It’s starting to feel like Christmas already as the nominations for our favorite awards show, the Film Independent Spirit Awards, were announced moments ago. Leading the pack with a total of six nominations was Alejandro G. Iñárritu‘s Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) grabbing nods for Best Feature, Best Director, Best Editing, and three acting categories. Not far behind it was Richard Linklater‘s masterful Boyhood which received a total of five nominations in major categories. Also landing five nominations were Dan Gilroy’s Nightcrawler, and Ava DuVernay’s Selma.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was the absence of Jean-Marc Vallée’s Dallas Buyer’s Club follow-up Wild, since a lot of people have been talking about Reese Witherspoon’s performance in it. However, the biggest snub this year belongs to The Overnighters for not getting a nod for Best Documentary, as this indie doc is getting some serious Oscar buzz. Also, I had to do a double take when seeing André Benjamin’s name under the Best Actor category, which seems a little out of left-field but also edged out Ellar Coltrane for Boyhood and Oscar Isaac for A Most Violent Year.

Here at Way Too Indie, we were especially happy to see nominations for some smaller films such as A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (which picked up 3 noms and landed on our Must See Indie list), The One I Love, and It Felt Like Love. The 2015 Independent Spirit Awards will broadcast live (new this year) on IFC at 2:00/5:00pm PT/ET on Saturday, February 21, 2015.

Watch For: Our Spirit Award predictions coming soon.

2015 Independent Spirit Award Nominations:

Birdman
Boyhood
Love is Strange
Selma
Whiplash

Damien Chazelle – Whiplash
Ava DuVernay – Selma
Alejandro G. Iñárritu – Birdman
Richard Linklater – Boyhood
David Zellner – Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter

Scott Alexander & Larry Karaszewski – Big Eyes
J.C. Chandor – A Most Violent Year
Dan Gilroy – Nightcrawler
Jim Jarmusch – Only Lovers Left Alive
Ira Sachs & Mauricio Zacharias – Love is Strange

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
Dear White People
Nightcrawler
Obvious Child
She’s Lost Control

Desiree Akhavan – Appropriate Behavior
Sara Colangelo – Little Accidents
Justin Lader – The One I Love
Anja Marquardt – She’s Lost Control
Justin Simien – Dear White People

André Benjamin – Jimi: All Is By My Side
Jake Gyllenhaal – Nightcrawler
Michael Keaton – Birdman
John Lithgow – Love is Strange
David Oyelowo – Selma

Marion Cotillard – The Immigrant
Rinko Kikuchi – Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter
Julianne Moore – Still Alice
Jenny Slate – Obvious Child
Tilda Swinton – Only Lovers Left Alive

Riz Ahmed – Nightcrawler
Ethan Hawke – Boyhood
Alfred Molina – Love is Strange
Edward Norton – Birdman
J.K. Simmons – Whiplash

Patricia Arquette – Boyhood
Jessica Chastain – A Most Violent Year
Carmen Ejogo – Selma
Andrea Suarez Paz – Stand Clear of the Closing Doors
Emma Stone – Birdman

Darius Khondji – The Immigrant
Emmanuel Lubezki – Birdman
Sean Porter – It Felt Like Love
Lyle Vincent – A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
Bradford Young – Selma

Sandra Adair – Boyhood
Tom Cross – Whiplash
John Gilroy – Nightcrawler
Ron Patane – A Most Violent Year
Adam Wingard – The Guest

Force Majeure (Sweden)
Ida (Poland)
Leviathan (Russia)
Mommy (Cananda)
Norte, the End of History (Philippines)
Under the Skin (United Kingdom)

20,000 Days on Earth
CITIZENFOUR
Stray Dog
The Salt of the Earth
Virunga

Blue Ruin – Jeremy Saulnier
It Felt Like Love – Eliza Hittman
Land Ho! – Aaron Katz & Martha Stephens
Man From Reno – Dave Boyle
Test – Chris Mason Johnson

Foxcatcher

Inherent Vice
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Casting Director: Cassandra Kulukundis
Ensemble Cast: Josh Brolin, Martin Donovan, Jena Malone, Joanna Newsom, Joaquin Phoenix, Eric Roberts, Maya Rudolph, Martin Short Serena Scott Thomas, Benicio Del Toro, Katherine Waterston, Michael Kenneth Williams, Owen Wilson, Reese Witherspoon

Chad Burris
Elisabeth Holm
Chris Ohlson

Amanda Rose Wilder – Approaching the Elephant
Darius Clark Monroe – Evolution of a Criminal
Dan Krauss – The Kill Team
Sara Dosa – The Last Season

Ana Lily Amirpour – A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
Rania Attieh & Daniel Garcia – H.
Chris Eska – The Retrieval

In two weeks we indie enthusiasts will kick off our own awards season when 2014 independent films get their much deserved due as nominations are announced on Tuesday, November 25 for the 30th annual Spirit Awards. Today Film Independent announced Rosario Dawson (Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, Cesar Chavez) and Diego Luna (Book of Life, Y Tu Mama Tambien) would be announcing the nominations. The awards will be broadcast live (for the first time) on IFC Saturday, February 21, 2015 at 2:00 pm PT/ 5:00 pm ET.

Spirit Awards are given out in the following categories: Best Feature, Best First Feature, Best First Screenplay, Best Director, Best Screenplay, John Cassavetes Award (given to the best feature made for a budget under $500,000), Best Male Lead, Best Female Lead, Best Supporting Male, Best Supporting Female, Best Cinematography, Best International Film, Best Documentary, Best Editing and the Robert Altman Award. The Filmmaker Awards include the Piaget Producers Award, the LensCrafters Truer Than Fiction Award and the Kiehl’s Someone to Watch Award. Keep in mind, nominated films are limited to U.S. films with a budget of $20 million or less — see ya, Grand Budapest Hotel and Under the Skin.

We’ll have full coverage of the awards, including our predictions, but if we wanted to do some nomination predicting we think we can solidly expect to see Boyhood, Whiplash, Birdman, Nightcrawler, and Foxcatcher among the nominations with the leads of each of these films making their way into the Best Director and Leading Male and Female categories and populating the Supporting Categories especially. (We’re looking at you JK Simmons, Patricia Arquette, and Rene Russo.) Unfortunately this has been a down year for female-led films, but Julianne Moore for Still Alice, Jenny Slate for Obvious Child, and Kristen Wiig for The Skeleton Twins are likely to pop up.

In addition to today’s announcement a special video to Film Independent voters was released featuring the ever-creepy John Waters. Check it out below and be sure to check back for further Spirit Awards announcements.

The 2015 Film Independent Spirit Awards will broadcast live for the first time during its 30th anniversary this year. In years past, the awards show was filmed live but didn’t actually broadcast until 5 hours later, forcing viewers to turn off their social media outlets if they wanted to watch the program and be surprised by the results. The rise in social media usage which gives instant results probably had something to do with this decision. According to Deadline, Film Independent President Josh Welsh wanted to do something special for its big anniversary by broadcasting live from the beach. This is a huge relief for those who want to actually use Twitter on February 21st and can’t be at the beautiful Santa Monica beach for the show.

The 2015 Film Independent Spirit Awards will air live on IFC at 2 PM PT/ 5 PM ET on February 21st.

Nominations for the Film Independent Spirit Awards were announced this morning by Octavia Spencer, who was probably happy to announce that Fruitvale Station (a film she is in) picked up 3 nominations. But the film with the most nominations unsurprisingly went to Steve McQueen’s 12 Years A Slave, which picked up a total of 7 nominations; Best Feature, Director, Actor, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Screenplay, and Cinematography. The biggest shock was indie darling Greta Gerwig getting snubbed for a nomination for Best Actress in Frances Ha, a film that only picked up three noms (though one was for Best Feature).

The strongest category in my opinion goes to the Best International Film category that is comprised of; A Touch Of Sin, Blue Is The Warmest Color, Gloria, The Great Beauty, and The Hunt, all of which are amazing films. It is especially nice to see Blue Is The Warmest Color make that list as the film will not qualify for an Oscar nomination the following night because of a technicality in the rules that states a film must open in its home country on or before September 30th. Though it is likely a favorite to win here.

Also announced today was the new category of Best Editing, a welcoming addition that is surprising the awards show went so long without. We look forward to watching Patton Oswalt handling the hosting duties this year, in what should be a great show filled with a ton of indie talent. The winners will be announced at the 29th annual Film Independent Spirit Awards on March 1st and the broadcast will air at 10 p.m. ET/PT on IFC.

Read: Our 2014 Spirit Award predictions

List of 2014 Independent Spirit Award Nominations:

12 Years A Slave
All Is Lost
Frances Ha
Inside Llewyn Davis
Nebraska

Shane Carruth – Upstream Color
J.C. Chandor – All Is Lost
Steve McQueen – 12 Years A Slave
Jeff Nichols – Mud
Alexander Payne – Nebraska

Blue Caprice
Concussion
Fruitvale Station
Una Noche
Wadjda

Bruce Dern – Nebraska
Chiwetel Ejiofor – 12 Years A Slave
Oscar Isaac – Inside Llewyn Davis
Michael B. Jordan – Fruitvale Station
Matthew McConaughey – Dallas Buyers Club
Robert Redford – All Is Lost

Cate Blanchett – Blue Jasmine
Julie Delpy – Before Midnight
Gaby Hoffmann – Crystal Fairy
Brie Larson – Short Term 12
Shailene Woodley – The Spectacular Now

Michael Fassbender – 12 Years A Slave
Will Forte – Nebraska
James Gandolfini – Enough Said
Jared Leto – Dallas Buyers Club
Keith Stanfield – Short Term 12

Melonie Diaz – Fruitvale Station
Sally Hawkins – Blue Jasmine
Lupita Nyong’o – 12 Years A Slave
Yolanda Ross – Go For Sisters
June Squibb – Nebraska

A Touch of Sin (China)
Blue is the Warmest Color (France)
Gloria (Chile)
The Great Beauty (Italy)
The Hunt (Denmark)

Sean Bobbitt – 12 Years a Slave
Benoit Debie – Spring Breakers
Bruno Delbonnel – Inside Llewyn Davis
Frank G. Demarco – All Is Lost
Matthias Grunsky – Computer Chess

The Act Of Killing
After Tiller
Gideon’s Army
The Square
Twenty Feet From Stardom

Computer Chess – Andrew Bujalski
Crystal Fairy – Sebastian Silva
Museum Hours – Jem Cohen
Pit Stop – Yen Tan
This Is Martin Bonner – Chad Hartigan

Shane Carruth & David Lowery – Upstream Color
Jem Cohen & Marc Vives – Museum Hours
Jennifer Lame – Frances Ha
Cindy Lee – Una Noche
Nat Sanders – Short Term 12

Woody Allen – Blue Jasmine
Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke, Richard Linklater – Before Midnight
Nicole Holofcener – Enough Said
Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber – The Spectacular Now
John Ridley – 12 Years a Slave

Lake Bell – In A World
Joseph Gordon-Levitt – Don Jon
Bob Nelson – Nebraska
Jill Soloway – Afternoon Delight
Michael Starburry – The Inevitable Defeat Of Mister & Pete

Mud
Director: Jeff Nichols
Casting Director: Francine Maisler
Ensemble Cast: Joe Don Baker, Jacob Lofland, Matthew McConaughey, Ray McKinnon, Sarah Paulson, Michael Shannon, Sam Shepard, Tye Sheridan, Paul Sparks, Bonnie Sturdivant, Reese Witherspoon

Toby Halbrooks & James M. Johnson
Jacob Jaffke
Andrea Roa
Ferderick Thornton

Kalyanee Mam – A River Changes Course
Jason Osder – Let The Fire Burn
Stephanie Spray & Pancho Valez – Manakamana

Aaron Douglas Johnston – My Sister’s Quinceanera
Shaka King – Newlyweeds
Madeleine Olnek – The Foxy Merkins

The 2013 Film Independent Spirit Awards were filled as many laughs from the host Andy Samberg as there were shocks from some of the voting. Silver Linings Playbook walked away with four major awards but surprisingly only one of them was from the acting category. Jennifer Lawrence was awarded Best Female Lead for her role in the film but the biggest upset of the night was a welcoming one, John Hawkes for The Sessions beat out Bradley Cooper. The other wins for Silver Linings Playbook were Best Feature, Best Director and Best Screenplay.

As far as my predictions went, I started off strong with five of the first six awards correctly picked. The start of the Spirit Awards themselves did not go as smoothly. The first announced winner was Derek Connolly from Safety Not Guaranteed spent over 5 minutes at the mic before people awkwardly ushered him off the stage. There was little doubt Amour would lose Best International Film and I had a hunch Middle of Nowhere would win the John Cassavetes Award, while The Perks of Being A Wallflower was more of a lucky pick from me. But I expected Beasts of the Southern Wild to win the top prizes of Best Feature and Best Director and it appeared as if the actual winner Silver Linings Playbook felt the same; they kept giving nods to Beasts of the Southern Wild when they were on stage accepting the awards. All in all, I predicted only 7 of the 13 categories correctly, which gives me only a 53% accuracy this year (a far cry from my 69% (or 9 of 13) accuracy last year).

2013 Independent Spirit Award Winners:

(The winners are highlighted in bold red font)

Beasts of the Southern Wild
Bernie
Keep The Lights On
Moonrise Kingdom
Silver Linings Playbook

Wes Anderson – Moonrise Kingdom
Julia Loktev – The Loneliest Planet
David O. Russell – Silver Linings Playbook
Ira Sachs – Keep The Lights On
Benh Zeitlin – Beasts of the Southern Wild

Fill The Void – Rama Burshtein
Gimme The Loot – Adam Leon
Safety Not Guaranteed – Colin Trevorrow
Sound of My Voice – Zal Batmanglij
The Perks Of Being A Wallflower – Stephen Chobsky

Jack Black – Bernie
Bradley Cooper – Silver Linings Playbook
John Hawkes – The Sessions
Thure Lindhart – Keep The Lights On
Matthew McConaughey – Killer Joe
Wendell Pierce – Four

Linda Cardellini – Return
Emayatzy Corinealdi – Middle of Nowhere
Jennifer Lawrence – Silver Linings Playbook
Quvenzhane Wallis – Beasts of the Southern Wild
Mary E. Winstead – Smashed

Matthew McConaughey – Magic Mike
David Oyelowo – Middle of Nowhere
Michael Pena – End of Watch
Sam Rockwell – Seven Psychopaths
Bruce Willis – Moonrise Kingdom

Rosemarie DeWitt – Your Sister’s Sister
Ann Dowd – Compliance
Helen Hunt – The Sessions
Brit Marling – Sound of My Voice
Lorraine Toussaint – Middle of Nowhere

Breakfast With Curtis – Laura Colella
Middle of Nowhere – Ava DuVernay
Mosquita y Mari – Aurora Guerrero
Starlet – Sean Baker
The Color Wheel – Alex Ross Perry

How To Survive A Plague – David France
Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present – Matthew Akers
The Central Park Five – Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, David McMahon
The Invisible War – Kirby Dick
The Waiting Room – Peter Nicks

Amour – Michael Haneke
Once Upon A Time In Anatolia – Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Rust and Bone – Jacques Audiard
Sister – Ursula Meier
War Witch – Kim Nguyen

Yoni Brook – Valley Of Saints
Lol Crawley – Here
Ben Richardson – Beasts of the Southern Wild
Roman Vasyanov – End of Watch
Robert Yeoman – Moonrise Kingdom

Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola – Moonrise Kingdom
Zoe Kazan – Ruby Sparks
Martin McDonagh – Seven Psychopaths
David O. Russell – Silver Linings Playbook
Ira Sachs and Mauricio Zacharias – Keep The Lights On

Rama Burshtein – Fill The Void
Derek Connolly – Safety Not Guaranteed
Christopher Ford – Robot & Frank
Jonathan Lisecki – Gayby
Rashida Jones and Will McCormack – Celeste and Jesse Forever

Film Independent announced the nominations for the 28th annual Independent Spirit Awards this morning by Zoe Saldana and Anna Kendrick. Last year many of the award winners went on to win Oscars but I suspect that will be a little different this year. The winners will be announced at the 28th annual Film Independent Spirit Awards on February 23th and the broadcast will air at 10 p.m. ET/PT on IFC.

There were two films that tied for the most amount of nominations and those were Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom and David O. Russells’s Silver Linings Playbook with five total nominations. Both of the films will be competing for the top award of Best Feature.

It was a little shocking to see that the Sundance standout Beasts of the Southern Wild did not have quite as many nods but four is a healthy amount of nominations to receive. The film bypassed Best First Feature even though it is technically Benh Zeitlin’s first and step up to the bigger category Best Feature (rules prohibit a film from being in both). Beasts of the Southern Wild was ousted from the Best Screenplay category.

John Hawkes makes his third straight appearance in the nomination list with his role in The Sessions. This time he will move up to the Best Lead Male category against some pretty strong contenders. Hawkes was nominated for Best Supporting Male last year for Martha Marcy May Marlene and won the award in the previous year for Winter’s Bone. Matthew McConaughey will get two chances to win for two different films. He got a nod for Best Male Lead (for Killer Joe) and Best Supporting Male (for Magic Mike).

Perhaps the most interesting category this year belongs to the Best International Film section as there was quite a bit of potentials for it this year. Michael Haneke’s Amour made the cut, unsurprisingly, and will likely be the favorite to win (as well as for the Oscar). It was a bit of a surprise to not see Holy Motors in that list but seeing War Witch get a nod was lovely as it is definitely a film worth seeing. I didn’t expect to see Paradise: Love or Goodbye First Love on this list but it would have been if it were up to me.

Watch for our predictions for the 2013 Film Independent Spirit Awards post to come in the coming weeks.

Full List of 2013 Independent Spirit Award Nominations:

Beasts of the Southern Wild
Bernie
Keep The Lights On
Moonrise Kingdom
Silver Linings Playbook

Wes Anderson – Moonrise Kingdom
Julia Loktev – The Loneliest Planet
David O. Russell – Silver Linings Playbook
Ira Sachs – Keep The Lights On
Benh Zeitlin – Beasts of the Southern Wild

Fill The Void – Rama Burshtein
Gimme The Loot – Adam Leon
Safety Not Guaranteed – Colin Trevorrow
Sound of My Voice – Zal Batmanglij
The Perks Of Being A Wallflower – Stephen Chobsky

Jack Black – Bernie
Bradley Cooper – Silver Linings Playbook
John Hawkes – The Sessions
Thure Lindhart – Keep The Lights On
Matthew McConaughey – Killer Joe
Wendell Pierce – Four

Linda Cardellini – Return
Emayatzy Corinealdi – Middle of Nowhere
Jennifer Lawrence – Silver Linings Playbook
Quvenzhane Wallis – Beasts of the Southern Wild
Mary E. Winstead – Smashed

Matthew McConaughey – Magic Mike
David Oyelowo – Middle of Nowhere
Michael Pena – End of Watch
Sam Rockwell – Seven Psychopaths
Bruce Willis – Moonrise Kingdom

Rosemarie DeWitt – Your Sister’s Sister
Ann Dowd – Compliance
Helen Hunt – The Sessions
Brit Marling – Sound of My Voice
Lorraine Toussaint – Middle of Nowhere

Breakfast With Curtis – Laura Colella
Middle of Nowhere – Ava DuVernay
Mosquita y Mari – Aurora Guerrero
Starlet – Sean Baker
The Color Wheel – Alex Ross Perry

How To Survive A Plague – David France
Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present – Matthew Akers
The Central Park Five – Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, David McMahon
The Invisible War – Kirby Dick
The Waiting Room – Peter Nicks

Amour – Michael Haneke
Once Upon A Time In Anatolia – Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Rust and Bone – Jacques Audiard
Sister – Ursula Meier
War Witch – Kim Nguyen

Yoni Brook – Valley Of Saints
Lol Crawley – Here
Ben Richardson – Beasts of the Southern Wild
Roman Vasyanov – End of Watch
Robert Yeoman – Moonrise Kingdom

Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola – Moonrise Kingdom
Zoe Kazan – Ruby Sparks
Martin McDonagh – Seven Psychopaths
David O. Russell – Silver Linings Playbook
Ira Sachs and Mauricio Zacharias – Keep The Lights On

Rama Burshtein – Fill The Void
Derek Connolly – Safety Not Guaranteed
Christopher Ford – Robot & Frank
Jonathan Lisecki – Gayby
Rashida Jones and Will McCormack – Celeste and Jesse Forever

Starlet
Director: Sean Baker
Casting Director: Julia Kim
Ensemble Cast: Dree Hemingway, Besedka Johnson, Karren Karagulian, Stella Maeve, James Ranson

Alicia Van Couvering – Nobody Walks
Mynette Louie – Stones in the Sun
Derrick Tseng – Prince Avalanche

Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel – Leviathan
Peter Nicks – The Waiting Room
Jason Tippet and Elizabeth Mims – Only the Young

David Fenster – Pincus
Adam Leon – Gimme The Loot
Rebecca Thomas – Electrick Children

Film Independent sent out a tweet today to remind filmmakers that they are now accepting films for the 2013 Spirit Awards. The regular submission deadline is September 18th so about five weeks away. The final deadline is on October 16th (with a late fee added on). There is a lot more information that has not been released yet such as, who will be hosting the awards ceremony, but we plan to keep you informed as soon as it is announced.

Visit spiritawards.com for the full list of submission requirements, frequency asked questions and online submission form.

As always, the 2013 Independent Spirit Awards will be held the night before the Oscars which is February 23rd 2013 this year.

Film Independent, the same organization that produces the Independent Spirit Awards, announced the 2012 Los Angeles Film Festival jury and audience award winners. Walking away with top prize for Best Narrative Feature in competition is Pocas Pascoal’s All is Well. The winner of Best Documentary Feature went to Everardo González’s Drought. Beasts of the Southern Wild can add another award win to it’s impressive arsenal of wins with the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature win it picked up here.

The entire list of 2012 Los Angeles Film Festival Winners:

All is Well, (director Pocas Pascoal)

Drought, (director Everardo González)

Wendell Pierce, Emory Cohen, E.J. Bonilla and Aja Naomi King, Four

Beasts of the Southern Wild, (director Benh Zeitlin)

Birth Story: Ina May Gaskin and The Farm Midwives, (directors Sara Lamm and Mary Wigmore)

Searching for Sugar Man, (director Malik Bendjelloul)

The Chair, (director Grainger David)

Kudzu Vine, (director Josh Gibson)

The Pub, (director Joseph Pierce)

Asad, (director Bryan Buckley)

Piranhas Club, (director Lex Halaby)