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Tyler Harlow

Independent Spirit Award Nominations

As the various guilds and critics groups ready their end of year awards and nominations, the Independent Spirit Awards have given us the first set of official nominations. While there are some titles that will see their name included among the Academy Award nominated films, these nominations celebrate the best the independent film world has to offer.


You'll find the nominations for each category below, followed by my analysis for those interested, including any surprises or snubs that I feel should have been nominated.

Best Feature

Eighth Grade

First Reformed

If Beale Street Could Talk

Leave No Trace

You Were Never Really Here

With the exception of If Beale Street Could Talk, which I have not seen yet, this is a solid group of nominations. I would have loved to see more love thrown Blindspotting’s way, as it was one of myfavorites of the year, but I don’t know what I would have removed.


Best Female Lead

Glenn Close- The Wife

Toni Collette- Hereditary

Elsie Fisher- Eighth Grade

Regina Hall- Support the Girls

Helena Howard- Madeline's Madeline

Carey Mulligan- Wildlife

While only Glenn Close is likely to get recognized by the Academy, the nominated ladies here have all turned in solid performances. I was not big on Hereditary, but Toni Collette has a lot of support. Melissa McCarthy's Oscar campaign for Can You Ever Forgive Me? takes a huge hit here as she is unable to snag a nomination. A big miss for me was not including Kathryn Hahn for Private Life. I would have also loved to see a nomination for the fantastic Olivia Cooke in Thoroughbreds or Collete’s Keira Knightly or even Mary Elizabeth Winstead in All About Nina.

Best Male Lead

John Cho- Searching

Daveed Diggs- Blindspotting

Ethan Hawke- First Reformed

Christian Malheiros- Sócrates

Joaquin Phoenix- You Were Never Really There


While he did a very good job playing against type, Cho’s nomination here sticks out to me. I am shocked that Paul Giamatti from Private Life or Ben Foster from Leave No Trace were left out. Despite Foster having already won for Hell or High Water a few years ago, this is my favorite performance of his, as was Paul Giamatti’s. A nomination for Evan Peters’ exceptional work in American Animals or Benjamin Hickey’s show-stopping performance in Blaze would have been cool. Blindspotting’s sole nomination is here so I was happy to see Daveed’s name.

Best Supporting Female

Kayli Carter- Private Life

Tyne Daly- A Bread Factory

Regina King- If Beale Street Could Talk

Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie- Leave No Trace

Smith-Cameron- Nancy

This is one of the categories where I have seen the least amount of nominated works. A nomination for the underrated Kiersey Clemons in Hearts Beat Loud would have been cool, as would have Sasha Lane from The Miseducation of Cameron Post.


Best Supporting Male

Raúl Castillo- We the Animals

Adam Driver- BlacKkKlansman

Richard E. Grant- Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Josh Hamilton- Eighth Grade

John David Washington- Monsters and Men

Yay Josh Hamilton! This nomination made me smile, as did Richard E. Grant.

This was a spot where I expected to see Blindspotting's Rafael Casal. He was one of the true breakout performances for me this year and I was hoping a nomination here would get the Academy talking. Bummer. I also wouldn't have been upset to see Jonathan Pryce for his stellar turn in The Wife here or Dominic West for Colette. I would have replaced John David Washington with either of these two performances. I thought he was much better in BlackKkKlansman.

Best Director

Debra Granik- Leave No Trace

Barry Jenkins- If Beale Street Could Talk

Tamara Jenkins- Private Life

Lynne Ramsay- You Were Never Really Here

Paul Schrader- First Reformed

This is a stacked category. The only "snub" I see here is Bo Burnham. I have been lucky to see a couple of Q&A's with him and the care and maturity he seemed to display on set merited a nomination here. He did get a nomination for the script though which was great.

Best First Feature

Hereditary

Sorry to Bother You

The Tale

We the Animals

Wildlife

A wide variety of films on display here. I am most excited to catch up on We the Animals. I haven't seen that or The Tale, which I am slightly surprised to see here, given it played on HBO. I also wonder if the rules could have been bent here for American Animals, as it was Bart Layton's narrative feature debut (he did direct the thrilling documentary The Imposter).

Best Screenplay

Richard Glatzer (Writer/Story By), Rebecca Lenkiewicz & Wash Westmoreland- Colette

Nicole Holofcener & Jeff Whitty- Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Tamara Jenkins- Private Life

Boots Riley- Sorry to Bother You

Paul Schrader- First Reformed

Why can't Bo Burnham be nominated here too? His screenplay is quite good and mature given that he is writing from the perspective of a teenage girl. A super outside of the box nomination could have come here for Damsel, which I found much more enjoyable than Sorry to Bother You.

Best First Screenplay

Bo Burnham- Eighth Grade

Christina Choe- Nancy

Cory Finley- Thoroughbreds

Jennifer Fox- The Tale

Quinn Shephard (Writer/Story By) and Laurie Shephard (Story By)- Blame

The two films I have seen in this category, Eighth Grade and Thoroughbreds, I greatly enjoyed. The Spirit Awards are great at giving nominations to very small and not widely known films. I am particularly intrigued by Nancy as well as Quinn and Laurie Shepard's Blame.

Best Cinematography

Ashley Connor- Madeline's Madeline

Diego Garcia- Wildlife

Benjamin Loeb- Mandy

Sayombhu Mukdeeprom- Suspiria

Zak Mulligan- We the Animals


Yay Mandy, you hypnotic nightmare of a film! This was another spot to highlight Blindspotting, which featured some truly haunting imagery. Damsel, American Animals or even First Reformed could have also gotten nominated here. And as much as I disliked Hereditary, the cinematography was very unique and engaging.

Best Editing

Joe Bini- You Were Never Really There

Keiko Deguchi, Brian A. Kates & Jeremiah Zagar- We the Animals

Luke Dunkley, Nick Fenton, Chris Gill & Julian Hart- American Animals

Anne Fabini, Alex Hall and Gary Levy- The Tale

Nick Houy- Mid90s

I'm surprised to not see Hereditary or Blindspotting here, as both had far superior work than Mid90s.

Best International Film

Burning (South Korea)

The Favourite (United Kingdom)

Happy as Lazzaro (Italy)

Roma (Mexico)

Shoplifters (Japan)

I have been making a conscious effort to see more foreign films. I am happy they were able to sneak The Favourite in here, where if it weren't for restrictions I feel like it would have earned nominations in many of the top categories. I also missed out of Shoplifters, which I hear is excellent. I would have loved to see the delightful Swedish film Border nominated here.

Best Documentary

Hale Country This Morning, This Evening

Minding the Gap

Of Fathers and Sons

On Her Shoulders

Shirkers

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

I cried through 70% of Won't You Be My Neighbor?. Yep its that impactful. I don't know if there were restrictions here but I wouldn't have been surprised to have seen either Three Identical Strangers or Free Solo here. Excited to check out many of these as I am severely behind in my documentary watching.

John Cassavetes Award

A Bread Factory

En El Séptimo Día

Never Goin' Back

Socrates

Thunder Road

While I have only heard of Never Goin Back, the fact that both Socrates and A Bread Factory were able to score acting nominations has me intrigued. Last year this category featured the impressive The Transfiguration so I am hoping for something as unexpected here.


As screeners roll in and I am able to watch/re-watch the nominated films I will update with a post of my predictions!


The Independent Spirit Awards will air on Feb 23rd, 2019 on IFC.

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