2017 Independent Spirit Awards Nominees: My Reactions

The Independent Spirit Awards have just announced their nominations and I must say, this is a very exciting bunch of nominees. There are some who were expected to be here that are here like Manchester By The Sea and Moonlight while there are others that I wasn't sure would land here like American Honey and A Bigger Splash which got a Best Supporting Male bid for Ralph Fiennes. Thankfully so because I was worried his performance was going to get overlooked.

For all its surprises, though, there were some shocking snubs: Manchester By The Sea for Director and Supporting Female, Loving for Best Feature and Best Male Lead, and while Ben Foster got nominated for Hell Or High Water, nothing for Jeff Bridges or Chris Pine and it got no Best Feature nomination. 20th Century Women also got left out for Best Feature and Best Supporting Female for both Greta Gerwig and Elle Fanning. Gerwig is most shocking because she had two bids for 20th Century Women and Jackie yet came up short.

Moonlight emerged the big winner, though, with 5 nominations for Best Feature, Director, Screenplay, Editing, and Cinematography along with the Robert Altman Award which goes to its acting ensemble. But American Honey really overperformed with 6 nominations for Best Feature, Director, Lead Female, Supporting Female, Supporting Male, and Cinematography. Other surprises include Isabelle Huppert for Lead Female for Elle and Chronic for Best Feature and Lead Male for Tim Roth.

You can check out the full list of nominees below:

Best Feature
“American Honey”
“Chronic”
“Jackie”
“Manchester by the Sea”
“Moonlight”

Best Director
Andrea Arnold (“American Honey”)
Barry Jenkins (“Moonlight”)
Pablo Larrain (“Jackie”)
Jeff Nichols (“Loving”)
Kelly Reichardt (“Certain Women”)

Best First Feature
“The Childhood of a Leader”
“The Fits”
“Other People”
“Swiss Army Man”
“The Witch”

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 Screenplay
“Hell or High Water”
“Little Men”
“Manchester by the Sea”
“Moonlight”
“20th Century Women”

Best First Screenplay
“Barry”
“Christine”
“Jean of the Joneses”
“Other People”
“The Witch”

Best International Film
“Aquarius”
“Chevalier”
“My Golden Days”
“Toni Erdmann”
“Under the Shadow”

Best Documentary Feature
“13th”
“Cameraperson”
“I Am Not Your Negro”
“O.J.: Made in America”
“Sonita”
“Under the Sun”

Best Cinematography
“American Honey”
“Childhood”
“Free in Deed”
“Eyes of My Mother”
“Moonlight”

Best Editing
“Hell or High Water”
“Jackie”
“Manchester by the Sea”
“Moonlight”
“Swiss Army Man”

John Cassavetes Award
“Free in Deed”
“Hunter Gatherer”
“Lovesong”
“Nakom”
“Spa Night”

Robert Altman Award
“Moonlight”

Piaget Producers Award
Lisa Kjerulff
Jordana Mollick
Melody C. Roscher
Craig Shilowich

Truer Than Fiction Award
Kristi Jacobson (“Solitary”)
Sara Jordeno (“Kiki”)
Nanfu Wang (“Holligan Sparrow”)

Someone to Watch Award
Andrew Ahn (“Spa Night”)
Claire Carre (“Embers”)
Anna Rose Holmer (“The Fits”)
Ingrid Jungermann (“Women Who Kill”)