AP – The multiverse-hopping adventure film Everything Everywhere All At Once has a leading eight nominations for the Film Independent Spirit Awards with nods for best feature, best director, best lead actor for Michelle Yeoh, supporting actors Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis and breakthrough for Stephanie Hsu.
The organisation announced nominees for its 38th edition on Tuesday, where other top contenders include Todd Field’s classical music thriller Tár, with seven nominations – including for feature, director, actor for Cate Blanchett and supporting actor for Nina Hoss – Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun, Sarah Polley’s Women Talking and Luca Guadagnino’s Bones and All.
Aside from Aftersun, nominated for best first feature, all are best feature nominees alongside the sole nomination for Our Father, the Devil.
Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s Everything Everywhere All At Once has become a bit of a Cinderella story this year, earning over USD100 million at the global box office against a USD25 million budget. It was also nominated for editing and screenplay.
The cannibal romance Bones and All, which expands nationwide this week, got nominations for Taylor Russell’s lead performance and Mark Rylance’s supporting role, but none for Timothée Chalamet.
Women Talking, about women living in an isolated religious colony, did not receive any solo acting nominations but did get the Robert Altman Award for its ensemble, in addition to best director and screenplay nods.
Joining Aftersun in the first feature category are Emily the Criminal, The Inspection, Murina, and Palm Trees and Power Lines.
Paul Mescal was nominated for his leading performance in Aftersun while his co-star Frankie Corio was singled out in the breakthrough category.
The awards celebrate the best in independent filmmaking and recently raised the budget cap from USD22.5 million to USD30 million for the main prizes and USD1 million for the John Cassavetes Award. The organisation also shifted to gender neutral acting awards. The main acting categories now have 10 nominees each.
Lead performance nominees, in addition to Blanchett, Russell, Mescal and Yeoh, are Dale Dickey (A Love Song ), Mia Goth (Pearl ), Regina Hall (Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.), Aubrey Plaza (Emily the Criminal), Jeremy Pope (The Inspection) and Andrea Riseborough (To Leslie).
Other supporting performers nominated are: Brian Tyree Henry (Causeway), Brian d’Arcy James (The Cathedral), Trevante Rhodes (Bruiser), Theo Rossi (Emily the Criminal), Jonathan Tucker (Palm Trees and Power Lines) and Gabrielle Union (The Inspection).
A24 was far and away the most nominated studio with 24 nods total from its slate, which included Everything Everywhere All At Once, Aftersun, The Inspection, After Yang and Pearl.
Focus Features, which made Tár and Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul. followed with nine.
Zola’s Taylour Paige and The Inspection’s Raúl Castillo read the nominations, which are chosen by committees comprising film critics, producers, festival programmers, filmmakers, past winners and Film Independent’s Board of Directors.
Film independent president Josh Welsh said they considered 409 films.
Films nominated for best documentary included Laura Poitras’ Venice-winner All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, All that Breathes, A House Made of Splinters, Riotsville, U.S.A. and Midwives.
Best international nominees were: Corsage, Joyland, Leonor Will Never Die, Return to Seoul and Saint Omer.
At the 37th edition earlier this year, Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Elena Ferrente adaptation The Lost Daughter won best feature, best director and best screenplay.
But Netflix won’t have a repeat showing in March: The streamer received zero nominations on Tuesday. The budget cap meant that several of its films like, White Noise and Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths, were not eligible.
Some other high-profile award hopefuls that received zero nominations were James Gray’s Armageddon Time and Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale.
