Awards Season 2021: Film Independent Spirit Awards Nominations

OK, folks. Awards season is now upon us, with today's announcement of the nominees for the 36th Film Independent Spirit Awards. These awards recognise films made wholly or partly outside the traditional studio system (although there is becoming an increasingly wide overlap between these and the more 'mainstream' awards).

Below is a selection of nominations:

Best Feature

First Cow

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

Minari

Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Nomadland

Best Director

Lee Isaac Chung (Minari)

Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman)

Eliza Hittman (Never Rarely Sometimes Always)

Kelly Reichardt (First Cow)

Chloé Zhao (Nomadland)

Best Male Lead

Riz Ahmed (Sound Of Metal)

Chadwick Boseman (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom)

Adarsh Gourav (The White Tiger)

Rob Morgan (Bull)

Steven Yeun (Minari)

Best Female Lead

Nicole Beharie (Miss Juneteenth)

Viola Davis (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom)

Sidney Flanigan (Never Rarely Sometimes Always)

Julia Garner (The Assistant)

Frances McDormand (Nomadland)

Carey Mulligan (Promising Young Woman)

Best Supporting Male

Colman Domingo (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom)

Orion Lee (First Cow)

Paul Raci (Sound Of Metal)

Glynn Turman (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom)

Benedict Wong (Nine Days)

Best Supporting Female

Alexis Chikaeze (Miss Juneteenth)

Yeri Han (Minari)

Valerie Mahaffey (French Exit)

Talia Ryder (Never Rarely Sometimes Always)

Yuh-Jung Youn (Minari)

A full list of nominees can be found here.

With seven nominations, Never Rarely Sometimes Always leads the pack, with Minari at six, and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Nomadland have five apiece.

For the first time this year, the Independent Spirit Awards will honour television series as well as films, with five new categories. In this inaugural batch of nominations, I May Destroy You, Little America, Small Axe, and Unorthodox were all honoured. 

The Film Independent Spirit Awards will be given out on Thursday 22nd April 2021, breaking with the usual tradition of them being handed out the day before the Oscars. This is due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic which means the traditional location for the awards (a big white marquee on the Santa Monica Beach) will most likely be unviable.

Congratulations to all nominees!

Next stop on the awards season hypetrain is the Golden Globe nominations, which will be out on Wednesday 3rd February.