2022 Film Independent Spirit Awards nominations announced: Full list

It wouldn't be awards season without snow, celebrity, and the Indie Spirits.

The 2022 Film Independent Spirit Awards — long considered counter-programming to the more mainstream tastes of the Oscars — were announced Tuesday morning, capping a crowded week on the circuit that also saw the controversial Golden Globes (and the Critics Choice Awards) unveil their picks for the best films and performances of the year.

Actresses Beanie Feldstein, Regina Hall, and Naomi Watts unveiled the Indie Spirit nominations in a livestream broadcast, which anointed Janicza Bravo's Zola, Mike Mills' C'mon C'mon, and Maggie Gyllenhaal's The Lost Daughter as some of its most prominent contenders.

Though Zola (a stripper-centric tale adapted from a viral Twitter thread) and C'mon C'mon (starring Joaquin Phoenix as an emotionally stunted uncle bonding with his nephew) made headway in the indie awards race, Gyllenhaal's Netflix-backed directorial debut is the only film of the Indie Spirits' Best Feature nominees with legitimate traction in the corresponding Oscar race. Other Best Feature nominees include multi-nominees A Chiara and The Novice.

Despite The Lost Daughter scoring nods for Best Feature as well as for Gyllenhaal's direction and writing, lead actress and Oscar hopeful Olivia Colman didn't land among the Spirit Awards' Best Actress set, though supporting star Jessie Buckley did. Other acting nominees include Zola's Taylour Paige, Clifton Collins Jr. for his superb turn as the titular sportsman in Jockey, former porn actor Simon Rex as a washed up adult film star in Sean Baker's Red Rocket, Ruth Negga in her Oscar-buzzed role in Rebecca Hall's literary adaptation Passing, and CODA's Troy Kotsur, who scored yet another nomination for his supporting work in the Apple TV+ film about deaf parents raising a musically inclined daughter.

On the television side, Squid Game's Lee Jung-Jaeearned a nomination for his leading performance in the thriller series, as did Years & Years singer Olly Alexander for HBO Max's queer-themed drama It's a Sin.

Among this year's Spirit Awards nominees, Film Independent indicated that 44 percent of the recognized writers and directors are women, while 38 percent identify as BIPOC. Of the nominated actors, 60 percent identify as BIPOC.

Across the last 37 years the Indie Spirits have honored achievements in movies made for around $20 million or under, though their standards have fluctuated across ceremonies in recent years, with some films exceeding the light budget cap sometimes scoring nominations from the group.

The awards are voted on by members of Film Independent, a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the impact of independent film and diversity in the film industry and beyond. According to a press release, the base's nomination committees were made up of 63 percent women, 5 percent non-binary people, and 56 percent BIPOC voters.

While Film Independent's taste can align with the Academy's, its voting base is one of the most eclectic on the awards calendar. Made up of anyone who chooses to pay for a membership — regardless of standing in or proximity to the filmmaking industry — it's not unheard of for the Indie Spirits' tastes to deviate from the norm. However, the Indie Spirits' Best Feature winner has crossed over into Oscar territory multiple times in the past, like last year's Nomadland, 2017's Moonlight, 2016's Spotlight, 2015's Birdman, and 2014's 12 Years A Slave. Still, it's not out of the question for a Best Feature prize holder to completely miss out on a Best Picture nod at the Oscars (the most recent example would be Lulu Wang's 2019 drama The Farewell).

On the acting side, the Indie Spirits tend to honor a mix of steadfast Oscar contenders as well as little-seen performances in smaller titles. Last year, eight Indie Spirit acting nominees and winners translated their momentum into Oscar nominations (including Promising Young Woman's Carey Mulligan, Sound of Metal star Riz Ahmed, and eventual Best Actress winner Frances McDormand), with Minari's supporting actress Yuh-Jung Youn being the only contender to win both the Indie Spirit and the Oscar.

The Indie Spirits previously made a huge shift to their recent timeline, moving their ceremony up by three weeks versus holding it — as they have for years — during the same weekend as the Oscars.

The 2022 Film Independent Spirit Awards will be handed out on Sunday, March 6 during IFC's telecast. See the full list of this year's Indie Spirit nominations below.

Film Categories

Best Feature

A Chiara(Jonas Carpignano, Paolo Carpignano, Jon Coplon, Ryan Zacarias)
C'mon C'mon (Chelsea Barnard, Andrea Longacre-White, Lila Yacoub)
The Lost Daughter (Charles Dorfman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Osnat Handelsman Keren, Talia Kleinhendler)
The Novice (Ryan Hawkins, Kari Hollend, Steven Sims, Zack Zucker)
Zola (Kara Baker, Dave Franco, Elizabeth Haggard, David Hinojosa, Vince Jolivette, Christine Vachon, Gia Walsh

Best First Feature

7 Days (Roshan Sethi, Liz Cardenas, Mel Eslyn)
Holler (Nicole Riegel, Adam Cobb, Rachel Gould, Katie Mcneill, Jamie Patricof, Christy Spitzer Thornton)
Queen of Glory (Nana Mensah, Baff Akoto, Anya Migdal, Kelley Robins Hicks, Jamund Washington)
Test Pattern (Shatara Michelle Ford, Pin-Chun Liu, Yu-Hao Su)
Wild Indian (Lyle Mitchell Corbine, Jr., Thomas Mahoney, Eric Tavitian)

John Cassavetes Award (films made for under $500,000)

Cryptozoo (Dash Shaw, Tyler Davidson, Kyle Martin, Jane Samborski, Bill Way)
Jockey (Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, Nancy Schafer)
Shiva Baby (Emma Seligman, Kieran Altmann, Katie Schiller, Lizzie Shapiro)
Sweet Thing (Alexandre Rockwell, Louis Anania, Haley Anderson, Kenan Baysal)
This is Not a War Story (Talia Lugacy, Noah Lang, Julian West)

Best Director

Janicza Bravo, Zola
Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Lost Daughter
Lauren Hadaway, The Novice
Mike Mills, C'mon C'mon
Ninja Thyberg, Pleasure

Best Screenplay

Nikole Beckwith, Together Together
Janicza Bravo, Jeremy O. Harris, Zola
Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Lost Daughter
Mike Mills, C'mon C'mon
Todd Stephens, Swan Song

Best First Screenplay

Lyle Mitchell Corbine, Jr., Wild Indian
Matt Fifer; Story by Sheldon D. Brown, Cicada
Shatara Michelle Ford, Test Pattern
Fran Kranz, Mass
Michael Sarnoski; Story by Vanessa Block, Michael Sarnoski, Pig

Best Cinematography

Ante Cheng, Matthew Chuang, Blue Bayou
Lol Crawley, The Humans
Tim Curtin, A Chiara
Edu Grau, Passing
Ari Wegner, Zola

Best Editing

Affonso Gonçalves, A Chiara
Ali Greer, The Nowhere Inn
Lauren Hadaway, Nathan Nugent, The Novice
Joi McMillon, Zola
Enrico Natale, The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain

Best Female Lead

Isabelle Fuhrman, The Novice
Brittany S. Hall, Test Pattern
Patti Harrison, Together Together
Taylour Paige, Zola
Kali Reis, Catch the Fair One

Best Male Lead

Clifton Collins, Jr., Jockey
Frankie Faison, The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain
Michael Greyeyes, Wild Indian
Udo Kier, Swan Song
Simon Rex, Red Rocket

Best Supporting Female

Jessie Buckley, The Lost Daughter
Amy Forsyth, The Novice
Ruth Negga, Passing
Revika Reustle, Pleasure
Suzanna Son, Red Rocket

Best Supporting Male

Colman Domingo, Zola
Meeko Gattuso, Queen of Glory
Troy Kotsur, CODA
Will Patton, Sweet Thing
Chaske Spencer, Wild Indian

Robert Altman Award (for ensemble and director)

Mass (Fran Kranz, Henry Russell Bergstein, Allison Estrin, Kagen Albright, Reed Birney, Michelle N. Carter, Ann Dowd, Jason Isaacs, Martha Plimpton, Breeda Wool)

Best Documentary

Ascension (Jessica Kingdon, Kira Simon-Kennedy, Nathan Truesdell)
Flee (Jonas Poher Rasmussen, Monica Hellstr��m, Signe Byrge Sørensen)
In the Same Breath (Nanfu Wang, Christopher Clements, Julie Goldman, Carolyn Hepburn, Jialing Zhang)
Procession (Robert Greene, Susan Bedusa, Bennett Elliott, Douglas Tirola)
Summer Of Soul ...Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised (Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, David Dinerstein, Robert Fyvolent, Joseph Patel)

Best International Film

Juho Kuosmanen, Compartment No. 6 (Finland/Russia)
Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Drive My Car (Japan)
Pedro Almodóvar, Parallel Mothers (Spain)
P S Vinothraj, Pebbles (India)
Céline Sciamma, Petite Maman (France)
Tatiana Huezo, Prayers for the Stolen (Mexico)

Producers Award

Brad Becker-Parton
Pin-Chun Liu
Lizzie Shapiro

Someone to Watch Award

Alex Camilleri, Luzzu
Michael Sarnoski, Pig
Gillian Wallace Horvat, I Blame Society

Truer Than Fiction Award

Angelo Madsen Minax, North By Current
Jessica Beshir, Faya Dayi
Debbie Lum, Try Harder!

Television Categories

Best New Non-Scripted or Documentary Series

Black and Missing (Soledad O'Brien, Geeta Gandbhir, Jo Honig, Patrick Conway, Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller, Sara Rodriguez)
The Choe Show (David Choe, Matt Revelli, Christopher C. Chen, Hiro Murai, Nate Matteson)
The Lady and The Dale (Mark Duplass, Jay Duplass, Mel Eslyn, Allen Bain, Andre Gaines, Nick Cammilleri, Alana Carithers, Zackary Drucker, Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller)
Nuclear Family (Ry Russo-Young, Liz Garbus, Julie Gaither, Jon Bardin, Leah Holzer, Peter Saraf, Alex Turtletaub, Jenny Raskin, Geralyn White Dreyfous, Lauren Haber, Maria Zuckerman, Christine Connor, Ryan Heller, Barbara Dobkin, Eric Dobkin, Andrea Van Beuren, Joe Landauer)
Philly D.A. (Ted Passon, Yoni Brook, Nicole Salazar, Dawn Porter, Sally Jo Fifer, Lois Vossen, Ryan Chanatry, Gena Konstantinakos, Jeff Seelbach, Patty Quillin, Nion McEvoy, Leslie Berriman)

Best New Scripted Series

Blindspotting (Rafael Casal, Daveed Diggs, Jess Wu Calder, Keith Calder, Ken Lee, Tim Palen, Emily Gerson Saines, Seith Mann)
It's a Sin (Russell T Davies, Peter Hoar, Nicola Shindler)
Reservation Dogs (Sterlin Harjo, Taika Waititi, Garrett Basch)
The Underground Railroad (Barry Jenkins, Adele Romanski, Mark Ceryak, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Colson Whitehead, Richard Heus, Jacqueline Hoyt)
We Are Lady Parts (Nida Manzoor, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Surian Fletcher-Jones, Mark Freeland)

Best Female Performance in a New Scripted Series

Thuso Mbedu, The Underground Railroad
Anjana Vasan, We Are Lady Parts
Jana Schmieding, Rutherford Falls
Jasmine Cephas Jones, Blindspotting
Deborah Ayorinde, THEM: Covenant

Best Male Performance in a New Scripted Series

Lee Jung Jae, Squid Game
Olly Alexander, It's a Sin
Michael Greyeyes, Rutherford Falls
Murray Bartlett, The White Lotus
Ashley Thomas, THEM: Covenant

Best Ensemble Cast in a New Scripted Series

Reservation Dogs (Devery Jacobs, D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Lane Factor, Paulina Alexis, Sarah Podemski, Zahn McClarnon, Lil Mike, FunnyBone)

Check out more from EW's The Awardist, featuring Oscars analysis, exclusive interviews, and our podcast diving into all the highlights from the year's movies and performances.

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