Spirit Award Noms 2023: ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ Leads & Will Vie For Best Picture With ‘Bones And All’, ‘Our Father, The Devil’, ‘Tár’ & ‘Women Talking’

Refresh for updates: A24 once again dominated the Film Independent Spirit Award nominations with 24 noms this year, and their Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert directed arthouse blockbuster Everything Everywhere All at Once leading with eight nominations. That movie launched out of SWSW last March, ultimately becoming A24’s biggest grossing movie with $70M domestic, $103M WW and will close to the year later continue its rally to the Santa Monica Pier where the Spirits will take place on March 4, eight days before the Oscars on March 12, 2023. There is no broadcast partner this year for the Spirits and that there will be more info on the various ways to stream the show globally as the show gets closer. The SAG Awards are also another awards show sans a broadcaster.

The Film Independent Spirit Awards raised their budget threshold from $22.5M last year for contenders to $30M this year. Greatly absent from this year: Netflix, which counted the second most noms last year with Neon at 9. Netflix’s movies Bardo, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Hustle, White Noise, The Good Nurse and Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio weren’t up for consideration. Netflix’s The Wonder, All Quiet on the Western Front and Athena were eligible for International Feature, but didn’t make the cut. However, there were a number of prolific distributors of indie product who were also coming up short at this year’s noms, i.e. Apple, which only counted a Supporting Performance nom for Bryan Tyree Henry for Causeway, Searchlight which only has a Screenplay nom for Fire Island and Sony Pictures Classics which has an International Feature nom for Cambodia’s Oscar entry, Return to Seoul. Searchlight’s contenders The Menu, The Banshees or Inisherin and Empire of Light weren’t eligible for this year’s Spirits.

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If anything, the Film Independent Spirit Awards lauded more prolific awards season contenders this year versus the micro indie bunch it recognized earlier this year.

In the way Spirits bracketed out distributor noms, Focus Features counted the second most noms of any distributor at 9, 7 of those going to the Todd Field directed movie Tár. However, technically it’s Amazon/MGM/Orion which altogether counts 14 nominations between its films. MGM had three for Luca Guadagnino’s Bones and All for Best Feature, Best Lead Performance for Taylor Russell, and Best Supporting Performance for Mark Rylance. MGM’s sister label Orion had 4 for Women Talking for Best Picture, Best Director Sarah Polley, Best Screenplay by Polley, and the Robert Altman Award. Amazon counted three noms for Lena Dunham’s screenplay of Catherine Called Birdy, K.D. Dávila’s First Screenplay of Emergency, Nikyatu Jusu receiving the Someone to Watch Award.

Counting six nominations was frosh distributor MUBI followed by five for Momentum.

MUBI’s The African Desperate, Holy Emy and The Cathedral are up for the John Cassavetes Award which lauds movies made for under $1M. Holy Emy is also up for the Someone to Watch award while The Cathedral received nods for Editing and Brian d’Arcy James for Supporting Performance.

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.

As previously announced, the acting categories are no longer separated out by gender so all genders compete under the three slots of Lead Performance, Supporting Performance and Breakthrough Performance. The TV nominees, which will be honored at the same March 4 ceremony, will be announced on Dec. 13.

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.

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).

Here is the list

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
Tár

Hélène Louvart
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

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