Luca Guadagnino’s coming-of-age drama Call Me By Your Name earned six Indie Spirits nominations on Tuesday (November 21), followed by Jordan Peele’s Get Out and the Safdie brothers’ Good Time on five apiece.
Film Independent’s 2018 Indie Spirit Awards take place on March 3, 2018, and this year’s crop of nominees is a reminder of the strength in depth in the independent space. Many of the contenders – in particular Call me By Your Name, Lady Bird, Get Out and The Big Sick – are expected to compete for Oscars.
By distributor, A24 leads the pack on 17 nods for a slate that includes Good Time, Lady Bird (four nominations), The Florida Project (two) and The Disaster Artist (one).
Sony Pictures Classics emerged with 12 encompassing Call Me By Your Name, The Rider (four nods), A Fantastic Woman (one) and Loveless (one). Neon earned seven for a slate that includes I, Tonya, while FilmRise collected six and distributes Dayveon and Motherland. Amazon Studios earned three for The Big Sick and Crown Heights, while Netflix emerged with a solitary mention for Robert Altman Award winner Mudbound, the postwar drama’s second ensemble award of the season after the Gothams special jury award.
Call Me By Your Name is in contention for best feature alongside Sean Baker’s The Florida Project, Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird, Get Out and Chloé Zhao’s The Rider. Best international feature nominees are: Sebastián Lelio’s A Fantastic Woman (Chile), Robin Campillo’s BPM (Beats Per Minute) (France), Rungano Nyoni’s I Am Not A Witch (Zambia), William Oldroyd’s Lady Macbeth (UK) and Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Loveless (Russia).
Baker, Guadagnino, Peele, the Safdie brothers, Zhao and Jonas Carpignano (A Ciambra) are up for best director, while Martin McDonagh (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), Gerwig, Peele, Mike White (Beatriz At Dinner) and Azazel Jacobs (The Lovers) are nominated for best screenplay.
Frances McDormand (Three Billboards) is in the running for best female lead with Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird), Salma Hayek (Beatriz At Dinner), Margot Robbie (I, Tonya), Shinobu Terajima (Oh Lucy!) and Regina Williams (Life And Nothing More). Best male lead contenders are Timothée Chalamet (Call Me By Your Name), James Franco (The Disaster Artist), Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out), Robert Pattinson (Good Time) and Harris Dickinson (Beach Rats).
Mudbound was selected to receive the Robert Altman Award, given to one film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast. Ava DuVernay will serve as the Indie Spirits honourary chair. Of all the Indie Spirit nominees, Columbus, Distant Constellation, I Am Not A Witch, Life And Nothing More and Quest are without US distribution.
The inaugural Bonnie Award, named after American Airlines pilot Bonnie Tiburzi Caputo, the first female to fly a major US airline, will assist a mid-career female director with a $50,000 unrestricted grant sponsored by American Airlines. The nominees are So Yong Kim, Lynn Shelton and Zhao.
“This year’s nominations reflect the range and vitality of artist-driven, independent film,” Film Independent president Josh Welsh said. “Diversity, innovation and uniqueness of vision are the hallmarks of the Film Independent Spirit Awards, and the films this year powerfully embody all those qualities.”
Winners of the Spirit Awards Filmmaker Grants will be announced at the Film Independent Spirit Awards Filmmaker Grants and Nominee Brunch on January 6, 2018.
The Spirit Awards nominating committees made their choices from 400 submissions and applied the following guidelines: uniqueness of vision, original and provocative subject matter, economy of means (with particular attention paid to total production cost and individual compensation), and percentage of financing from independent sources.
2018 Film Independent Spirit Award Nominations in full:
BEST FEATURE
(Award given to the producer)
Call Me By Your Name, Peter Spears, Luca Guadagnino, Emilie Georges, Rodrigo Teixeira, Marco Morabito, James Ivory, Howard Rosenman
The Florida Project, Sean Baker, Chris Bergoch, Kevin Chinoy, Andrew Duncan, Alex Saks, Francesca Silvestri, Shih-Ching Tsou
Get Out, Jason Blum, Edward H. Hamm Jr., Sean McKittrick, Jordan Peele
Lady Bird, Eli Bush, Evelyn O’Neill, Scott Rudin
The Rider, Mollye Asher, Bert Hamelinck, Sacha Ben Harroche, Chloé Zhao
BEST FIRST FEATURE
(Award given to the director and producer)
Columbus, dir: Kogonada; pdrs: Danielle Renfrew Behrens, Aaron Boyd, Giulia Caruso, Ki Jin Kim, Andrew Miano, Chris Weitz
Ingrid Goes West, dir: Matt Spicer; pdrs: Jared Ian Goldman, Adam Mirels, Robert Mirels, Aubrey Plaza, Tim White, Trevor White
Menashe, dir-pdr: Joshua Z. Weinstein, pdrs: Yoni Brook, Traci Carlson, Daniel Finkelman, Alex Lipschultz
Oh Lucy!, dir-pdr: Atsuko Hirayanagi; pdrs: Jessica Elbaum, Yukie Kito, Han West
Patti Cake$, dir: Geremy Jasper, pdrs: Chris Columbus, Michael Gottwald, Dan Janvey, Daniela Taplin Lundberg, Noah Stahl, Rodrigo Teixeira
JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD
(Presented to the best feature made for under $500,000; award given to the writer, director and producer)
Dayveon
Wr-dir-pdr: Amman Abbasi
Wr: Steven Reneau
Pdrs: Lachion Buckingham, Alexander Uhlmann
A Ghost Story
Wr-dir: David Lowery
Pdrs: Adam Donaghey, Toby Halbrooks, James M. Johnston
Life And Nothing More
Wr-dir: Antonio Méndez Esparza
Pdrs: Amadeo Hernández Bueno, Alvaro Portanet Hernández, Pedro Hernández Santos
Most Beautiful Island
Wr-dir-pdr: Ana Asensio
Pdrs: Larry Fessenden, Noah Greenberg, Chadd Harbold, Jenn Wexler
The Transfiguration
Wr-dir: Michael O’Shea
Pdr: Susan Leber
BEST DIRECTOR
Sean Baker, The Florida Project
Jonas Carpignano, A Ciambra
Luca Guadagnino, Call Me By Your Name
Jordan Peele, Get Out
Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie, Good Time
Chloé Zhao, The Rider
BEST SCREENPLAY
Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird
Azazel Jacobs, The Lovers
Martin McDonagh, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Jordan Peele, Get Out
Mike White, Beatriz At Dinner
BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
Donald Cried, Kris Avedisian. Story by Kyle Espeleta, Jesse Wakeman
The Big Sick, Emily V. Gordon, Kumail Nanjiani
Women Who Kill, Ingrid Jungermann
Columbus, Kogonada
Ingrid Goes West, David Branson Smith, Matt Spicer
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Thimios Bakatakis, The Killing Of A Sacred Deer
Elisha Christian, Columbus
Hélène Louvart, Beach Rats
Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, Call Me By Your Name
Joshua James Richards, The Rider
BEST EDITING
Ronald Bronstein, Benny Safdie, Good Time
Walter Fasano, Call Me By Your Name
Alex O’Flinn, The Rider
Gregory Plotkin, Get Out
Tatiana S. Riegel, I, Tonya
BEST FEMALE LEAD
Salma Hayek, Beatriz At Dinner
Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Margot Robbie, I, Tonya
Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird
Shinobu Terajima, Oh Lucy!
Regina Williams, Life And Nothing More
BEST MALE LEAD
Timothée Chalamet, Call Me By Your Name
Harris Dickinson, Beach Rats
James Franco, The Disaster Artist
Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out
Robert Pattinson, Good Time
BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE
Holly Hunter, The Big Sick
Allison Janney, I, Tonya
Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird
Lois Smith, Marjorie Prime
Taliah Lennice Webster, Good Time
BEST SUPPORTING MALE
Nnamdi Asomugha, Crown Heights
Armie Hammer, Call Me By Your Name
Barry Keoghan, The Killing Of A Sacred Deer
Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Benny Safdie, Good Time
ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD
(Presented to one film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast)
Mudbound
Dir: Dee Rees
Casting directors: Billy Hopkins, Ashley Ingram
Ensemble cast: Jonathan Banks, Mary J. Blige, Jason Clarke, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Mitchell, Rob Morgan, Carey Mulligan
BEST DOCUMENTARY
(Award given to the director and producer)
The Departure, dir-pdr: Lana Wilson
Faces Places, dirs: Agnés Varda, JR; pdr: Rosalie Varda
Last Men In Aleppo, dir: Feras Fayyad; pdrs: Kareem Abeed, Søeren Steen Jespersen, Stefan Kloos
Motherland, dir-pdr: Ramona S. Diaz; pdr: Rey Cuerdo
Quest, dir: Jonathan Olshefski, pdr: Sabrina Schmidt Gordon
BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM
(Award given to the director)
BPM (Beats Per Minute) (France), dir. Robin Campillo
A Fantastic Woman (Chile), dir. Sebastián Lelio
I Am Not A Witch (Zambia), dir. Rungano Nyoni
Lady Macbeth (UK), dir. William Oldroyd
Loveless (Russia), dir. Andrey Zvyagintsev
BONNIE AWARD
Bonnie Tiburzi Caputo joined American Airlines in 1973 at age 24, becoming the first female pilot to fly for a major US airline. In her honour, the inaugural Bonnie Award will recognise a mid-career female director with a $50,000 unrestricted grant, sponsored by American Airlines.
So Yong Kim
Lynn Shelton
Chloé Zhao
JEEP TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD
The 23rd annual Truer Than Fiction Award, funded by the Jeep brand, is presented to an emerging director of non-fiction features who has not yet received significant recognition. The award includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant funded by the Jeep brand.
Shevaun Mizrahi, director of Distant Constellation
Jonathan Olshefski, director of Quest
Jeff Unay, director of The Cage Fighter
KIEHL’S SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD
The 24th annual Someone to Watch Award, funded by Kiehl’s Since 1851, recognises a talented filmmaker of singular vision who has not yet received appropriate recognition. The award includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant funded by Kiehl’s Since 1851.
Amman Abbasi, director of Dayveon
Justin Chon, director of Gook
Kevin Phillips, director of Super Dark Times
PIAGET PRODUCERS AWARD
The 21st annual Producers Award, funded by Piaget, honors emerging producers who, despite highly limited resources, demonstrate the creativity, tenacity and vision required to produce quality, independent films. The award includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant funded by Piaget.
Giulia Caruso and Ki Jin Kim
Ben LeClair
Summer Shelton
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