Sony Pictures Classics’ joy is Fox Searchlight’s misery. Or so it went down at the nominations for the 30th Film Independent Spirit Awards this week. Coming out on top with fourteen overall nominations (split between Land Ho!, Leviathan, Love Is Strange, Only Lovers Left Alive, The Salt Of The Earth, Still Alice and Whiplash), Sony certainly had a lot to celebrate. For every inspired nomination, year-on-year the Indie Spirits increasingly smack of the season ahead – last year all four acting winners matched the Oscars. But that’s not to say the announcement was without a few surprises.
According to the Weinsteins, Morten Tyldum’s The Imitation Game was eligible this year (any American production with a budget of under $20 million can qualify, making The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Theory Of Everything and Inherent Vice ineligible). So imagine their surprise to find the WWII drama completely shut out. The powerhouse producers have a strong recent history with the Indie Spirits – The Artist, Silver Linings Playbook, etc – so to call this a surprise is to put it rather mildly.
The other big shock was Jean-Marc Vallée’s Wild, surely primed to see Reese Witherspoon crack the Best Actress category at the very least. But instead, the director’s follow-up to Dallas Buyers Club (which gleaned nominations for eventual Oscar winners McConaughey and Leto last year) found itself in the same position as The Imitation Game.
But what about the good news? Well, five nominations for Ava DuVernay’s Selma is certainly something to celebrate. The director and her leading man have a small but sweet history with the Spirits, DuVernay winning the John Cassavetes Award and David Oyelowo nominated for Best Supporting Actor for their Middle Of Nowhere collaboration in 2013’s awards. The interesting thing to note is that Selma actually finished editing too late for screeners to be sent out. But this obviously didn’t seem to matter.
It’s good news too for Dan Gilroy’s feature debut, Nightcrawler, nominated for five and also rewarded in last month’s Gotham nominees. The Best Actor Oscar category is once again fierce and overstuffed, so this deservedly adds fuel to the Gyllenhaal fire.
Elsewhere, Tilda Swinton gets a surprise Best Actress nomination (and rightly so), there’s no love for The Skeleton Twins (the Indie Spirits usually love a critically acclaimed Sundance favourite) and Foxcatcher gets special recognition even though it wasn’t eligible for nomination.
The Imitation Game may have had a bad day at the races, but with the amount of Academy screenings it’s receiving, it would be incredibly shortsighted to entertain even the smallest notion that it’s in trouble. It’s a bit of a toss-up whether the Gothams or Indie Spirits feel more, well, ‘indie’ this year, but you can’t deny they stay true to their roots by showering Boyhood with love. It really is the Birdman and Boyhood show at the moment and we don’t see that changing for some time.
The 30th Film Independent Spirit Awards will be held on Saturday February 21st, 2015. Check out the full list of nominees below:
BEST FEATURE:
Birdman Or (The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance)
Boyhood
Love Is Strange
Selma
Whiplash
2014’S WINNER: 12 Years A Slave
BEST FIRST FEATURE:
A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night
Dear White People
Nightcrawler
Obvious Child
She’s Lost Control
2014’S WINNER: Fruitvale Station
JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD (GIVEN TO THE BEST FEATURE MADE FOR UNDER $500,000):
Blue Ruin
It Felt Like Love
Land Ho!
Man From Reno
Test
2014’S WINNER: This Is Martin Bonner
BEST DIRECTOR:
Damien Chazelle – Whiplash
Ava DuVernay – Selma
Alejandro González Iñárritu – Birdman Or (The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance)
Richard Linklater – Boyhood
David Zellner – Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter
2014’S WINNER: Steve McQueen – 12 Years A Slave
BEST SCREENPLAY:
Big Eyes
A Most Violent Year
Nightcrawler
Only Lovers Left Alive
Love Is Strange
2014’S WINNER: 12 Years A Slave
BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY:
Appropriate Behaviour
Little Accidents
The One I Love
A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night
Selma
2014’S WINNER: Nebraska
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY:
The Immigrant
Birdman Or (The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance)
It Felt Like Love
A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night
Selma
2014’S WINNER: 12 Years A Slave
BEST EDITING:
Boyhood
Whiplash
Nightcrawler
A Most Violent Year
The Guest
2014’S WINNER: Short Term 12
BEST MALE LEAD:
André Benjamin – Jimi: All Is By My Side
Jake Gyllenhaal – Nightcrawler
Michael Keaton – Birdman Or (The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance)
John Lithgow – Love Is Strange
David Oyelowo – Selma
2014’S WINNER: Matthew McConaughey – Dallas Buyers Club
BEST FEMALE LEAD:
Marion Cotillard – The Immigrant
Rinko Kikuchi – Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter
Julianne Moore – Still Alice
Jenny Slate – Obvious Child
Tilda Swinton – Only Lovers Left Alive
2014’S WINNER: Cate Blanchett – Blue Jasmine
BEST SUPPORTING MALE:
Riz Ahmed – Nightcrawler
Ethan Hawke – Boyhood
Alfred Molina – Love Is Strange
Edward Norton – Birdman Or (The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance)
J.K. Simmons – Whiplash
2014’S WINNER: Jared Leto – Dallas Buyers Club
BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE:
Patricia Arquette – Boyhood
Jessica Chastain – A Most Violent Year
Carmen Ejogo – Selma
Andrea Suarez Paz – Stand Clear Of The Closing Doors
Emma Stone – Birdman Or (The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance)
2014’S WINNER: Lupita Nyong’o – 12 Years A Slave
BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM:
Force Majeure
Ida
Leviathan
Mommy
Norte, The End Of History
Under The Skin
2014’S WINNER: Blue Is The Warmest Colour
BEST DOCUMENTARY:
20,000 Days On Earth
CITIZENFOUR
Stray Dog
The Salt Of The Earth
Virunga
2014’S WINNER: 20 Feet From Stardom
ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD:
Inherent Vice
2014’S WINNER: Mud
SPECIAL DISTINCTION AWARD:
Foxcatcher
18TH ANNUAL PIAGET PRODUCERS AWARD FINALISTS:
Chad Burris
Elisabeth Holm
Chris Ohlson
20TH ANNUAL LENSCRAFTERS TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD FINALISTS:
Sara Dosa – The Last Season
Dan Krauss – The Kill Team
Darius Clark Monroe – Evolution Of A Criminal
Amanda Rose Wilder – Approaching The Elephant
21ST ANNUAL KIEHL’S SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD:
Ana Lily Amirpour – A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night
Rania Attieh, Daniel Garcia – H.
Chris Eska – The Retrieval
