2018 - Awards Season: Independent Spirit Awards - Nominations

November 17, 2018

The Independent Spirit Awards nominations were announced on Friday and thus the 2018 Awards Season begins. We The Animals topped the list with five nominations, while A24 earned 12 as a studio.

The categories and nominees are...

BEST FEATURE

• Eighth Grade
• First Reformed
• If Beale Street Could Talk
• Leave No Trace
• You Were Never Really Here

BEST DIRECTOR

• Debra Granik for Leave No Trace
• Barry Jenkins for If Beale Street Could Talk
• Tamara Jenkins for Private Life
• Lynne Ramsay for You Were Never Really Here
• Paul Schrader for First Reformed

BEST FIRST FEATURE

• Hereditary
• Sorry to Bother You
• The Tale
• We The Animals
• Wildlife

BEST FEMALE LEAD

• Glenn Close for The Wife
• Toni Collette for Hereditary
• Elsie Fisher for Eighth Grade
• Regina Hall for Support the Girls
• Helena Howard for Madeline’s Madeline
• Carey Mulligan for Wildlife

BEST MALE LEAD

• John Cho for Searching
• Daveed Diggs for Blindspotting
• Ethan Hawke for First Reformed
• Christian Malheiros for Socrates
• Joaquin Phoenix for You Were Never Really Here

BEST SUPPORTING MALE

• Raul Castillo for We The Animals
• Adam Driver for BlacKkKlansman
• Richard E. Grant for Can You Ever Forgive Me?
• Josh Hamilton for Eighth Grade
• John David Washington for Monsters and Men

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE

• Kayli Carter for Private Life
• Tyne Daly for A Bread Factory
• Regina King for If Beale Street Could Talk
• Thomasin McKenzie for Leave No Trace
• J. Smith-Cameron for Nancy

BEST SCREENPLAY

• Wash Westmoreland, Richard Glatzer, and Rebecca Lenkiewicz for Colette
• Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty for Can You Ever Forgive Me?
• Tamara Jenkins for Private Life
• Boots Riley for Sorry to Bother You
• Paul Schrader for First Reformed

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY

• Bo Burnham for Eighth Grade
• Christina Choe for Nancy
• Cory Finley for Thoroughbreds
• Jennifer Fox for The Tale
• Quinn Shephard and Laurie Shephard for Blame

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

• Madeline’s Madeline
• Mandy
• Suspiria
• We The Animals
• Wildlife

BEST EDITING

• American Animals
• Mid90s
• The Tale
• We The Animals
• You Were Never Really Here

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD
(Given to the best feature made for under $500,000)

• A Bread Factory
• En el Séptimo Día
• Never Goin’ Back
• Socrates
• Thunder Road

BEST DOCUMENTARY

• Hale County This Morning, This Evening
• Minding the Gap
• Of Fathers and Sons
• On Her Shoulders
• Shirkers
• Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM

• Burning (South Korea)
• The Favourite (The United Kingdom)
• Happy As Lazzaro (Italy)
• Roma (Mexico)
• Shoplifters (Japan)

ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD (Given to one film's director, casting director and ensemble cast)

• Suspiria

Also announced were the nominees for the three Filmmaker Grant Awards.

Piaget Producers Award

• Jonathan Duffy and Kelly Williams
• Gabrielle Nadig
• Shrihari Sathe

Acura Someone to Watch Award

• Alex Moratto for Socrates
• Ioana Uricaru for Lemonade
• Jeremiah Zagar for We The Animals

Truer Than Fiction Award is presented to an emerging director of non-fiction features who has not yet received significant attention.

• Alexandria Bombach for On Her Shoulders
• Bing Liu for Minding the Gap
• RaMell Ross for Hale County This Morning, This Evening

Notes and Reactions...

• We The Animals was the top film earning five nominations, followed by Eighth Grade and First Reformed, both of which were released by A24, which also picked up four other nods.
• Of those three, First Reformed is probably the film with the best shot at Oscar glory.
• Glenn Close and Toni Collette both have a real shot at also getting Oscar nominations for Best Lead Actress. I was surprised Melissa McCarthy wasn’t among the list of nominees.
• Neither BlacKkKlansman nor Sorry to Bother You did as well as I was expecting, but neither was completely shut out.

- C.S.Strowbridge

Filed under: Awards Season, Suspiria, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Roma, You Were Never Really Here, If Beale Street Could Talk, BlacKkKlansman, First Reformed, Blame, Thoroughbreds, Mandy, Hereditary, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, Sorry to Bother You, The Favourite, Monsters and Men, Blindspotting, American Animals, The Wife, Leave No Trace, Colette, Shirkers, Madeline’s Madeline, Eighth Grade, Searching, We The Animals, En el Séptimo Día, Support The Girls, Nancy, Kinder des Kalifats, Never Goin’ Back, Beoning, Wildlife, Minding the Gap, Manbiki kazoku, Hale County This Morning, This Evening, On Her Shoulders, Mid90s, Private Life, A Bread Factory, Ethan Hawke, John Cho, Glenn Close, Toni Collette, Tyne Daly, Richard E. Grant, Regina Hall, Josh Hamilton, Tamara Jenkins, Regina King, Melissa McCarthy, Carey Mulligan, Joaquin Phoenix, Paul Schrader, Quinn Shephard, Jeremiah Zagar, Elsie Fisher, Raul Castillo, Bo Burnham, Lynne Ramsay, Jennifer Fox, Adam Driver, John David Washington, Boots Riley, Nicole Holofcener, J. Smith-Cameron, Shrihari Sathe, Rebecca Lenkiewicz, Richard Glatzer, Wash Westmoreland, Kelly Williams, Jonathan Duffy, Debra Granik, Thomasin McKenzie, Barry Jenkins, Gabrielle Nadig, Daveed Diggs, Laurie Shephard, Cory Finley, Jeff Whitty, Helena Howard, Kayli Carter, Christina Choe, Bing Liu, RaMell Ross, Alexandria Bombach, Alexandre Moratto, Christian Malheiros