Film Independent Spirit Awards unveils nominees

Film Independent, the non-profit organisation dedicated to fostering independence and inclusivity in visual storytelling, has revealed the nominations for the film categories at the 2023 Film Independent Spirit Awards. Film Independent President Josh Welsh introduced the prerecorded video announcements, which featured guest presenters Raúl Castillo (2019 Spirit Award-nominee for We Are Animals), and Taylour Paige (2022 Spirit Award-winner for Zola). You can watch the nominations here which include the previously announced category updates.

“We couldn’t be more honoured to celebrate this year’s exciting film nominees,” said Josh Welsh, president of Film Independent. “As the Film Independent Spirit Awards evolve with our changing industry, including embracing non-gendered categories, we look to these artists to lead us into the future. And as we celebrate the 30^th anniversary of our Artist Development programs, we are incredibly proud to have Film Independent Fellows Siân Heder and Chloé Zhao return as our honorary co-chairs.”

The 2023 Best Feature nominees included Bones and All, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Tár, Women Talking and Our Father, the Devil. Everything Everywhere All At Once led all films with eight total nominations, including Best Director for Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert and acting nominations for stars Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ke Huy Quan and Stephanie Hsu. Tár received seven nominations including Best Director for Todd Field and acting nominations for Cate Blanchett and Nina Hoss.

New to the nominations this year is the Best Breakthrough Performance category, honoring actors making themselves known to wider audiences through noteworthy character portrayals. The nominees include, in addition to Stephanie Hsu, Frankie Corio of Aftersun, Gracija Filipović of Murina, Lily McInerny of Palm Trees and Power Lines and Daniel Zolghadri of Funny Pages.

Also new this year is a switch to gender neutral acting awards, with the separate lead and supporting actor and actress categories being replaced by the ten-nominee Best Lead and Best Supporting Performance awards.

Women Talking from director Sarah Polley was selected to receive the Robert Altman Award, which is bestowed upon a single film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast. The Altman Award was created in 2008 in honor of legendary director Robert Altman, known for populating his films with extraordinary ensemble casts.

In addition to the film nominees, Academy Award-winning filmmakers, and previous Film Independent Fellows Chloé Zhao (Nomadland, Eternals) and Siân Heder (Coda, Tallulah) were announced as the honorary co-chairs of the 38th Spirit Awards. Both co-chairs were also recognized at the 2021 Spirit Awards, where Chloé Zhao won Best Director, Best Editing and Best Feature for Nomadland, and Siân Heder was nominated for Best New Scripted Series for Little America. Previous honorary chairs include Kristen Stewart, Shaka King and Ava DuVernay.

Celebrating creative independence, diversity, innovation and uniqueness of vision, the 38th Film Independent Spirit Awards will take place on Saturday, March 4, 2023. The in-person show, held on the beach in Santa Monica, will be streamed internationally across multiple online and digital platforms. The Spirit Awards are the primary fundraiser for Film Independent’s year-round slate of programs, which cultivate the careers of emerging filmmakers and promote diversity and inclusion in the industry.

This year the Spirit Awards Film Nominating Committees selected nominees from over 25 different countries, applying the following guidelines in determining nominees: uniqueness of vision, original and provocative subject matter, economy of means. The Spirit Awards Nominating Committees are comprised of writers, directors, producers, cinematographers, editors, actors, critics, casting directors, film festival programmers and other working film professionals. Of all nominated writers and directors, 61% are women and 34% are BIPOC. Of all nominated actors, 70% are women and 27% are BIPOC. And of all 2023 nominees, 51% are women and 33% are BIPOC. This year, the Spirit Awards nominating committees are 50% female, 6% Nonbinary, 3% Transgender, and 61% BIPOC; 32% identify as LGBTQ+ and 8% identify as people with disabilities (PWD).

Spirit Awards nominations in television-specific categories will be announced separately on Tuesday, December 13.

The Film Independent Spirit Awards are supported by the Official Spirit, Bulleit Frontier Whiskey, and the Official Water, FIJI Water. Getty Images is the Official Photographer.

See the full list of nominees below:

2023 FILM INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARDS FILM NOMINATIONS

BEST FEATURE (Award given to the producer)

Bones and All

Producers: Timothée Chalamet, Francesco Melzi d’Eril, Luca Guadagnino, David Kajganich, Lorenzo Mieli, Marco Morabito, Gabriele Moratti, Theresa Park, Peter Spears

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Producers: Daniel Kwan, Mike Larocca, Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, Daniel Scheinert, Jonathan Wang

Our Father, the Devil

Producers: Ellie Foumbi, Joseph Mastantuono

Tár

Producers: Todd Field, Scott Lambert, Alexandra Milchan

Women Talking

Producers: Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Frances McDormand

BEST FIRST FEATURE (Award given to director and producer)

Aftersun

Director: Charlotte Wells

Producers: Mark Ceryak, Amy Jackson, Barry Jenkins, Adele Romanski

Emily the Criminal

Director: John Patton Ford

Producers: Tyler Davidson, Aubrey Plaza, Drew Sykes

The Inspection

Director: Elegance Bratton

Producers: Effie T. Brown, Chester Algernal Gordon

Murina

Director: Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović

Producers: Danijel Pek, Rodrigo Teixeira

Palm Trees and Power Lines

Director/Producer: Jamie Dack

Producer: Leah Chen Baker

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD  – Given to the best feature made for under $1,000,000 (Award given to the writer, director and producer)

The African Desperate

Writer/Director/Producer: Martine Syms

Writer/Producer: Rocket Caleshu

Producer: Vic Brooks

A Love Song

Writer/Director/Producer: Max Walker-Silverman

Producers: Jesse Hope, Dan Janvey

The Cathedral

Writer/Director: Ricky D’Ambrose

Producer: Graham Swon

Holy Emy

Writer/Director: Araceli Lemos

Writer/Producer: Giulia Caruso

Producers: Mathieu Bompoint, Ki Jin Kim, Konstantinos Vassilaros

Something in the Dirt

Writer/Director/Producer: Justin Benson

Director/Producer: Aaron Moorhead

Producer: David Lawson Jr.

BEST DIRECTOR

Todd Field

Tár

Kogonada

After Yang

Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Sarah Polley

Women Talking

Halina Reijn

Bodies Bodies Bodies

BEST SCREENPLAY

Lena Dunham

Catherine Called Birdy

Todd Field

Tár

Kogonada

After Yang

Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Sarah Polley

Women Talking

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY

Joel Kim Booster

Fire Island

Jamie Dack, Audrey Findlay, Story by Jamie Dack

Palm Trees and Power Lines

K.D. Dávila

Emergency

Sarah DeLappe, Story by Kristen Roupenian

Bodies Bodies Bodies

John Patton Ford

Emily the Criminal

BEST LEAD PERFORMANCE

Cate Blanchett

Tár

Dale Dickey

A Love Song

Mia Goth

Pearl

Regina Hall

Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.

Paul Mescal

Aftersun

Aubrey Plaza

Emily the Criminal

Jeremy Pope

The Inspection

Andrea Riseborough

To Leslie

Taylor Russell

Bones and All

Michelle Yeoh

Everything Everywhere All At Once

BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE

Jamie Lee Curtis

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Brian Tyree Henry

Causeway

Nina Hoss

Tár

Brian d’Arcy James

The Cathedral

Ke Huy Quan

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Trevante Rhodes

Bruiser

Theo Rossi

Emily the Criminal

Mark Rylance

Bones and All

Jonathan Tucker

Palm Trees and Power Lines

Gabrielle Union

The Inspection

BEST BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE (New Award)

Frankie Corio

Aftersun

Gracija Filipović

Murina

Stephanie Hsu

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Lily McInerny

Palm Trees and Power Lines

Daniel Zolghadri

Funny Pages

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Florian Hoffmeister BSC

Tár

Hélène Louvart AFC

Murina

Gregory Oke

Aftersun

Eliot Rockett

Pearl

Anisia Uzeyman

Neptune Frost

BEST EDITING

Ricky D’Ambrose

The Cathedral

Dean Fleischer Camp, Nick Paley

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

Blair McClendon

Aftersun

Paul Rogers

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Monika Willi

Tár

ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD  – Given to one film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast

Women Talking

Director: Sarah Polley

Casting Directors: John Buchan, Jason Knight

Ensemble Cast: 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

BEST DOCUMENTARY (Award given to the director and producer)

All That Breathes

Director/Producer: Shaunak Sen

Producers: Teddy Leifer, Aman Mann

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed

Director/Producer: Laura Poitras

Producers: Howard Gertler, Nan Goldin, Yoni Golijov, John Lyons

A House Made of Splinters

Director: Simon Lereng Wilmont

Producers: Monica Hellström

Midwives

Director/Producer: Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing

Producers: Mila Aung-Thwin, Ulla Lehmann, Bob Moore

Riotsville, U.S.A.

Director: Sierra Pettengill

Producers: Sara Archambault, Jamila Wignot

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM (Award given to the director)

Corsage

Austria/Luxembourg/France/Belgium/Italy/England

Director: Marie Kreutzer

Joyland

Pakistan/USA

Director: Saim Sadiq

Leonor Will Never Die

Philippines

Director: Martika Ramirez Escobar

Return to Seoul

South Korea/France/Belgium/Romania

Director: Davy Chou

Saint Omer

France

Director: Alice Diop

PRODUCERS AWARD presented by Bulleit Frontier Whiskey  – 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

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