Former AMPAS president John Bailey said last year that the Oscars were looking too much like the Spirit Awards. Like it’s a bad thing. Some of the year’s best films are still coming from the independent sector of filmmaking. Removed from focus groups, test screenings and overzealous studio notes, independent filmmakers get to make the films they want to make and tell the stories they want to tell. The Spirit Awards also give us what the Oscars are often lacking, true diversity and representation.
Last year saw a record number of women nominated for Best Director at the Spirit Awards and there are a handful of high-profile women directors this year too. Lulu Wang (The Farewell), Alma Ha’rel (Honey Boy) and Lorene Scafaria (Hustlers) and more are among very possible nominees.
The budget threshold for the Spirit Awards is $22.5M, up from $20M last year (rumor has it that is was to get a certain film in but my lips are sealed as to which) and obviously knocks out larger studio films but also things like Jojo Rabbit (I believe) and everything from Netflix except Marriage Story. But the Spirit Awards also limits non-US productions to the International Film category. The likes of Parasite and Judy would show up there. The Robert Altman Award is a juried prize that goes to the cast of a single film and in winning that award, no one from the cast can be individually nominated. 2015’s Spotlight and 2016’s Moonlight both won that (along with Best Feature) before going on to Oscar nominations and wins in the acting categories and Best Picture wins. This year sees a wealth of films with worthy casts but it also makes it difficult to predict which film will be honored and therefore, how the individual acting categories will shake out.
Some reminders of weird Indie Spirits snubs in the last few years that proved irrelevant to the race at large (where the movie was nominated in Spirit categories other than these), nor their path to Oscar success:
Don’t forget, The Shape of Water was allegedly eligible here but didn’t show up anywhere.
The 35th Independent Spirit Award nominations will be announced Thursday, November 21st at 10:00am PST in Los Angeles by Zazie Beetz and Natasha Lyonne and I will be there in person live tweeting the results.
Here are my predictions.
Best Feature
Spoilers: Booksmart, Clemency, The Lighthouse, Queen & Slim
Best Director
Spoilers: Alma Ha’rel, Honey Boy; Lorene Scafaria, Hustlers; Robert Eggers, The Lighthouse
Best Male Lead
Spoilers: Riz Ahmed, The Sound of Metal; Noah Jupe, Honey Boy; Daniel Kaluuya, Queen & Slim; Robert Pattinson, The Lighthouse; Matthias Schoenaerts, The Mustang
Best Female Lead
Spoilers: Kaitlyn Dever, Booksmart ; Beanie Feldstein, Booksmart; Elisabeth Moss, Her Smell; Julianne Moore, Gloria Bell; Jodie Turner-Smith, Queen & Slim
Best Supporting Male
Spoilers: Aldis Hodge, Clemency; Alessandro Nivola, Art of Self Defense; John Turturro, Gloria Bell
Best Supporting Female
Spoilers: Annette Bening, The Report
Best Screenplay
Spoilers: High Flying Bird, Hustlers, Luce, Uncut Gems
Best First Screenplay
Spoilers: Brittany Runs a Marathon, Share
Best First Feature
Spoilers: The Mustang, Queen & Slim, Share, The Sound of Metal
Best Cinematography
Spoilers: A Hidden Life, Hustlers, Midsommar, Queen & Slim
Best Film Editing
Spoilers: The Farewell, Honey Boy, Hustlers, The Sound of Metal
Best International Film
Spoilers: Atlantics (France/Senegal), Les Miserables (France), The Souvenir (UK)
Best Documentary
Spoilers: American Factory, Ask Dr. Ruth, The Biggest Little Farm, The Cave, Hail Satan?
Robert Altman Award – Waves (Trey Edward Shults (dir.), Avy Kaufman (casting) Cast: Kelvin Harrison Jr., Sterling K. Brown, Taylor Russell, Alexa Demie and Renee Elise Goldsberry)
Bonnie Award
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