, The Assistant

Hélène Louvart, Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Joshua James Richards, Nomadland

BEST EDITING

Andy Canny, The Invisible Man

Scott Cummings, Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Merawi Gerima, Residue

Enat Sidi, I Carry You With Me

Chloé Zhao, Nomadland

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM (Director)

BACURAU (Brazil)
Juliano Dornelles, Kleber Mendonça Filho

THE DISCIPLE (India)
Chaitanya Tamahane

NIGHT OF THE KINGS (Ivory Coast)
Philippe Lacôte

PREPARATIONS TO BE TOGETHER FOR AN UNKNOWN PERIOD OF TIME (Hungary)
Lili Horvát

QUO VADIS, AIDA? (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Jasmila Žbanić

BEST DOCUMENTARY (Director/Producer)

COLLECTIVE
Alexander Nanau / Hanka Kastelicová, Bernard Michaux, Bianca Oana

CRIP CAMP
Jim LeBrecht, Nicole Newnham / Sara Bolder

DICK JOHNSON IS DEAD
Kirsten Johnson / Katy Chevigny, Marilyn Ness

THE MOLE AGENT
Maite Alberdi / Marcela Santibáñez

TIME
Garrett Bradley / Lauren Domino, Kellen Quinn

ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD (Director/Casting/Ensemble)

ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI
Regina King / Kimberly R. Hardin / Kingsley Ben-Adir, Eli Goree, Aldis Hodge, Leslie Odom Jr.

PRODUCERS AWARD (Emerging Producers)

Lucas Joaquin

Gerry Kim

Kara Durrett

SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD

DAVID MIDELLThe Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain

EKWA MSANGIFarewell Amor

ANNIE SILVERSTEINBull

TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD

CECILIA ALDARONDOLandfall

ELEGANCE BRATTONPier Kids

ELIZABETH LOStray

BEST NEW NON-SCRIPTED OR DOCUMENTARY SERIES (Creator / Executive Producer / Co-Executive Producer)

ATLANTA’S MISSING AND MURDERED: THE LOST CHILDREN
Jeff Dupre, Joshua Bennett, Sam Pollard, Maro Chermayeff, John Legend, Mike Jackson, Ty Stiklorius

CITY SO REAL
Zak Piper, Steve James / Jeff Skoll, Diane Weyermann, Alex Kotlowitz, Gordon Quinn, Betsy Steinberg, Jolene Pinder

IMMIGRATION NATION
Christina Clusiau, Shaul Schwarz, Dan Cogan, Jenny Raskin, Brandon Hill, Christian Thompson / Andrey Alistratov, Jay Arthur Sterrenberg, Lauren Haber

LOVE FRAUD
Rachel Grady, Heidi Ewing, Amy Goodman Kass, Vinnie Malhotra, Jihan Robinson, Michael Bloom, Maria Zuckerman

WE’RE HERE
Stephen Warren, Johnnie Ingram / Eli Holzman, Aaron Saidman, Peter LoGreco / Erin Haglund, Sabrina Mar

BEST NEW SCRIPTED SERIES (Creator / Executive Producer / Co-Executive Producer)

I MAY DESTROY YOU
Michaela Coel / Phil Clarke, Roberto Troni

LITTLE AMERICA
Lee Eisenberg, Joshuah Bearman, Joshua Davis, Arthur Spector, Alan Yang, Siân Heder, Kumail Nanjiani, Emily V. Gordon

SMALL AXE
Tracey Scoffield, David Tanner, Steve McQueen

A TEACHER
Hannah Fidell / Michael Costigan, Kate Mara, Louise Shore, Jason Bateman, Danny Brocklehurst / Daniel Pipski

UNORTHODOX
Anna Winger / Alexa Karolinski / Henning Kamm

BEST FEMALE PERFORMANCE IN A SCRIPTED SERIES

Elle Fanning, The Great

Shira Haas, Unorthodox

Abby McEnany, Work in Progress

Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Never Have I Ever

Jordan Kristine Seamón, We Are Who We Are

BEST MALE PERFORMANCE IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES

Adam Ali, Little America

Nicco Annan, P-Valley

Conphidance, Little America

Amit Rahav, Unorthodox

Harold Torres, ZeroZeroZero

BEST ENSEMBLE CAST IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES

I MAY DESTROY YOU Michaela Coel, Paapa Essiedu, Weruche Opia, Stephen Wight

The Film Independent Spirit Awards will be broadcast Thursday 22 April.

Words by Katie Evans


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