American Honey, Jackie and Moonlight Lead 32nd Film Independent Spirit Award Nominations

Erik Anderson November 22, 2016

American Honey, Jackie and Moonlight lead this year's Film Independent Spirit Award Nominations — **American Honey**, **Jackie** and **Moonlight**

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American Honey, Jackie and Moonlight were among Film Independent’s Spirit Award nominations for Best Feature this morning. Manchester by Sea also earned that honor as did the out of nowhere mention for Chronic, a film that debuted at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. It also earned Tim Roth a Best Male Lead nomination.

The Independent Spirits are always tough to predict and this year was no different. The love for Hell or High Water was more muted than expected while the love for American Honey was huge. The film earned nominations in Feature, Director, Actress and both Supporting categories, among others.

Jackie also really showed up big here with mentions in Feature, Director and Actress. Moonlight, while it didn’t get any individual acting nominations, received the Robert Altman award for its ensemble. Spotlight did the same last year.

There were some significant snubs this morning as well, with Jeff Bridges (Hell or High Water) missing out in favor of his co-star Ben Foster. The film also missed Feature and Director. Isabelle Huppert managed to qualify for Female Lead yet her film, Elle, wasn’t among the International Film nominees (which probably explains a complicated eligibility). Manchester by the Sea received nominations in Feature, Male Lead and Supporting Male but quite shockingly missed out in Director and Supporting Female.

The 32nd annual Spirit Awards will be held on Saturday, February 25th, 2017 in Santa Monica, as always, the day before the Oscars.

Full list of nominees below:

Best Feature
“American Honey”
“Chronic”
“Jackie”
“Manchester by the Sea”
“Moonlight”

Best Director
Andrea Arnold (“American Honey”)
Barry Jenkins (“Moonlight”)
Pablo Larraín (“Jackie”)
Jeff Nichols (“Loving”)
Kelly Reichardt (“Certain Women”)

Best First Feature
“The Childhood of a Leader”
“The Fits”
“Other People”
“Swiss Army Man”
“The Witch”

Best Male Lead
Casey Affleck (“Manchester by the Sea”)
David Harewood (“Free in Deed”)
Viggo Mortensen (“Captain Fantastic”)
Jesse Plemons (“Other People”)
Tim Roth (“Chronic”)

Best Female Lead
Annette Bening (“20th Century Women”)
Isabelle Huppert (“Elle”)
Sasha Lane (“American Honey”)
Ruth Negga (“Loving”)
Natalie Portman (“Jackie”)

Best Supporting Male
Ralph Fiennes (“A Bigger Splash”)
Ben Foster (“Hell or High Water”)
Lucas Hedges (“Manchester by the Sea”)
Shia LaBeouf (“American Honey”)
Craig Robinson (“Morris from America”)

Best Supporting Female
Edwina Findley (“Free in Deed”)
Paulina Garcia (“Little Men”)
Lily Gladstone (“Certain Women”)
Riley Keough (“American Honey”)
Molly Shannon (“Other People”)

Best Screenplay
“Moonlight”
“Manchester by the Sea”
“20th Century Women”
“Little Men”
“Hell or High Water”

Best First Screenplay
“The Witch”
“Other People”
“Barry”
“Jean of the Joneses”
“Christine”

Best International Film
“Aquarius”
“Chevalier”
“My Golden Days”
“Toni Erdmann”
“Under the Shadow”

Best Documentary Feature
“13TH”
“Cameraperson”
“I Am Not Your Negro”
“O.J.: Made in America”
“Sonita”
“Under the Sun”

Best Cinematography
“Free in Deed”
“Childhood”
“Eyes of My Mother”
“Moonlight”
“American Honey”

Best Editing
“Swiss Army Man”
“Manchester by the Sea”
“Moonlight”
“Hell or High Water”
“Jackie”

John Cassavetes Award
“Free in Deed”
“Hunter Gatherer”
“Lovesong”
“Nakom”
“Spa Night”

Robert Altman Award
“Moonlight”

Piaget Producers Award
Lisa Kjerulff
Jordana Mollick
Melody C. Roscher
Craig Shilowich

Truer Than Fiction Award
Kristi Jacobson (“Solitary”)
Sara Jordeno (“Kiki”)
Nanfu Wang (“Holligan Sparrow”)

Someone to Watch Award
Andrew Ahn (“Spa Night”)
Claire Carre (“Embers”)
Anna Rose Holmer (“The Fits”)
Ingrid Jungermann (“Women Who Kill”)

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.