2014 Independent Spirit Award Nominations

The Independent Spirit Awards have fourteen categories this year, with the addition of the film editing award. The recipients of the Robert Altman Award are announced with the nominations. The winner is Mud and the director, casting director and ensemble cast will all receive their award at the Spirit Awards. There are three grants awarded that are announced with the nominations as well. The grant winners and full nominee list is below. Patton Oswalt will host the awards and as is tradition, the awards show takes place in a tent on the Santa Monica beach on Oscar Eve. The show will air on IFC on Saturday March 1st. Officially the announcement is that the awards air Eastern and Pacific at 10pm but if memory serves in years past they have aired earlier Pacific time.

The nominations were actually announced back in November by Octavia Spencer and Paula Patton. As in most years, there is a fair amount of overlap in the Spirit Award categories to the Oscars and those that differ are smaller pictures. The mission of the Spirit Awards and its organization Film Independent is to promote independent film and its artists. To quote from the president of Film Independent's introduction at the nomination event, "artist driven filmmaking is critical to our culture and films driven by individual artistic vision alone and not box office are of lasting and permanent value."

12 Years A Slave is predicted to win Best Feature and Steve McQueen for directing it. Cate Blanchett looks to win Best Female Lead, Lupita Nyong’o for Best Supporting Female, Jared Leto for Best Supporting Male and there is no clear front runner for Best Lead Actor. It would seem to be between Chiwetel Ejiofor and Matthew McConaughey. Best Screenplay also looks to be split, between 12 Years A Slave and Before Midnight. Fruitvale Station looks favored to win Best First Feature and Nebraska Best First Screenplay. Blue is the Warmest Color is strong for Best International Film and there is no clear lead for Best Documentary or for the new Best Editing category. Computer Chess is in strong standing for the John Cassavetes Award. I have never forecasted the Spirit Awards before so time will tell.

The nominees this year are:
BEST FEATURE
12 Years A Slave
All Is Lost

Frances Ha
Inside Llewyn Davis
Nebraska

BEST DIRECTOR
Shane Carruth, Upstream Color
JC Chandor, All Is Lost
Steve McQueen, 12 Years A Slave
Jeff Nichols, Mud
Alexander Payne, Nebraska

BEST FEMALE LEAD
Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
Julie Delpy, Before Midnight
Gaby Hoffmann, Crystal Fairy
Brie Larson, Short Term 12
Shailene Woodley, The Spectacular Now

BEST MALE LEAD
Bruce Dern, Nebraska
Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years A Slave
Oscar Isaac, Inside Llewyn Davis
Michael B Jordan, Fruitvale Station
Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club
Robert Redford, All Is Lost

BEST SCREENPLAY
Woody Allen, Blue Jasmine
Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater, Before Midnight
Nicole Holofcener, Enough Said
Scott Neustadter and Michael H Weber, The Spectacular Now
John Ridley, 12 Years A Slave

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE
Melonie Diaz, Fruitvale Station
Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine
Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years a Slave
Yolonda Ross, Go For Sisters
June Squibb, Nebraska

BEST SUPPORTING MALE
Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave
Will Forte, Nebraska
James Gandolfini, Enough Said
Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
Keith Stanfield, Short Term 12 

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
Lake Bell, In A World
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Don Jon
Bob Nelson, Nebraska
Jill Soloway, Afternoon Delight
Mike Starrbury, The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Sean Bobbitt, 12 Years A Slave
Benoit Debie, Spring Breakers
Bruno Delbonnel, Inside Llewyn Davis
Frank G Demarco, All Is Lost
Matthias Grunsky, Computer Chess

BEST EDITING
Shane Carruth and David Lowery, Upstream Color
Jem Cohen and Marc Vives, Museum Hours
Frank G Demarco, All Is Lost
Matthias Grunsky, Computer Chess
Nat Sanders, Short Term 12

BEST DOCUMENTARY
20 Feet From Stardom
After Tiller
Gideon’s Army
The Act of Killing
The Square

BEST INT’L FILM
A Touch of Sin (China)
Blue is the Warmest Color (France)
Gloria (Chile)
The Great Beauty (Italy)
The Hunt (Denmark)

BEST FIRST FEATURE

Blue Caprice
Concussion
Fruitvale Station
Una Noche
Wadjda

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD
(best feature made for under $500,000)
Computer Chess
Crystal Fairy
Museum Hours
Pit Stop
This is Martin Bonner

ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD

Mud, Director: Jeff Nichols, Casting Director: Francine Maisler,
Ensemble Cast: Joe Don Baker, Jacob Lofland, Matthew McConaughey, Ray McKinnon, Sarah Paulson, Michael Shannon, Sam Shepard, Tye Sheridan, Paul Sparks, Bonnie Sturdivant, Reese Witherspoon

17th ANNUAL PIAGET PRODUCERS AWARD
Toby Halbrooks and James M Johnston; Jacob Jaffke; Andrea Roa; Frederick Thornton

20th ANNUAL SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD
My Sister’s Quinceañera, Director: Aaron Douglas Johnston
Newlyweeds, Director: Shaka King
The Foxy Merkins, Director: Madeline Olnek

19th ANNUAL STELLA ARTOIS TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD
Kalyanee Mam, A River Changes Course
Jason Osder, Let the Fire Burn Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez, Manakamana