The nominations for the 2018 Film Independent Spirit Awards were unveiled with five features up for Best Picture: Call Me by Your Name; The Florida Project; Get Out; Lady Bird; and The Rider.
Four of those six films also garnered Best Director nominations: Sean Baker for The Florida Project; Luca Guadagnino for Call Me by Your Name; Jordan Peele for Get Out; and Chloé Zhao for The Rider. The other two Best Director nominees are Jonas Carpignano for A Ciambra and Benny Safdie and Josh Safdie for Good Time.
As for the overall nominations tally, Call Me by Your Name leads the way with six: Best Feature, Best Director, Male Lead (Timothée Chalamet) Best Supporting Male (Armie Hammer), Best Cinematography (Sayombhu Mukdeeprom) and Best Editing (Walter Fasano).
Next up with five nominations each were Get Out and Good Time. Get Out’s nods were for: Best Feature, Director, Screenplay (Jordan Peele), Male Lead (Daniel Kaluuya) and Editing (Gregory Plotkin). Good Time was nominated for Best Director, Male Lead (Robert Pattinson), Supporting Female (Taliah Lennice Webster, Supporting Male (Benny Safdie) and Editing (Ronald Bronstein, Benny Safdie.
Scoring four nominations were The Rider for Best Feature, Director, Cinematography (Joshua James Richards and Editing (Alex O’Flinn), and Lady Bird for Best Feature, Best Screenplay (Greta Gerwig), Best Female Lead (Saoirse Ronan) and Best Supporting Female (Laurie Metcalf).
Altman Award; Spirit’s honorary chair
Director Dee Rees’ Mudbound was selected to receive the Robert Altman Award, which is bestowed upon one film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast. The Altman Award was created in 2008 in honor of legendary director Robert Altman who was known for creating extraordinary ensemble casts.
Director Ava DuVernay (Selma, 13th, A Wrinkle in Time) was named this year’s honorary chair of the Spirit Awards. (Past honorary chairs include David Oyelowo, Jessica Chastain, Kerry Washington, Ang Lee and Martin Scorsese.)
“This year’s nominations reflect the range and vitality of artist-driven, independent film,” said Film Independent President Josh Welsh. “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.”
Welsh said of DuVernay, “Ava is a remarkable filmmaker – a writer, director and producer we have celebrated at the Spirit Awards and the LA Film Festival. More than that, she is a leader and a powerful voice for change, in the industry and beyond.”
Winners, who are selected by Film Independent members, will be announced at the Spirit Awards on Saturday, March 3, 2018. The awards ceremony co-hosted by Nick Kroll and John Mulaney will be held on the beach in Santa Monica, just north of the Santa Monica Pier. The show will broadcast live exclusively on IFC at 2pm PT/ 5pm ET.
Winners of the Spirit Awards Filmmaker Grants will be announced at the Film Independent Spirit Awards Filmmaker Grants and Nominee Brunch on Saturday, January 6, 2018, at BOA Steakhouse in West Hollywood.
The Spirit Awards Nominating Committees selected nominees from 400 submissions this year and applied the following guidelines in determining the nominations: 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. The Spirit Awards Nominating Committees are comprised of writers, directors, producers, cinematographers, editors, actors, critics, casting directors, film festival programmers and other working film professionals.
Here’s a full rundown of nominations for the 33rd Film Independent Spirit Awards, as well as winner of the Robert Altman Award (Mudbound).
BEST FEATURE
(Award given to the producer. Executive Producers are not awarded.)
Call Me by Your Name
Producers: Peter Spears, Luca Guadagnino, Emilie Georges, Rodrigo Teixeira, Marco Morabito, James Ivory, Howard Rosenman
The Florida Project
Producers: Sean Baker, Chris Bergoch, Kevin Chinoy, Andrew Duncan, Alex Saks, Francesca Silvestri, Shih-Ching Tsou
Get Out
Producers: Jason Blum, Edward H. Hamm Jr., Sean McKittrick, Jordan Peele
Lady Bird
Producers: Eli Bush, Evelyn O’Neill, Scott Rudin
The Rider
Producers: Mollye Asher, Bert Hamelinck, Sacha Ben Harroche, Chloé Zhao
BEST FIRST FEATURE
(Award given to the director and producer)
Columbus
Director: Kogonada
Producers: Danielle Renfrew Behrens, Aaron Boyd, Giulia Caruso, Ki Jin Kim, Andrew Miano, Chris Weitz
Ingrid Goes West
Director: Matt Spicer
Producers: Jared Ian Goldman, Adam Mirels, Robert Mirels, Aubrey Plaza, Tim White, Trevor White
Menashe
Director/Producer: Joshua Z. Weinstein
Producers: Yoni Brook, Traci Carlson, Daniel Finkelman, Alex Lipschultz
Oh Lucy!
Director/Producer: Atsuko Hirayanagi
Producers: Jessica Elbaum, Yukie Kito, Han West
Patti Cake$
Director: Geremy Jasper
Producers: Chris Columbus, Michael Gottwald, Dan Janvey, Daniela Taplin Lundberg, Noah Stahl, Rodrigo Teixeira
JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD – Given to the best feature made for under $500,000. (Award given to the writer, director and producer. Executive Producers are not awarded.)
Dayveon
Writer/Director/Producer: Amman Abbasi
Writer: Steven Reneau
Producers: Lachion Buckingham, Alexander Uhlmann
A Ghost Story
Writer/Director: David Lowery
Producers: Adam Donaghey, Toby Halbrooks, James M. Johnston
Life and nothing more
Writer/Director: Antonio Méndez Esparza
Producers: Amadeo Hernández Bueno, Alvaro Portanet Hernández, Pedro Hernández Santos
Most Beautiful Island
Writer/Director/Producer: Ana Asensio
Producers: Larry Fessenden, Noah Greenberg, Chadd Harbold, Jenn Wexler
The Transfiguration
Writer/Director: Michael O’Shea
Producer: 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
Kris Avedisian
Story By: Kyle Espeleta, Jesse Wakeman
Donald Cried
Emily V. Gordon, Kumail Nanjiani
The Big Sick
Ingrid Jungermann
Women Who Kill
Kogonada
Columbus
David Branson Smith, Matt Spicer
Ingrid Goes West
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 – Given to one film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast
Mudbound
Director: 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
Director/Producer: Lana Wilson
Faces Places
Directors: Agnés Varda, JR
Producer: Rosalie Varda
Last Men in Aleppo
Director: Feras Fayyad
Producers: Kareem Abeed, Søeren Steen Jespersen, Stefan Kloos
Motherland
Director/Producer: Ramona S. Diaz
Producer: Rey Cuerdo
Quest
Director: Jonathan Olshefski
Producer: Sabrina Schmidt Gordon
BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM (Award given to the director)
BPM (Beats Per Minute)
France
Director: Robin Campillo
A Fantastic Woman
Chile
Director: Sebastián Lelio
I Am Not a Witch
Zambia
Director: Rungano Nyoni
Lady Macbeth
U.K.
Director: William Oldroyd
Loveless
Russia
Director: 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 U.S. airline. In her honor, the inaugural Bonnie Award will recognize 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, recognizes 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 & Ki Jin Kim
- Ben LeClair
- Summer Shelton
In addition, Visit Seattle will fund the Seattle Story Award, which is still open for nominations. The winning filmmaker will exhibit innovation, diversity and uniqueness of vision while having a history of transforming perspectives through rich stories. The recipient will receive a $25,000 cash grant to create a short film inspired by Seattle’s independent spirit. This film will premiere during the Spirit Awards broadcast.
