2017 Independent Spirit Awards: Arnold’s American Honey & Jenkins’ Moonlight Lead Noms

We might want to rebrand the Independent Spirit Awards as the A24 awards. The distributor racked up a whopping 18 nominations in all and one early win (Barry Jenkin’s film already won the Robert Altman award – for best ensemble), with American Honey and Moonlight both tied with six apiece. While Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester By the Sea (five nominations) and Jackie (three nominations) were expected to shore up in several categories, it is the folks involved in Sundance opener Chris Kelly’s Other People and Venice Film Festival selected Jake Mahaffy’s Free in Deed (each earned four nominations) who must be pinching themselves the most.

Other than Kelly Reichardt’s Certain Women not receiving a Best Feature nom or Antonio Campos’ Christine receiving next to no recognition and Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson deemed as unworthy of merit with zero noms, the biggest head scratcher nomination might be the inclusion of Michel Franco’s mostly panned Cannes selected Chronic in the Best Actor and Best Feature categories. Here are the nominations for the 2017 Spirit Awards – make sure to scroll towards the bottom for some of my favorite categories.

BEST FEATURE (Award given to the producer)
American Honey
Chronic
Jackie
Manchester by the Sea
Moonlight

BEST FIRST FEATURE (Award given to the producer and director)
The Childhood of a Leader – DIRECTOR: Brady Corbet
The Fits – DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Anna Rose Holmer
Other People – DIRECTOR: Chris Kelly
Swiss Army Man – DIRECTORS: Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert
The Witch – DIRECTOR: Robert Eggers

BEST DIRECTOR
Andrea Arnold, American Honey
Barry Jenkins, Moonlight
Pablo Larraín, Jackie
Jeff Nichols, Loving
Kelly Reichardt, Certain Women

BEST SCREENPLAY
Barry Jenkins, Tarell Alvin McCraney (story by), Moonlight
Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea
Mike Mills, 20th Century Women
Ira Sachs, Mauricio Zacharias, Little Men
Taylor Sheridan, Hell or High Water

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
Robert Eggers, The Witch
Chris Kelly, Other People
Adam Mansbach, Barry
Stella Meghie, Jean of the Joneses
Craig Shilowich, Christine

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD (Award given to the best feature made for under $500,000, given to the writer, director and producer)
Free In Deed – WRITER/DIRECTOR: Jake Mahaffy
Hunter Gatherer – WRITER/DIRECTOR: Josh Locy
Lovesong – WRITER/DIRECTOR: So Yong Kim
Nakom – WRITER/DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: T.W. Pittman / DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Kelly Daniela Norris
Spa Night – WRITER/DIRECTOR: Andrew Ahn

BEST MALE LEAD
Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea
David Harewood, Free In Deed
Viggo Mortensen, Captain Fantastic
Jesse Plemons, Other People
Tim Roth, Chronic

BEST FEMALE LEAD
Annette Bening, 20th Century Women
Isabelle Huppert, Elle
Sasha Lane, American Honey
Ruth Negga, Loving
Natalie Portman, Jackie

BEST SUPPORTING MALE
Ralph Fiennes, A Bigger Splash
Ben Foster, Hell or High Water
Lucas Hedges, Manchester by the Sea
Shia LaBeouf, American Honey
Craig Robinson, Morris From America

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE
Edwina Findley, Free In Deed
Paulina Garcia, Little Men
Lily Gladstone, Certain Women
Riley Keough, American Honey
Molly Shannon, Other People

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Ava Berkofsky, Free In Deed
Lol Crawley, The Childhood of a Leader
Zach Kuperstein, The Eyes of My Mother
James Laxton, Moonlight
Robbie Ryan, American Honey

BEST EDITING
Matthew Hannam, Swiss Army Man
Jennifer Lame, Manchester by the Sea
Joi McMillon, Nat Sanders, Moonlight
Jake Roberts, Hell or High Water
Sebastián Sepúlveda, Jackie

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM
Aquarius (Brazil) – DIRECTOR: Kleber Mendonça Filho
Chevalier (Greece) – DIRECTOR: Athina Tsangari
My Golden Days (France) – DIRECTOR: Arnaud Desplechin
Toni Erdmann (Germany/Romania) – DIRECTOR: Maren Ade
Under the Shadow (Iran/United Kingdom) – DIRECTOR: Babak Anvari

BEST DOCUMENTARY (Award given to the director and producer)
13th – DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Ava DuVernay
Cameraperson – DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Kirsten Johnson
I am Not Your Negro – DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Raoul Peck
O.J.: Made in America – DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Ezra Edelman
Sonita – DIRECTOR: Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami
Under the Sun – DIRECTOR: Vitaly Mansky

20th ANNUAL PIAGET PRODUCERS AWARD
Lisa Kjerulff
Jordana Mollick
Melody C. Roscher & Craig Shilowich

23rd ANNUAL KIEHL’S SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD
Andrew Ahn – Director of Spa Night
Claire Carré – Director of Embers
Anna Rose Holmer – Director of The Fits
Ingrid Jungermann – Director of Women Who Kill

22nd TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD
Kristi Jacobson – Director of Solitary
Sara Jordenö – Director of Kiki
Nanfu Wang – Director of Hooligan Sparrow

ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD (Award given to one film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast)

Moonlight

DIRECTOR: Barry Jenkins

CASTING DIRECTOR: Yesi Ramirez

ENSEMBLE CAST: Mahershala Ali, Patrick Decile, Naomie Harris, Alex Hibbert, André Holland, Jharrel Jerome, Janelle Monáe, Jaden Piner, Trevante Thodes, Ashton Sanders