November 22, 2022
by Carla Hay
With eight nominations, including Best Feature, A24’s dimension-traveling sci-fi/action film “Everything Everywhere All at Once” is the top contender at the 38th annual Film Independent Spirit Awards, which will take place at an in-person ceremony at Santa Monica Pier in Santa Monica, California, on March 4, 2023. The Focus Features drama “TÁR,” starring Cate Blanchett as a maestro classical music conductor facing a scandal, follows close behind, with seven nominations, including Best Feature.
The non-profit group Film Independent votes for and presents the Spirit Awards, which are for movies, which have an independent production budget of no more than $30 million, and TV shows that embody an “indepedent spirit.” IFC will have the live telecast the show, while AMC+ will offer streaming of the ceremony. The show’s host will be announced at a later date.
Nominees in the movie categories were announced by actors Taylour Paige and Raúl Castillo on November 22, 2022. Nominees in the TV categories will be announced by actor Asia Kate Dillon on December 13, 2022. This article will be updated with the TV nominees after they are announced.
Here’s what’s new for the 2023 Film Indepedent Spirit Awards, according to an announcement on the Film Independent website:
- All acting categories are now gender-neutral. The categories for Best Lead Performance and Best Supporting Performance have a maximum of 10 nominees per category, unless there is a tie in the voting.
- A new catgeory has been added: Best Breakthrough Performance, given to “performers making themselves known to wider audiences through noteworthy character portrayals,” according to Film Indepedent.
- The maximum production budget for eligible films has increased from $22.5 million to $30 million.
- The maximum production budget for the John Cassavetes Award has increased from $500,000 to $1 million.
The director, casting director and principal cast members of the MGM/United Artists Releasing drama “Women Talking” will receive the Robert Altman Award, a non-competitive prize given to one movie per year and announced in advance of the ceremony. “Women Talking” is also up for Spirit Awards in these competitive categories: Best Feature, Best Director (for Sarah Polley) and Best Screenplay (also for Polley).
Some eligible films were noticeably snubbed and didn’t get any Spirit Award nominations, such as the A24 drama “The Whale,” the Orion Pictures drama “Till” and the Netflix documentary “Descendant.” These movies have received nominations or prizes at other award shows that give prizes to movies.
FILM CATEGORIES
Best Feature
- “Bones and All” (MGM/United Artists Releasing)
- “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (A24)
- “Our Father, the Devil” (Resolve Media)
- “TÁR” (Focus Features)
- “Women Talking” (MGM/United Artists Releasing)
Best Director
- Todd Field – “TÁR” (Focus Features)
- Kogonada – “After Yang” (A24)
- Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert – “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (A24)
- Sarah Polley – “Women Talking” (MGM/United Artists Releasing)
- Halina Reijn – “Bodies Bodies Bodies” (A24)
Best Lead Performance
- Cate Blanchett – “TÁR” (Focus Features)
- Dale Dickey – “A Love Song” (Bleecker Street)
- Mia Goth – “Pearl” (A24)
- Regina Hall – “Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.” (Focus Features)
- Paul Mescal – “Aftersun” (A24)
- Aubrey Plaza – “Emily the Criminal” (Roadside Attractions)
- Jeremy Pope – “The Inspection” (A24)
- Taylor Russell – “Bones and All” (MGM/United Artists Releasing)
- Andrea Riseborough – “To Leslie” (Momentum Pictures)
- Michelle Yeoh – “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (A24)
Best Supporting Performance
- Jamie Lee Curtis – “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (A24)
- Brian Tyree Henry – “Causeway” (A24/Apple Original Films)
- Nina Hoss – “TÁR” (Focus Features)
- Brian D’Arcy James – “The Cathedral” (MUBI)
- Ke Huy Quan – “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (A24)
- Trevante Rhodes – “Bruiser” (Onyx Collective)
- Theo Rossi – “Emily the Criminal” (Roadside Attractions)
- Mark Rylance – “Bones and All” (MGM/United Artists Releasing)
- Jonathan Tucker – “Palm Trees and Power Lines” (Momentum Pictures)
- Gabrielle Union – “The Inspection” (A24)
Best Breakthrough Performance
- Frankie Corio – “Aftersun” (A24)
- Garcija Filipovic – “Murina” (Kino Lorber)
- Stephanie Hsu – “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (A24)
- Lily McInerny – “Palm Trees and Power Lines” (Momentum Pictures)
- Daniel Zolghardi – “Funny Pages” (A24)
Best Screenplay
- “After Yang” (A24) – Kogonada
- “Catherine Called Birdy” (Amazon Studios) – Lena Dunham
- “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (A24) – Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert
- “TÁR” (Focus Features) – Todd Field
- “Women Talking” (MGM/United Artists Releasing) – Sarah Polley
Best First Screenplay
- “Bodies Bodies Bodies” (A24) – Sarah DeLappe, Kristen Roupenian
- “Emergency” (Amazon Studios) – K.D. Dávila
- “Emily the Criminal” (Roadside Attractions) – John Patton Ford
- “Fire Island” (Searchlight Pictures) – Joel Kim Booster
- “Palm Trees and Power Lines” (Momentum Pictures) – Jamie Dack, Audrey Findlay
Best First Feature
- “Aftersun” (A24) – Charlotte Wells (director), Mark Ceryak, Amy Jackson, Barry Jenkins, Adele Romanski (producers)
- “Emily the Criminal” (Roadside Attractions) – John Patton Ford (director), Tyler Davidson, Aubrey Plaza, Drew Sykes (producers)
- “The Inspection” (A24) – Elegance Bratton (director), Effie T. Brown, Chester Algernal Gordon (producers)
- “Murina” (Kino Lorber) – Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović (director), Danijel Pek, Rodrigo Teixeira (producers)
- “Palm Trees and Power Lines” (Momentum Pictures) – Jamie Dack (director), Leah Chen Baker (producer)
John Cassavetes Award (Given to the best feature made for under $1 million)
- “The African Desperate” (MUBI) – Martine Syms (writer, director, producer), Rocket Caleshu (writer, producer), Vic Brooks (producer)
- “A Love Song” (Bleecker Street) – Max Walker-Silverman (writer, director, producer), Jesse Hope, Dan Janvey (producers)
- “The Cathedral” (MUBI) – Ricky D’Ambrose (writer, director), Graham Swon (producer)
- “Holy Emy” (Utopie Films) – Araceli Lemos (writer, director), Giulia Caruso (writer, producer), Mathieu Bompoint, Ki Jin Kim, Konstantinos Vassilaros (producers)
- “Something in the Dirt” (XYZ Films) – Justin Benson (writer, director, producer), Aaron Moorhead (director, producer), David Lawson Jr. (producer)
Best Cinematography
- “Aftersun” (A24) – Gregory Oke
- “Murina” (Kino Lorber) – Hélène Louvart
- “Neptune Frost” (Kino Lorber) – Anisia Uzeyman
- “Pearl” (A24) – Eliot Rockett
- “TÁR” (Focus Features) – Florian Hoffmeister
Best Documentary
- “A House Made of Splinters” (Madman Entertainment) – Simon Lereng Wilmont (director), Monica Hellström (producer)
- “All that Breathes” (HBO) – Shaunak Sen (director, producer), Teddy Leifer, Aman Mann (producers)
- “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” (Neon) – Laura Poitras (director, producer), Howard Gertler, Nan Goldin, Yoni Golijov, John Lyons (producers)
- “Midwives” (POV) – Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing (director, producer), Mila Aung-Thwin, Ulla Lehmann, Bob Moore (producers)
- “Riotsville, U.S.A.” (IFC Films) – Sierra Pettengill (director), Sara Archambault, Jamila Wignot (producer)
Best Editing
- “Aftersun” (A24) – Blair McClendon
- “The Cathedral” (MUBI) – Ricky D’Ambrose
- “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (A24) – Paul Rogers
- “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On” (A24) – Dean Fleischer Camp, Nick Paley
- “TÁR” (Focus Features) – Monika Willi
Best International Film
- “Corsage” (Austria/Luxembourg/France/Belgium/Italy/England)
- “Joyland” (Pakistan/USA)
- “Leonor Will Never Die” (Philippines)
- “Return to Seoul” (South Korea/France/Belgium/Romania)
- “Saint Omer” (France)
Producers Award
(The Producers Award, now in its 26th year, honors emerging producers who, despite highly limited resources, demonstrate the creativity, tenacity and vision required to produce quality independent films.)
- Liz Cardenas
- Tory Lenosky
- David Grove Churchill Viste
Someone to Watch Award
(The Someone to Watch Award, now in its 29th year, recognizes a talented filmmaker of singular vision who has not yet received appropriate recognition.)
- Adamma Ebo – “Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.”
- Nikyatu Jusu – “Nanny”
- Araceli Lemos – “Holy Emy”
“The Truer Than Fiction Award”
(The Truer Than Fiction Award, now in its 28th year, is presented to an emerging director of non-fiction features who has not yet received significant recognition.)
- Isabel Castro – “Mija”
- Reid Davenport – “I Didn’t See You There”
- Rebeca Huntt – “Beba”
Robert Altman Award (Given to one film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast)
“Women Talking” (MGM/United Artists Releasing) – Sarah Polley (director), John Buchan, Jason Knight (casting directors), Shayla Brown, Jessie Buckley, Claire Foy, Kira Guloien, Kate Hallett, Judith Ivey, Rooney Mara, Sheila McCarthy, Frances McDormand, Michelle McLeod, Liv McNeil, Ben Whishaw, August Winter (ensemble cast)
